The Gallery of Portraits: with Memoirs. Volume 1 (of 7)Malkin, Arthur Thomas
History
The Gallery of Portraits: with Memoirs. Volume 1 (of 7)
Malkin, Arthur Thomas
Biography
The approbation of Fenelon gave currency to the fair Quietist amongst
orthodox members of the church. At last the bishops began to take alarm:
the clamour was renewed, and the examination of her doctrines solemnly
intrusted to Bossuet and two other learned divines. Fenelon was avowedly
her friend; yet no one hitherto had breathed a suspicion of any flaw in
his orthodoxy. It was even during the examination, and towards the close
of it, that he was promoted to the Archbishopric of Cambray. The blow
came at length from the hand of his most valued friend. He had been
altogether passive in the proceedings respecting Madame Guyon. Bossuet,
who had been provoked into vehement wrath, and had resolved to crush
her, was sufficiently irritated by this temperate neutrality. But when
Fenelon found himself obliged to publish his ‘Maxims of the Saints,’ in
which, without attacking others, he defends his own views of some of the
controverted points, Bossuet, in a tumult of zeal, threw himself at the
feet of Louis, denounced his friend as a dangerous fanatic, and besought
the King to interpose the royal arm between the Church and pollution.
Fenelon offered to submit his book to the judgment of the Pope.
Permission was granted in very ungracious terms, and presently followed
by a sentence of banishment to his diocese. This sudden reverse of
fortune, which he received without even whispering a complaint, served
to show the forbearance and meekness of his spirit, but it deprived him
of none of his powers. An animated controversy arose between him and
Bossuet, and all Europe beheld with admiration the boldness and success
with which he maintained his ground against the renowned and veteran
disputant; and that, too, in the face of fearful discouragement. The
whole power of the court was arrayed against him, and he stood alone;
for his powerful friends had left his side. The Cardinal de Noailles and
others, who had in private expressed unqualified approbation of his
book, meanly withheld a public acknowledgment of their opinions. Whilst
his enemy enjoyed every facility, and had Louis and his courtiers and
courtly bishops to cheer him on, it was with difficulty that Fenelon
could find a printer who would venture to put to the press a work which
bore his name. Under these disadvantages, harassed in mind, and with
infirm health, he replied to the deliberate and artful attacks of his
adversary with a rapidity which, under any circumstances, would have
been astonishing. He was now gaining ground daily in public opinion. The
Pope also, who knew his merit, was very unwilling to condemn. His
persecutors were excited to additional efforts. He had already been
banished from court; now he was deprived of the name of preceptor, and
of his salary,—of that very salary which some time before he had eagerly
offered to resign, in consideration of the embarrassed state of the
royal treasury. The flagging zeal of the Pope was stimulated by threats
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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