Fenelon

Francois, fron'swa' fa-neh-lon' (1651-1715), a noted French prelate. He was educated at Paris. He received holy orders in 1675. Three years later he was placed at the head of an institution designed for the reception and conversion to Catholicism of the young daughters of such Huguenots as had not fled the country. He was a man of the highest character. Later Louis XIV placed him in charge of the education of his grandsons, and was so well pleased with him that he made him archbishop of Cambrai.

Fenelon got into an oratorical and pamphlet controversy with his superior, the celebrated Bossuet. One of his books, entitled the Maxims of the Saints, was submitted to Pope Innocent XII. The holy college condemned the work, marking with especial disapproval no less than twenty-three passages contained in it. Fenelon submitted with good grace. He spoke from his own pulpit of the condemnation of the book, withdrew it from circulation, and presented to his cathedral a magnificent piece of gold plate on which the angel of truth is represented trampling erroneous works under foot. Such was the general belief in Fenelon's sweetness of character and freedom from hypocrisy that he was given credit for the utmost sincerity. This, too, in an age when worldliness was imputed very generally to the dignitaries of the church.

Fenelon also wrote a work called Telemachus, a sort of historical novel suggested by the wanderings of Ulysses. It was intended for the instruction of the young princes in the art of governing aright. Its publication also gave offense. People prominent at court persuaded Louis XIV that it contained covert attacks upon French statesmen and the great monarch himself. Louis banished Fenelon to his own archbishopric, forbidding him even to correspond with the young Duke of Burgundy and the other royal princes. Though now almost forgotten, the details of Fenelon's life are full of interest. In the midst of corruption and worldly policy he is really a remarkable man whom it were well that the world knew better. His published works, now little read, extend to twenty volumes, embracing theology, literature, history, oratory, and art.