His life was often in danger, but his ready wit always saved it, and it was said that one _bon mot_ would preserve him for a month. When he did emigrate in 1792 he found himself regarded as a martyr to the church and the king, and was at once named archbishop _in partibus_, and extra nuncio to the diet at Frankfort, and in 1794 cardinal. He was finally made bishop of Montefiascone, and settled down in that little Italian town--but not for long, for in 1798 the French drove him from his retreat, and he sought refuge in Venice and St Petersburg. Next year he returned to Rome as ambassador of the exiled Louis XVIII. at the papal court. In 1804 he began to prepare his return to France by a well-turned letter to Napoleon, congratulating him on restoring religion to France once more. In 1806 he did return; in 1807 he was again received into the Academy; and in 1810, on the refusal of Cardinal Fesch, was made archbishop of Paris. He was presently ordered by the pope to surrender his functions as archbishop of Paris. This he refused to do. On the restoration of the Bourbons he was summarily expelled from the Academy and from the archiepiscopal palace. He retired to Rome, where he was imprisoned in the castle of St Angelo for six months for his disobedience to the papal orders, and died in 1817, a year or two after his release, of disease contracted in prison and of chagrin. As a critic he was a very able writer, and Sainte-Beuve gives him the credit of discovering Father Jacques Bridayne, and of giving Bossuet his rightful place as a preacher above Massillon; as a politician, his wit and eloquence make him a worthy rival of Mirabeau. He sacrificed too much to personal ambition, yet it would have been a graceful act if Louis XVIII. had remembered the courageous supporter of Louis XVI., and the pope the one intrepid defender of the Church in the states-general. The _Oeuvres choisies du Cardinal Maury_ (5 vols., 1827) contain what is worth preserving. Mgr Ricard has published Maury's _Correspondance diplomatique_ (2 vols., Lille, 1891). For his life and character see _Vie du Cardinal Maury_, by Louis Siffrein Maury, his nephew (1828); J. J. F. Poujoulat, _Cardinal Maury, sa vie et ses oeuvres_ (1855); Sainte-Beuve, _Causeries du lundi_ (vol. iv.); Mgr Ricard, _L'Abbé Maury_ (1746-1791), _L'Abbé Maury avant 1789, L'Abbé Maury et Mirabeau_ (1887); G. Bonet-Maury, _Le Cardinal Maury d'après ses mémoires et sa correspondance inédits_ (Paris, 1892); A. Aulard, _Les Orateurs de la constituante_ (Paris, 1882). Of the many libels written against him during the Revolution the most noteworthy are the _Petit carême de l'abbé Maury_, with a supplement called the _Seconde année_ (1790), and the _Vie privée de l'abbé Maury_ (1790), claimed by J. R. Hébert, but attributed by some writers to Restif de la Bretonne. For further bibliographical details see J. M. Quérard, _La France littéraire_, vol. v. (1833).