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Ch. 12: Madame de Maintenon as a Political Woman, Pt. 2 · Women of Versailles: The Court of Louis XIV

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