He was consecrated archbishop June 10, 1695, in the chapel of St. Cyr, in the presence of a distinguished throng, among whom were Madame de Maintenon and his three royal pupils. Bossuet was chief consecrator, the Bishop of Chalons being first assistant, and the Bishop of Amiens second. Fénelon’s friends were delighted at this great advancement for him; yet it was felt by many of them that he should have had the Archbishopric of Paris, for already the popular voice had widely and loudly nominated him. Some thought that he was sent to Cambrai by the king for the express purpose of forestalling this clamor, and avoiding any necessity for putting him in the more conspicuous and influential place; for it was known that the post at Paris would soon be vacant, and, if, at its vacancy, Fénelon had been still unplaced, the pressure for his appointment there would have been very strong. As it was, M. de Harlai died August 6, 1695, less than two months after Fénelon’s consecration. M. de Noailles, Bishop of Chalons, through the influence of Madame de Maintenon, was given the position. We have reached now what was, in a worldly point of view, the very summit of Fénelon’s prosperity and glory. It might seem that, humanly speaking, he had very little, if anything, left to wish for, although, of course, the cardinalate might fairly have been expected in a few years. But the clouds were already beginning to gather which were soon to break over his head in a storm never to clear away, so far as court favor and the good things of this world were concerned. So a new chapter must be devoted to these new experiences which had so very much to do both with his temporal and spiritual affairs. CHAPTER IV. MYSTICISM AND QUIETISM.[4] In order that we may properly apprehend the next period in Fénelon’s life it is absolutely essential for us to take a survey of the general subject of Mysticism, for with that he became now very intimately concerned. And, happily, it is a subject of perennial importance, having no less close connection with the present day than with the centuries past. Indeed the present age has in some respects very special need of just this element. It is a commercial, materialistic, money-grabbing age, devoted to the outward and the practical; it is a time when the triumphs of machinery and invention and industrial progress are sounded as never before—an extremely busy, bustling time of immense external activity, when man hastens to get rich and rushes through life at railroad speed, scarcely finding leisure so much as to eat, much less for the quiet contemplation of the things of the spirit. And it is the contemplative, interior, spirit-filled life with which Mysticism has pre-eminently to do.