François de Salignac de la Mothe Fénelon

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The French prelate, theologian, and preacher François de Salignac de la Mothe Fénelon (1651-1715) is best known for his advocacy of quietism.

Born on Aug. 6, 1651, François Fénelon was educated by the Jesuits. He became a priest at the famous Seminary of St-Sulpice and spent 3 years preaching to Protestants. He became an ardent disciple and friend of Jacques Bossuet. Fénelon produced his Treatise on the Existence of God as well as his Treatise on the Education of Young Girls at this time. Both were highly successful.

In 1688 Fénelon met Madame Guyon, who claimed to have mystical experiences and to have the secret of loving God. She had been imprisoned by the archbishop of Paris in a convent because he feared that she was in error. Fénelon believed in her stoutly; he visited her infrequently but corresponded with her voluminously. He was suffering at this time from an intense aridity of mind in regard to God. Intellectually he could prove God's existence, but emotionally he felt little or nothing toward God. Guyon seemed to him to have discovered or received the secret of such "feeling" in her childlike surrender to God and the simplicity of her approach to divine things.

About this time there was a controversy in the French Church about a heresy called quietism, a teaching according to which progress in virtue and in the love of God was achieved by submitting to God's action and grace. Its opponents maintained that quietists made no positive effort at being virtuous, that they depended passively on God's grace, and even neglected basic rules of Christian virtue and behavior. Fénelon was involved in this unpleasant controversy through his association with Guyon. She used to visit, on Fénelon's suggestion, a school for girls run by Madame de Maintenon. The latter disliked Guyon and reported her to the authorities. Guyon also submitted her doctrine for approval to Bossuet on Fénelon's suggestion. Bossuet, although fundamentally ignorant of theology, attacked both Guyon and Fénelon in 1697.

Hate now replaced friendship for Fénelon in Bossuet's mind. He saw him as a rival in public speaking and as the nation's foremost theologian and religious counselor. He sought to have Fénelon discredited. The teaching of Fénelon and Guyon was condemned by Pope Innocent XII on the insistence of Louis XIV under Bossuet's constant prodding. Fénelon submitted and then set out to outline his teaching on Catholic mysticism on a scale never before attempted.

In February 1695 Fénelon was made archbishop of Cambrai and from then until his death he spent his time in writing, teaching, and preaching. He was appointed tutor to Louis XIV's eldest grandson, the Duc de Bourgogne. For the duke he composed his Dialogues and Telemachus, together with other minor works. His ideas on politics were based on the universal brotherhood of man, an unpopular idea in the 18th century. He proved himself a first-rate literary judge in his Letter to the French Academy in 1714. He spent his last years writing against Jansenism. In his writings he explained the love of God and the simplicity of heart required in man in order to be able to practice that love. Fénelon died on Jan. 7, 1715.

Further Reading

Katherine Day Little's biography, François de Fénelon: A Study of a Personality (1951), is recommended. A popularly written account, sympathetic to Fénelon, is Michael de la Bedoyere, The Archbishop and the Lady: The Story of Fénelon and Madame Guyon (1956). Thomas Merton wrote a useful introduction to Fénelon's Letters of Love and Counsel, edited by John McEwen (1964). Fénelon's works are discussed in W. D. Howarth, Life and Letters in France: The Seventeenth Century (1965), and Philip John Yarrow, The Seventeenth Century, 1600-1715 (1967).

Fénelon, François de Salignac de la Mothe (1651–1715), prominent French cleric and writer. Fénelon wrote several works for the Dauphin (Louis XIV's grandson and heir), to whom he was tutor. Among these early examples of children's literature (including his famous Télémaque (Telemachus, 1699)) is his posthumously published Recueil des fables composées pour l'éducation de feu Monseigneur le duc de Bourgogne (Collection of Fables Written for the Education of the late Monseigneur the Duke of Burgundy, 1718), which contains moralizing fairy‐tale stories that stress proper feminine and aristocratic conduct. Fénelon is the only French writer besides Mme Leprince de Beaumont to have written fairy tales explicitly for children before the 19th century.

— Lewis C. Seifert

Fénelon, François de Salignac de la Mothe- (1651-1715). French churchman and mystic whose extensive writings also display a versatile talent as educationalist, story-teller, and constitutional theorist, and whom banishment from the court of Louis XIV transformed into an epitome of dignified political exile.

The scion of a noble but impoverished family of the Périgord, he was educated for the Church, first at Cahors, then at Paris, where he shone as a preacher—his Dialogues sur l'éloquence, posthumously published in 1718, date from this time—and as an energetic rural missionary to Protestants. He was taken up by the devout circle around Madame de Maintenon, became superior of the Nouvelles Catholiques (an institute for newly converted Huguenot girls) from 1679, and wrote the Traité de l'éducation des filles (1687). In 1689 he was appointed tutor to the duc de Bourgogne, grandson of the king. His most enduringly popular works were written for his difficult royal pupil, though published later. In the enchanting Dialogues des morts composés pour l'éducation d'un prince, based on the young prince's own exercises in composition, leading figures of antiquity and modern times converse with hindsight on power, corruption, destiny, and the vanity of human ambition. Classical and natural themes were inculcated by prose fables and short stories. Télémaque, the famous pedagogical romance, is based on the same fusion of classical narrative with moral, indeed constitutional, lessons.

He seemed destined for great worldly success: his pupil adored him; he basked in the approval of Bossuet, tutor to the earlier royal generation; he was elected to the Académie Française in 1693, and appointed archbishop of Cambrai in 1695. But while at court he had developed an interest in Christian mysticism, and he fell under the spell of Madame Guyon at the very moment when Madame de Maintenon had grown suspicious of her promoting the principles of Quietism among the young. Though it was at Fénelon's suggestion that Bossuet was called in to advise, he was shocked at his mentor's treatment of the issue and appealed to wider opinion, first by an approach to Rome and eventually in his Explication des maximes des saints (1697), a point-by-point attempt to justify the disputed doctrines. Opinion at court turned against him. In the year of the Explication he was ordered to reside in his diocese, and early in 1699 he was formally discharged from his duties as tutor. Two months later came a papal condemnation of his book engineered by Bossuet with the support of Louis XIV. The latter's suspicions were doubtless confirmed when, weeks after, an unauthorized edition of Télémaque began to circulate, for it was easy to interpret its author's message to his pupil as a serious critique of the regime. The disgrace was total.

Fénelon never saw Versailles again. In a celebrated gesture of submission he proclaimed from the pulpit of his own cathedral the brief of Innocent XII forbidding the faithful to read the Explication. His episcopal administration, zeal against Jansenism, and charitable hospitality towards armies fighting in Flanders became legendary. Saint-Simon's Mémoires draw an unforgettable portrait of this phase of his life. His well-bred manners and almost feline subtlety of mind emerge, too, from the vast correspondence he maintained in exile, much of it unpublished until recently, though his letters of spiritual direction came out in 1718; and his Lettre à l'Académie française of 1714 is an influential contribution to aesthetics in the aftermath of the Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes. But his political views remained unchanged. Already, from the Lettre à Louis XIV, probably written early in 1694 and never sent, more distinctly from Télémaque, and unambiguously from the Tables de Chaunes, composed with the duc de Beauvilliers in 1711 as an explicit manifesto, one can deduce a programme of reforms based on a theory of the ancient constitution which absolutism is deemed to have perverted. The independence of the Church and the nobility are to be restored, the good of the people to be preferred to the self-aggrandizement of the monarch. There was a real chance of translating such policies into reality when, on the death of the grand dauphin in 1711, the duc de Bourgogne became the heir-apparent to his elderly grandfather. It was widely assumed that Fénelon would be the leading personality of the new reign. All hopes were dashed when the new dauphin himself died, aged only 20, in 1712. By a final irony, Fénelon's own death (from complications arising from a road accident) in January 1715 preceded his still-implacable enemy Louis XIV's by a mere eight months.

[Peter Bayley]

Bibliography

• J.-L. Goré, L'Itinéraire de Fénelon (1957)
• V. Kapp, Télémaque de Fénelon (1982)

Fénelon, François de Salignac de la Mothe (1651-1715) Much admired French theologian and writer. As tutor to the Duke of Burgundy, he wrote Télémaque (1699), holding up Ulysses as an example for the young prince. Other writings include a treatise (1687) on female education, and Explications des maximes des saints (1697), mystical instructions in faith for which Fénelon was banished. His quietism brought a long quarrel with his former patron Bossuet, which was settled in 1699 when Pope Innocent XII condemned Fénelon. His Refutation of Malebranche was a relatively young work; as a philosopher he was influenced by Augustine and Descartes, but notable for the charm of his writing rather than originality or precision of thought.

Fénelon, François (François de Salignac de la Mothe Fénelon, 1651–1715), French archbishop, author, and educator. François de Salignac de la Mothe Fénelon descended from an ancient noble family from the area of Périgord, near Sarlat. He was the second child born from his father's second marriage. He attended university at Cahors and entered seminary in Paris at Saint-Sulpice.

The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685, which required all Protestants in France to convert to Catholicism at the penalty of exile or imprisonment, shaped Fénelon's early clerical career. After his ordination in 1676, his work in educating former Protestants began in 1678 when he became the director of a residential and educational institution for women who had recently converted from Protestantism to Catholicism, the Congregation of New Catholics (Congrégation des Nouvelles Catholiques), a post he retained until 1689. One of his first treatises, Traité de l'éducation des filles (A treatise on the education of women), published in 1687, resulted from this work. In 1686, he was sent to the newly acquired majority Protestant provinces of Aunis and Saintonge to continue his work in converting Protestants there.

In 1688, Fénelon became involved in a controversial movement called Quietism, a mystical religious group that promoted a passive approach to prayer life and spirituality. His connection with it began when he met Madame Jeanne Guyon, the French noblewoman who was its primary advocate. He embraced her teachings and began corresponding regularly with her. Although Mme Guyon believed her methods to be fully within orthodox Catholicism, her beliefs and practices came under scrutiny by the Catholic Church in France in 1694 when several French bishops met to review her writings and ideas to determine their orthodoxy. In a meeting at Issy, the bishops condemned her teachings, and she was imprisoned in Vincennes in 1695 as a result of the proceedings.

In 1689 Fénelon's work in education continued when he was named the tutor for King Louis XIV's grandson, the duke of Burgundy. As a result of his role as primary educator of the young prince, Fénelon wrote several didactic works including Fables (Fables) and Les dialogues des morts (Dialogs of the dead) around 1690. In 1693 Fénelon became a member of the Académie Française and with the support of the king in 1695, he became the archbishop of Cambrai, a diocese in northeast France. The prominent French theologian and bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet consecrated him.

Controversy and disgrace marred the final decades of Fénelon's life. His affiliation with Mme Guyon and Quietism led to a long and very public quarrel with Bossuet that began in 1697. Following the Quietism controversy, Bossuet wrote a treatise indirectly denouncing Mme Guyon's teachings ("Instructions on prayer") and sent his draft of the work to Fénelon for critique. While Fénelon accepted the bishops' decision in Issy regarding Mme Guyon's teachings, he continued to adhere to some ideas connected to the movement, including the concept of "pure love." After viewing Bossuet's work, Fénelon rushed to publication his own work, Explication des maximes des saints sur la view intérieure (Explication of the maxims of the saints on the interior life), which countered Bossuet's ideas, supported religious mysticism, and championed the idea of "pure love." The dispute over these theological issues quickly escalated to a very public and vicious dispute with Fénelon and Bossuet attacking each other's positions in flurried succession of treatises. In an effort to defend himself, Fénelon appealed to Pope Innocent XII, who agreed in 1697 to review his Maxims of the Saints to judge whether the ideas contained in it were as dangerous to the faith as Bossuet had charged. After a lengthy review process, in March 1699 the pope condemned the majority of the propositions in Fénelon's work in a carefully drafted statement that censured his teachings without branding him a heretic. The dispute resulted in Fénelon's removal from his position as preceptor in 1699 and his exile from Paris and the court to Cambrai, where he remained for the rest of his life.

The publication of Fénelon's most famous work, Les aventures de Télémaque, fils d'Ulysse (The adventures of Telemachus, the son of Ulysses), also damaged his reputation and standing at court. A fantastic adventure story of Telemachus's search for his father, the book was published in 1699 without Fénelon's approval. Its popularity was fueled by the idea that the book was a thinly veiled exposé and satire of Louis XIV's court, although Fénelon maintained it was merely a vehicle for his political ideas. As a result of its publication, the king barred Fénelon from all contact with the duke of Burgundy, but this ban was relaxed in later years, allowing Fénelon periodic visits with his former pupil.

During his last years at Cambrai, Fénelon continued to write, publishing treatises condemning Jansenism such as "Pastoral Instruction in the Form of Dialog on the System of Jansenius," published in 1714. He died 7 January 1715 at his home in Cambrai.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Barnard, H. C., ed. Fénelon on Education. A Translation of the 'Traité de l'Education des Filles' and Other Documents Illustrating Fénelon's Educational Theories. Cambridge, U.K., 1966.

Fénelon, François de Salignac de la Mothe. The Adventures of Telemachus, the son of Ulysses. Translated by Tobias Smollett. Introduction and notes by Leslie A. Chilton. Text edited by O. M. Brack, Jr. Athens, Ga., 1997. Translation of Les aventures de Télémaque fils d'Ulysse.

Secondary Sources

Chérel, Albert. Fénelon au XVIIIe Siècle en France (1715–1820) Son prestige, son influence. Paris, 1917. Reprint Geneva, 1970.

La Bedoyere, Michael de. The Archbishop and the Lady: The Story of Fénelon and Madame Guyon. London and New York, 1956.

Davis, James Herbert, Jr. Fénelon. Boston, 1979.

—SARA E. CHAPMAN

Quotes:

"How rare it is to find a soul quiet enough to hear God speak."

"Exactness and neatness in moderation is a virtue, but carried to extremes narrows the mind."

"If we were faultless we should not be so much annoyed by the defects of those with whom we associate."

"Do not make best friends with a melancholy sad soul. They always are heavily loaded, and you must bear half."

"Most people I ask little from. I try to give them much, and expect nothing in return and I do very well in the bargain."

"Little opportunities should be improved."

See more famous quotes by Francois FeNelon