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 thenticity, after much dispute, was settled by the discovery of the original MS. in 1825. It is not probable that Louis suspected the au- thor, for in the following February he nomina- ted Fe"nelon to the archbishopric of Cambrai. The ceremony of consecration was performed in the chapel of St. Cyr, July 10, 1695, but the new prelate retained his connection with his pupils, with whom it was arranged that he should pass three months of every year. Hon- ored by the king, beloved by the young princes, esteemed and consulted by the most influential person of the court, and holding high stations in the church and the palace, he was now at the height of his prosperity ; but his disgrace was already preparing. With a natural ten- dency to all that is mild and spiritual in reli- gion, he had long felt a sympathy for the doc- trines of Mme. Guyon, whose system of " qui- etism " was attracting a large share of attention at court, and had gained proselytes in the king's household. She was charged with heresy, and demanded a commission to inquire into the matter. Bossuet, the bishop of Chalons, and Tronson were appointed. Besides the writings of Mme. Guyon, the commission was obliged to investigate what Fenelon was daily writing and preaching on the subject, perhaps with the in- tention of turning upon himself the condem- nation that was threatening his friend. F6ne- lon was so humble in his intercourse with the commission, that his judges, though startled at his errors, would urge nothing against him. These conferences had lasted nearly a year, and it was necessary to put an end to them. Bos- suet and his two colleagues agreed upon a se- ries of articles which should settle the matter ; and making a sort of formulary, they invited Fenelon to subscribe to it. He hesitated for a long time, but at last acceded to the demands of the prelates. During the interval of editing and signing the formulary, Fe"nelon was called to the archbishopric of Cambrai, and after his consecration occurred between him and Bos- suet that celebrated controversy which forms almost an epoch in French literature. As Archbishop F6nelon assumed a more decided tone, Bossuet explained the articles of the formulary in an abridged report of the previous conferences, and asked Fenelon to give this book, entitled Instructions sur les etats d'orai- son, his ecclesiastical approbation, as the other two prelates of the commission had done. Fenelon refused ; he would not even read the book ; and from this refusal dates the literary war between these two great prelates. F6ne- lon published his famous book, Maximes des saints. Bossuet denounced him to the court as a fanatic ; the king struck his name from the list of preceptors to the royal family, and or- dered him to retire to his diocese ; Mme. de Maintenon withdrew her favor, and his friend- ship for Mme. Guyon was even made a theme for the grossest calumnies. He sent the ob- noxious book to Rome, where Louis used all his influence to obtain its condemnation. Af- 123 ter a delay of nine months Innocent XII. pro- nounced a mild censure of the Maximes des saints, but addressed at the same time to cer- tain prelates who had been most severe in their attacks on the author the following caustic re- buke : Peccamt excessu amoris divini, sed vos peccastis defectu amoris proximi (" He has sinned through excess of love of God, but you have sinned through lack of love for your neighbor"). Immediately on receiving the sentence, in March, 1699, Fenelon hastened to declare his submission, and to publish the con- demnation of his own book in a mandatory letter. In the following month his Aventures de Telemaque, which had hitherto remained in manuscript, was given to the world by the dis- honesty of a servant who had been employed to have the work copied, but who sold it to a bookseller without disclosing the author's name. The king having been told that it was from the pen of the archbishop of Cambrai, and probably sharing a suspicion then current that the book was designed as a satire on the court, took measures to suppress it. A few copies escaped seizure, and an imperfect edition was printed in Holland in 1699, and others followed rapidly. This event destroyed all hope of restoration to royal favor, and for the rest of his life F6nelon devoted himself exclusively to the affairs of his diocese and to literary pursuits. It was now that his character was seen in its brightest light. He visited the peasants in their cottages, shared their humble fare, heard their complaints, re- lieved their wants, and made his palace an asylum for the unfortunate. His charities were enormous. When his diocese was traversed by hostile armies during the war of the Spanish succession, he was allowed to pass unhindered through the ranks of the enemy on his errands of benevolence. He founded the theological seminary of Cambrai, and devoted himself to the instruction of the clergy. When his pupil the duke of Burgundy became dauphin by the death of his father, he addressed to him a "Plan of Government," proposing the estab- lishment of states general and provincial, with many reforms in public administration ; and had the prince lived to reign, it is thought that Fenelon would have been his prime minister. The archbishop did not long survive his pupil. Of the excellence of Fenelon's best work, the "Adventures of Telemachus," no better proof could he given than its general and last- ing popularity. Hallam denies it the high char- acter of an epic, but gives it the first place among classical romances. t It has been trans- lated into nearly all European languages, and has been turned into verse in English, Latin, Greek, &c. His controversial writings, which comprise works against the Jansenists and Gal- licans, on quietism, &c., are distinguished by an unwonted preference of individual Christian experience to the testimony of the traditions of the church, and Catholic critics stigmatize them as chimerical. His spiritual works, a collection of which (CEuvres spirituelles, 5 vols.