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17 - Women of Versailles- the Court of Louis XIV by Arthur-Leon Imbert de Saint-Amand · Women of Versailles- the Court of Louis XIV

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  Speaker 1: Section seventeen of Women of Versailles, The Court of Louis
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  Speaker 1: the fourteenth by artou Leon Ambert de Saint Ament, translated
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  Speaker 1: by Elizabeth Gilbert Martin. This librovox recording is in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. Read by Pamel and Agami, Chapter twelve, Madame
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  Speaker 1: de mantineand as a political woman, Part two to sum
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  Speaker 1: up what is the chief accusation brought against Louis the
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  Speaker 1: fourteenth His wars, his passion for luxury, his religious fanaticism.
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  Speaker 1: How can this triple accusation weigh upon Madame de Mantinean,
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  Speaker 1: For far from urging him to war, she always desired
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  Speaker 1: peace ardently. I long after peace, she wrote in sixteen
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  Speaker 1: eighty four. I shall never give the King any councils
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  Speaker 1: prejudicial to his glory. But if he would believe me,
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  Speaker 1: he would be less dazzled with this a claw of victory,
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  Speaker 1: and would think more seriously of his salvation. But it
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  Speaker 1: is not my business to govern the state. I ask
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  Speaker 1: God daily to inspire and direct the Master, and make
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  Speaker 1: him know the truth unfavorable to her as he is.
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  Speaker 1: Monsieur Michelet nevertheless owns that she profoundly regretted the War
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  Speaker 1: of the succession in Spain. He says that the only
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  Speaker 1: ones who retained good sense, old Mantenau and the sickly Beauvilliers,
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  Speaker 1: saw with terror that they were plunging into the frightful enterprise,
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  Speaker 1: which was going to swallow up everything. Just as she
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  Speaker 1: allowed a written decision for the revocation of the Edict
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  Speaker 1: of Nantes to be extorted from her, so she yielded.
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  Speaker 1: She submitted for the succession. She was no fonder of
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  Speaker 1: luxury than of war. Living with extreme simplicity herself, she
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  Speaker 1: sought to deter Louis the fourteenth from magnificent constructions and
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  Speaker 1: ostentacious displays of pride. According to Mademoiselle d'mardles, the confidant
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  Speaker 1: of her good works, she reproached herself on account of
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  Speaker 1: her modest personal expenses. She never bought a new gown
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  Speaker 1: until it was absolutely needed, and then said, I am
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  Speaker 1: taking that away from the poor. My position has many
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  Speaker 1: unpleasant sides, but it procures me the pleasure of giving.
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  Speaker 1: And yet as it prevents me from lacking anything, and
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  Speaker 1: as I can never encroach upon my necessaries, all my
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  Speaker 1: alms are a sort of luxury, good and permissible. It
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  Speaker 1: is true, but devoid of merit. Madame de Mantineau not
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  Speaker 1: only counted for nothing in the luxury of Louis the fourteenth.
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  Speaker 1: She not merely never ceased recalling him to ideas truly Christian,
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  Speaker 1: but she incessantly pleaded the cause of the people, whose
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  Speaker 1: wretchedness she pitied, while she admired their resignation, never allowing
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  Speaker 1: herself to be elated by the incense burned at her
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  Speaker 1: feet as well as at those of Louis the fourteenth.
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  Speaker 1: She had neither those bursts of pride, that thirst for riches,
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  Speaker 1: nor that eagerness for domination, which one finds in the
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  Speaker 1: lives of nearly all favorites. She was indifferent to jewels,
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  Speaker 1: rich stuffs, and costly furniture, even in her youth and
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  Speaker 1: amidst the infatuation excited by her beauty. Her mind had
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  Speaker 1: been her chief adornment, and she had never been dazzled
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  Speaker 1: by exterior display. No prodigality is connected with her name.
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  Speaker 1: The chief complaint formulated against Madame de Maintenon by certain
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  Speaker 1: historians is the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. They
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  Speaker 1: load her with anathemas as if she alone were responsible
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  Speaker 1: for that fatal measure. Forgetting that it was during his
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  Speaker 1: passion for Mademoiselle de Fontane that Louis the fourteenth began
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  Speaker 1: to take rigorous legislative proceedings against the Protestants. They attribute
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  Speaker 1: the persecution to the hypocritical zeal of a narrow devotion
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  Speaker 1: inspired by Madame de Manteneau alone. On the contrary, the
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  Speaker 1: revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which we are very
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  Speaker 1: far from approving, was one may say, coursed on the
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  Speaker 1: king by public opinion. As has been remarked by Monsieur
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  Speaker 1: Theophia la Valais, those of the Reformed Church preserved toward
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  Speaker 1: the government the attitude of children in disgrace, and toward
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  Speaker 1: the Catholics that of disdainful enemies. They persisted in their isolation.
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  Speaker 1: They continued their correspondence with their friends in England and Holland. France,
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  Speaker 1: said Monsieur Michelee, found a Holland in her own bosom
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  Speaker 1: which was rejoicing at the success of the other one.
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  Speaker 1: To recall the dissidence to unity was the fixed idea
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  Speaker 1: of Louis the fourteenth. This, as was said at the time,
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  Speaker 1: would be the meritorious work and proper characteristic of his reign.
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  Speaker 1: The assembly of the clergy, the Parliament of Toulouse, the
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  Speaker 1: Catholics of the south of France had urgently solicited the revocation.
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  Speaker 1: When the decree appeared, there was an explosion of enthusiasm.
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  Speaker 1: Whatever Saint Simon may say, a court of Rome testified
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  Speaker 1: an extreme joy. Innocent the eleventh hastened to address a
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  Speaker 1: brief to Louis the fourteenth, thanking him in the name
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  Speaker 1: of the church. He caused the canon of Castle Saint
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  Speaker 1: Angelo to be fired, and held a papal chapel at
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  Speaker 1: which the Taidean was chanted. The Duc d'Estree, French ambassador
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  Speaker 1: to the Holy See, wrote to the king. His holiness
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  Speaker 1: said to me that what Charlemagne had done was nothing
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  Speaker 1: in comparison to what has just been accomplished by your majesty,
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  Speaker 1: That there was nothing so great, and that no example
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  Speaker 1: of a similar action could be found. Chancellor le Tellier,
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  Speaker 1: intoning the canticle of Simeon, died, saying that he had
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  Speaker 1: nothing left to wish for after this final act of
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  Speaker 1: his long ministry. Bassuet rose to lyrical transports, delay not
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  Speaker 1: to publish this miracle of our own days, pass on
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  Speaker 1: the story to future ages. Take up your sacred pens, ye,
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  Speaker 1: who compose the annals of the church, touched by so
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  Speaker 1: many marvels, Let our hearts dilate over the piety of Louis.
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  Speaker 1: Lift even to Heaven our acclamations, and say to this
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  Speaker 1: new Constantine, this new Theodosius, this new Charlemagne, what the
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  Speaker 1: six hundred and thirty fathers said of old in the
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  Speaker 1: councils of Chalcedon. You have consolidated the faith. You have
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  Speaker 1: exterminated the heretics. San Simon, who blames the revocation with
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  Speaker 1: so much elek quince, avows that Louis the fourteenth was
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  Speaker 1: convinced of having performed a holy action. The monarch has
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  Speaker 1: never thought himself so great in the sight of men,
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  Speaker 1: nor so far advanced in the sight of God. In
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  Speaker 1: the reparation of the sins and scandals of his life,
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  Speaker 1: he heard nothing but eulogies, Madame de Savignier wrote, October eighth,
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  Speaker 1: sixteen eighty five. Never has any king done, nor ever
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  Speaker 1: will do so memorable a thing. Rolin la Fontaine Labriere
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  Speaker 1: displayed as much enthusiasm as Fenelon, Massillon and Flechier. These
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  Speaker 1: lines by Madame de Julier reflect the general impression. Ah
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  Speaker 1: pour sauvetan peurple e pour la fois suctu veen a
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  Speaker 1: fair eotic sus de lamme dequelgegrandames conte nomme mon tabees
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  Speaker 1: nes plu d'as si grand nod pourtois ah, to save
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  Speaker 1: thy people and to avenge the faith. What hast thou
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  Speaker 1: just done is above the power of man. By whatever
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  Speaker 1: great names they name, thee, thou art a bast no
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  Speaker 1: name henceforth is great enough for THEE. Doubtless, Madame de
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  Speaker 1: Mantinant allowed herself to be carried away by the unanimous
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  Speaker 1: sentiment of the Catholic world. But it was assuredly not
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  Speaker 1: she who took the initiative. Voltaire recognizes this when he
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  Speaker 1: says one sees by her letters that she did not
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  Speaker 1: urge the revocation of Nantes, but that she did not
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  Speaker 1: oppose it. In the letter of September fourth, sixteen seventy eight,
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  Speaker 1: she writes concerning abjurations which were insincere. I am indignant
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  Speaker 1: at such conversions. The state of those who abjure without
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  Speaker 1: being truly Catholics is infamous. We read in the note
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  Speaker 1: des Dame de Saint Cyr. Madame de Mante, while desiring
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  Speaker 1: with all her heart the reunion of the Huguenot to
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  Speaker 1: the Church, would have desired that it might rather be
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  Speaker 1: by the way of persuasion and gentleness. And she told
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  Speaker 1: us that the King, who was very zealous, would have
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  Speaker 1: liked to see her more eager than she seemed, and
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  Speaker 1: that he said to her, on this account, I fear, Madame,
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  Speaker 1: lest the consideration you wish shown to the Huguenot may
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  Speaker 1: be the result of some remaining bias towards your former religion.
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  Speaker 1: Phenelon himself, who was represented as the apostle of Tolerance,
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  Speaker 1: approved the principle of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes,
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  Speaker 1: though no sovereign said he may require interior belief in
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  Speaker 1: religious matters from his subjects. He may prevent the public
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  Speaker 1: exercise or the profession of opinions or ceremonies which disturb
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  Speaker 1: the peace of the commonwealth by the diversity and multiplicity
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  Speaker 1: of sex. Such was also the opinion of Madame de Maintenon,
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  Speaker 1: but Protestant writers themselves have recognized that she blamed the
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  Speaker 1: employment of force. It is the historian of the French
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  Speaker 1: refugees in Brandenburg who says, let us do her justice.
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  Speaker 1: She never counseled the violent means that were used. She
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  Speaker 1: abhorred persecutions, and those that were practiced were concealed from her.
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  Speaker 1: Madame de Maintenon was essentially moderate, both in religion and
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  Speaker 1: in politics. Her counsels counted for something in the Declaration
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  Speaker 1: of December thirteenth, sixteen ninety eight, which, while maintaining the
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  Speaker 1: revocation of the Edict of Nantes, established a toleration which
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  Speaker 1: lasted until the end of the reign. Let us be
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  Speaker 1: on our guard. Moreover, against sharing the gross error of
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  Speaker 1: those who behold servitude in Catholicism and liberty in Protestantism.
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  Speaker 1: Luther recommended the extermination of Anabaptists. Calvin executed Michael Cervites,
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  Speaker 1: Jacques Brune, and Valentine Genti for heresy. The inhumanities of
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  Speaker 1: Louis the fourteenth toward Protestants did not equal those of
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  Speaker 1: William of Orange against Catholics. The English laws were of
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  Speaker 1: draconian severity. Any Catholic priest residing in England who had not,
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  Speaker 1: after three days embraced the Anglican cult was liable to
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  Speaker 1: the penalty of death, and nowadays they want to persuade
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  Speaker 1: us that in the strife between Louis the fourteenth and William,
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  Speaker 1: it was the Protestant prince who represented the principle of
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  Speaker 1: religious toleration. To sum up, whether the revocation of the
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  Speaker 1: Edict of Nant or any other act of the Great
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  Speaker 1: reign is in question, Madame de Maintenon did not play
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  Speaker 1: the odious part which has been attributed to her by Calumny.
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  Speaker 1: We do not believe she ever outstepped the limits of
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  Speaker 1: that legitimate influence which a devoted an intelligent woman usually
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  Speaker 1: exercises over her husband. If she was often mistaken, at
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  Speaker 1: least she was mistaken in good faith. The real Madame
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  Speaker 1: de Mantonau is not the mischievous, malicious, crafty, and vindictive
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  Speaker 1: bigot imagined by certain writers. She is a pious and
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  Speaker 1: reasonable woman, animated by the noblest intentions, loving France, sincerely,
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  Speaker 1: sympathizing deeply with the sufferings of the people, detesting war,
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  Speaker 1: respecting right injustice, austere in her tastes, moderate in her opinions,
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  Speaker 1: irreproachable in her conduct. Speaking of the accord which existed
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  Speaker 1: between her and the group of truly religious great nobles,
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  Speaker 1: Monsieur MICHELI has said, let us regard this little group
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  Speaker 1: as a convent in the midst of the court, a
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  Speaker 1: convent conspiring for the amelioration of the king. In general,
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  Speaker 1: it is the converted court. What is fine, very fine
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  Speaker 1: in this party, What constitutes its honorable bond, is the
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  Speaker 1: edifying reconciliation of mortal enemies. The Duchesse, the Bethune Schahrost,
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  Speaker 1: daughter of Fouquet, the man whom Colbert imprisoned for twenty years,
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  Speaker 1: became the friend almost the sister the three daughters of
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  Speaker 1: her father's persecutor. Such were the sentiments which Madame de
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  Speaker 1: Mantainon knew how to inspire. Every morning and night she said,
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  Speaker 1: from the depths of her soul, this prayer which she
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  Speaker 1: had composed, Lord, grant me to gladden the king, to
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  Speaker 1: console him, to encourage him, to sadden him. Also, when
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  Speaker 1: it must be for thy glory, cause me to hide
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  Speaker 1: from him nothing which he ought to know through me,
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  Speaker 1: and which no one else would have the courage to
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  Speaker 1: tell him. No, there was nothing hypocritical in such piety,
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  Speaker 1: And the companion of Louis the fourteenth was sincere. When
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  Speaker 1: she said to Madame de Clapion I should like to
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  Speaker 1: die before the King, I would go to God. I
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  Speaker 1: would cast myself at the foot of his throne. I
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  Speaker 1: would offer him the desires of a soul that he
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  Speaker 1: would have purified. I would pray him to grant the
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  Speaker 1: King greater lights, more love for his people, more knowledge
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  Speaker 1: of the state of the provinces, more aversion for the
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  Speaker 1: perfidy of the courtiers, more horror of the ways in
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  Speaker 1: which his authority is abused. And God would hear my
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  Speaker 1: prayers and of Section seventeen