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{{short description|Catholic bishop}}
{{short description|French preacher, author, prelate of the Catholic Church (1632–1710)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2012}}
[[File:Esprit Fléchier.jpg|thumb|Esprit Fléchier]]
[[File:Esprit Fléchier.jpg|thumb|Esprit Fléchier]]
[[File:Maison Fléchier à Pernes les Fontaines.JPG|thumb|Birthplace of Esprit Fléchier in [[Pernes-les-Fontaines]]]]
[[File:Maison Fléchier à Pernes les Fontaines.JPG|thumb|Birthplace of Esprit Fléchier in [[Pernes-les-Fontaines]]]]
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[[File:Fontaine Saint-Sulpice Paris 6 (Fléchier).jpg|thumb|upright|Statue of Esprit Fléchier by [[Louis Desprez]] at the Fountain of the Four Bishops, in the center of [[Place Saint-Sulpice]] in Paris.]]
[[File:Fontaine Saint-Sulpice Paris 6 (Fléchier).jpg|thumb|upright|Statue of Esprit Fléchier by [[Louis Desprez]] at the Fountain of the Four Bishops, in the center of [[Place Saint-Sulpice]] in Paris.]]
[[File:Flechier cour Napoleon Louvre.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Statue of Esprit Fléchier by [[François Lanno]], in the Cour Napoléon of the [[Louvre]].]]
[[File:Flechier cour Napoleon Louvre.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Statue of Esprit Fléchier by [[François Lanno]], in the Cour Napoléon of the [[Louvre]].]]
Fléchier was born at [[Pernes-les-Fontaines]], in the ''[[Departments of France|département]]'' of [[Vaucluse]], in the [[Comtat Venaissin]], and brought up at [[Tarascon]] by his uncle, Hercule Audiffret, superior of the ''[[Christian Doctrine Fathers|Congrégation des Doctrinaires]]''. Fléchier entered the order, but on the death of his uncle, he left it, owing to the strictness of its rules, and went to Paris, where he devoted himself to writing poetry. His French poems met with little success, but a description in [[Latin]] verse of a tournament ({{lang|fr|carrousel}}, {{lang|la|circus regius}}), given by [[Louis XIV of France|Louis XIV]] around 1662, brought him a great reputation.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=491}}
Fléchier was born at [[Pernes-les-Fontaines]], in today's ''[[Departments of France|département]]'' of [[Vaucluse]], in the then [[Comtat Venaissin]], the son of Pierre-Michel Fléchier and Marguerite Audifret. He was baptized on 19 June 1632. He first went to school in Pernes and later to the ''Collège'' of [[Tarascon]], which was run by the [[Christian Doctrine Fathers|Congrégation des Doctrinaires]], of which his uncle [[Hercule Audiffret]] was the superior.<ref name="Menard">{{cite book |last=Ménard |first=M. |author-link= |date=1763 |title=Oeuvres de Messire Esprit Fléchier |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k8721015m |language=French|location=Paris |publisher=Christophe Ballard, Imprimeur du Roi, & Libraire |page= |isbn=}}</ref><ref name="Fabre">{{cite book |last=Fabre |first=Antonin |author-link= |date=1842 |title=La Jeunesse de Fléchier |url=https://archive.org/details/lajeunessedefl00fabr |language=French |location=Paris |publisher=Didier et Cie libraires-éditeurs |page= |isbn=}}</ref>


Fléchier then entered the Congrégation des Doctrinaires as a ''novice'' on 25 August 1647 in [[Avignon]], and pronounced his vows on 30 August 1648. At the age of 17, he went to teach humanities during four years in Tarascon and in [[Draguignan]]. He then moved to [[Narbonne]], where he taught and stayed for six years until mid-1659.<ref name="Fabre"/>
Fléchier subsequently became tutor to [[Louis Urbain Lefebvre de Caumartin]], afterwards [[Intendant des finances|intendant of finances]] and counsellor of state, whom he accompanied to [[Clermont-Ferrand]], where the king had ordered the ''Grands Jours'' to be held (1665), and where Caumartin was sent as representative of the sovereign. There, Fléchier wrote his curious ''Mémoires sur les Grand jours tenus à Clermont'', in which he relates, in a half romantic, half historical form, the proceedings of this extraordinary court of justice. In 1668, the [[Charles de Sainte-Maure, duc de Montausier|duke of Montausier]] procured for him the post of ''lecteur'' to the [[Louis, Dauphin of France (1661–1711)|Dauphin]]. The sermons of Fléchier increased his reputation, which was afterwards raised to the highest pitch by his funeral orations. The most important are those on the [[Julie d'Angennes|duchesse de Montausier]] (1672), which gained him the membership of the [[Académie française]], the [[duchesse d'Aiguillon]] (1675), and, above all, [[Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne|Marshal Turenne]] (1676). He was now firmly established in the favour of the king, who gave him successively the [[Abbey|abbacy]] of [[Saint-Séverin-sur-Boutonne|Saint-Séverin]],<ref>[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2140526.image.r=Recueil+de+la+Commission+des+Arts+et+Monuments+historiques+de+la+Charente-Inf%C3%A9rieure.f1.langEN Recueil de la Commission des Arts et Monuments historiques de la Charente-Inférieure et Société d'archéologie de Saintes], 3e série, Tome II (Tome IX de la collection), Mme Z. Mortreuil, Libraire, Saintes, 1888, pp. 63, 190–199, 235–248, 280–290.</ref> in the [[diocese of Poitiers]], the office of almoner to the [[Duchess Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria|Dauphine]], and in 1685 the [[bishopric of Lavaur]], from which he was in 1687 promoted to that of Nîmes. The [[edict of Nantes]] had been repealed two years before; but the [[Calvinists]] were still very numerous at Nîmes. Fléchier, by his leniency and tact, succeeded in bringing over some of them to his views, and even gained the esteem of those who declined to change their faith.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=491}}

Fléchier then went to [[Paris]] to meet his dying uncle Hercule Audiffret, but arrived after his death (16 April 1659). He left the order around the end of 1959, shortly after the death of his uncle, owing to the strictness of its rules.<ref name="Menard"/><ref name="Fabre"/> In Paris, he devoted himself to writing poetry. His French poems met with little success, but a description in [[Latin]] verse of a tournament ({{lang|fr|carrousel}}, {{lang|la|circus regius}}), given by [[Louis XIV of France|Louis XIV]] around 1662, brought him a great reputation.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=491}}

Fléchier subsequently became tutor to [[Louis Urbain Lefebvre de Caumartin]], afterwards [[Intendant des finances|intendant of finances]] and [[Conseiller d'État (France)|counsellor of state]], whom he accompanied to [[Clermont-Ferrand]], where the king had ordered the ''Grands Jours'' to be held (1665), and where Caumartin was sent as representative of the sovereign. There, Fléchier wrote his curious ''Mémoires sur les Grand jours tenus à Clermont'', in which he relates, in a half romantic, half historical form, the proceedings of this extraordinary court of justice.

In 1668, the [[Charles de Sainte-Maure, duc de Montausier|duke of Montausier]] procured for him the post of ''lecteur'' to the [[Louis, Dauphin of France (1661–1711)|Dauphin]]. The sermons of Fléchier increased his reputation, which was afterwards raised to the highest pitch by his funeral orations. The most important are those on the [[Julie d'Angennes|duchesse de Montausier]] (1672), which gained him the membership of the [[Académie française]], the [[duchesse d'Aiguillon]] (1675), and, above all, [[Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne|Marshal Turenne]] (1676). He was now firmly established in the favour of the king, who gave him successively the [[Abbey|abbacy]] of [[Saint-Séverin-sur-Boutonne|Saint-Séverin]],<ref>[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2140526.image.r=Recueil+de+la+Commission+des+Arts+et+Monuments+historiques+de+la+Charente-Inf%C3%A9rieure.f1.langEN Recueil de la Commission des Arts et Monuments historiques de la Charente-Inférieure et Société d'archéologie de Saintes], 3e série, Tome II (Tome IX de la collection), Mme Z. Mortreuil, Libraire, Saintes, 1888, pp. 63, 190–199, 235–248, 280–290.</ref> in the [[diocese of Poitiers]], the office of almoner to the [[Duchess Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria|Dauphine]], and in 1685 the [[bishopric of Lavaur]], from which he was in 1687 promoted to that of Nîmes. The [[edict of Nantes]] had been repealed two years before; but the [[Calvinists]] were still very numerous at Nîmes. Fléchier, by his leniency and tact, succeeded in bringing over some of them to his views, and even gained the esteem of those who declined to change their faith.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=491}}


During the [[Huguenot|troubles in the Cévennes]] he softened to the utmost of his power the rigour of the edicts, and showed himself so indulgent even to what he regarded as error, that his memory was long held in veneration amongst the Protestants of that district. It is right to add, however, that some authorities consider the accounts of his leniency to have been greatly exaggerated, and even charge him with going beyond what the edicts permitted. He died at [[Montpellier]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=491}}
During the [[Huguenot|troubles in the Cévennes]] he softened to the utmost of his power the rigour of the edicts, and showed himself so indulgent even to what he regarded as error, that his memory was long held in veneration amongst the Protestants of that district. It is right to add, however, that some authorities consider the accounts of his leniency to have been greatly exaggerated, and even charge him with going beyond what the edicts permitted. He died at [[Montpellier]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=491}}


==Académie Française==
Esprit Fléchier was elected at the ''[[Académie française]]'' on 5 December 1672, as a successor of [[Antoine Godeau]]. He entered the ''Académie'' on 12 January 1673, the same day as [[Jean Racine]] and [[Jean Gallois]].<ref>[http://www.academie-francaise.fr/immortels/base/academiciens/fiche.asp?param=86 Esprit Fléchier entry on the Académie française website] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100530033046/http://www.academie-francaise.fr/immortels/base/academiciens/fiche.asp?param=86 |date=May 30, 2010 }}. Academie-francaise.fr. Retrieved on 2011-07-15.</ref>
Esprit Fléchier was elected at the ''[[Académie française]]'' on 5 December 1672, as a successor of [[Antoine Godeau]]. He entered the ''Académie'' on 12 January 1673, the same day as [[Jean Racine]] and [[Jean Gallois (abbot)|Jean Gallois]].<ref>[http://www.academie-francaise.fr/immortels/base/academiciens/fiche.asp?param=86 Esprit Fléchier entry on the Académie française website] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100530033046/http://www.academie-francaise.fr/immortels/base/academiciens/fiche.asp?param=86 |date=May 30, 2010 }}. Academie-francaise.fr. Retrieved on 2011-07-15.</ref>


==Literary style==
==Literary style==
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* ''Histoire du [[Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros|cardinal Ximenès]]'' (1693) [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k57531b] [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k581188]
* ''Histoire du [[Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros|cardinal Ximenès]]'' (1693) [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k57531b] [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k581188]
* ''Panégyriques des saints et quelques sermons de morale'' (1695)
* ''Panégyriques des saints et quelques sermons de morale'' (1695)
* ''Lettres de Mr. Flechier, evêque de Nismes, sur divers sujets'' (1711) [https://books.google.com/books?id=-uOfoTV-GTgC&lpg=PP40&ots=6KtbX9R-B8&dq=Lettres%20de%20Mr%20flechier%20%C3%A9v%C3%AAque%20de%20nismes%20sur%20divers%20sujets&pg=PP17#v=onepage&q=Lettres%20de%20Mr%20flechier%20%C3%A9v%C3%AAque%20de%20nismes%20sur%20divers%20sujets&f=false]
* ''Lettres de Mr. Flechier, evêque de Nismes, sur divers sujets'' (1711) [https://books.google.com/books?id=-uOfoTV-GTgC&dq=Lettres+de+Mr+flechier+%C3%A9v%C3%AAque+de+nismes+sur+divers+sujets&pg=PP17]
* ''Lettres choisies de Mr Fléchier, avec une Relation des fanatiques du Vivarez et des réflexions sur les différens caractères des hommes'' (2 volumes, 1715) [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_0AMtDFNSmsYC][https://archive.org/details/lettreschoisies00flgoog]. Reedition : ''Fanatiques et insurgés du Vivarais et des Cévennes : récits et lettres, 1689–1705'', Jérôme Millon, Grenoble, 1997.
* ''Lettres choisies de Mr Fléchier, avec une Relation des fanatiques du Vivarez et des réflexions sur les différens caractères des hommes'' (2 volumes, 1715) [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_0AMtDFNSmsYC][https://archive.org/details/lettreschoisies00flgoog]. Reedition : ''Fanatiques et insurgés du Vivarais et des Cévennes : récits et lettres, 1689–1705'', Jérôme Millon, Grenoble, 1997.
* ''Œuvres complètes'' (10 volumes, 1782)
* ''Œuvres complètes'' (10 volumes, 1782)
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==Further reading==
==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=Fabre |first=Antonin |author-link= |date=1842 |title=La Jeunesse de Fléchier |url= |language=French |location=Paris |publisher=Didier et Cie libraires-éditeurs |page= |isbn=}} [https://archive.org/details/lajeunessedefl01fabruoft Vol. 1] [https://archive.org/details/lajeunessedefl01fabr Vol. 2]
* The [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition]] entry lists the following bibliography:
**{{cite journal |last1=Ferry |first1=Abbé C. |date=1882 |title=La Jeunesse de Fléchier par l'abbé A. Fabre. Compte-rendu littéraire |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k486340p/f352 |language=French|journal=Mémoires de l'Académie de Nîmes |publisher=Académie de Nîmes|volume=7 |issue=5 |pages=253–276 |doi= |access-date=}}
** Antonin VD Fabre, ''La Jeunesse de Fléchier'' (1882)
* {{cite journal |last1=Labitte |first1=Charles |date=5 March 1845 |title=La Jeunesse de Fléchier |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/44694138.pdf |language=French |journal=[[Revue des deux Mondes]] |volume=9 |issue=6 |pages=1071–1095 |doi= |jstor=44694138 |access-date=}}
* The [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition]] entry lists the following additional bibliography:
** Adolphe Fabre, ''Fléchier, orateur'' (1886)
** Adolphe Fabre, ''Fléchier, orateur'' (1886)
** A Delacroix, ''Hist. de Fléchier'' (1865).
** A Delacroix, ''Hist. de Fléchier'' (1865)


==External links==
==External links==
{{wikisource category|Esprit Fléchier}}
{{wikisource author|Esprit Fléchier}}
{{Commons category|Esprit Fléchier}}
{{Commons category|Esprit Fléchier}}
* [http://gallica.bnf.fr/Search?f_creator=Fl%C3%A9chier%2C+Esprit+%281632-1710%29&ArianeWireIndex=index&q=Esprit+Flechier&lang=FR&n=15&p=1&pageNumber=2 Works by Esprit Fléchier at gallica.bnf.fr]
* [http://gallica.bnf.fr/Search?f_creator=Fl%C3%A9chier%2C+Esprit+%281632-1710%29&ArianeWireIndex=index&q=Esprit+Flechier&lang=FR&n=15&p=1&pageNumber=2 Works by Esprit Fléchier at gallica.bnf.fr]
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[[Category:1632 births]]
[[Category:1632 births]]
[[Category:1710 deaths]]
[[Category:1710 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Pernes-les-Fontaines]]
[[Category:People from Vaucluse]]
[[Category:Members of the Académie française]]
[[Category:Members of the Académie Française]]
[[Category:17th-century Roman Catholic bishops]]
[[Category:17th-century French Roman Catholic bishops]]
[[Category:18th-century Roman Catholic bishops]]
[[Category:18th-century French Roman Catholic bishops]]
[[Category:Bishops of Lavaur]]
[[Category:Bishops of Lavaur]]
[[Category:Bishops of Nîmes]]
[[Category:Bishops of Nîmes]]

Latest revision as of 01:15, 17 March 2023

Esprit Fléchier
Birthplace of Esprit Fléchier in Pernes-les-Fontaines

Esprit Fléchier (10 June 1632 – 16 February 1710) was a French preacher and author, Bishop of Nîmes from 1687 to 1710.

Biography

[edit]
Statue of Esprit Fléchier by Louis Desprez at the Fountain of the Four Bishops, in the center of Place Saint-Sulpice in Paris.
Statue of Esprit Fléchier by François Lanno, in the Cour Napoléon of the Louvre.

Fléchier was born at Pernes-les-Fontaines, in today's département of Vaucluse, in the then Comtat Venaissin, the son of Pierre-Michel Fléchier and Marguerite Audifret. He was baptized on 19 June 1632. He first went to school in Pernes and later to the Collège of Tarascon, which was run by the Congrégation des Doctrinaires, of which his uncle Hercule Audiffret was the superior.[1][2]

Fléchier then entered the Congrégation des Doctrinaires as a novice on 25 August 1647 in Avignon, and pronounced his vows on 30 August 1648. At the age of 17, he went to teach humanities during four years in Tarascon and in Draguignan. He then moved to Narbonne, where he taught and stayed for six years until mid-1659.[2]

Fléchier then went to Paris to meet his dying uncle Hercule Audiffret, but arrived after his death (16 April 1659). He left the order around the end of 1959, shortly after the death of his uncle, owing to the strictness of its rules.[1][2] In Paris, he devoted himself to writing poetry. His French poems met with little success, but a description in Latin verse of a tournament (carrousel, circus regius), given by Louis XIV around 1662, brought him a great reputation.[3]

Fléchier subsequently became tutor to Louis Urbain Lefebvre de Caumartin, afterwards intendant of finances and counsellor of state, whom he accompanied to Clermont-Ferrand, where the king had ordered the Grands Jours to be held (1665), and where Caumartin was sent as representative of the sovereign. There, Fléchier wrote his curious Mémoires sur les Grand jours tenus à Clermont, in which he relates, in a half romantic, half historical form, the proceedings of this extraordinary court of justice.

In 1668, the duke of Montausier procured for him the post of lecteur to the Dauphin. The sermons of Fléchier increased his reputation, which was afterwards raised to the highest pitch by his funeral orations. The most important are those on the duchesse de Montausier (1672), which gained him the membership of the Académie française, the duchesse d'Aiguillon (1675), and, above all, Marshal Turenne (1676). He was now firmly established in the favour of the king, who gave him successively the abbacy of Saint-Séverin,[4] in the diocese of Poitiers, the office of almoner to the Dauphine, and in 1685 the bishopric of Lavaur, from which he was in 1687 promoted to that of Nîmes. The edict of Nantes had been repealed two years before; but the Calvinists were still very numerous at Nîmes. Fléchier, by his leniency and tact, succeeded in bringing over some of them to his views, and even gained the esteem of those who declined to change their faith.[3]

During the troubles in the Cévennes he softened to the utmost of his power the rigour of the edicts, and showed himself so indulgent even to what he regarded as error, that his memory was long held in veneration amongst the Protestants of that district. It is right to add, however, that some authorities consider the accounts of his leniency to have been greatly exaggerated, and even charge him with going beyond what the edicts permitted. He died at Montpellier.[3]

Académie Française

[edit]

Esprit Fléchier was elected at the Académie française on 5 December 1672, as a successor of Antoine Godeau. He entered the Académie on 12 January 1673, the same day as Jean Racine and Jean Gallois.[5]

Literary style

[edit]

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, pulpit eloquence is the branch of belles-lettres in which Fléchier excelled. He is indeed far below Bossuet, whose robust and sublime genius had no rival in that age; he does not equal Bourdaloue in earnestness of thought and vigour of expression; nor can he rival the philosophical depth or the insinuating and impressive eloquence of Jean-Baptiste Massillon. But he is always ingenious, often witty, and nobody has carried farther than he the harmony of diction, sometimes marred by an affectation of symmetry and an excessive use of antithesis. His two historical works, the histories of Theodosius I and of Ximenes, are more remarkable for elegance of style than for accuracy and comprehensive insight.[6]

Works

[edit]
  • La vie du cardinal Jean-François Commendon, où l'on voit ses voyages, ambassades, légations & négotiations, dans les plus considérables cours des empereurs, rois, princes & républiques de l'Europe. Écrite en latin par Antoine Maria Gratiani, et traduite en françois par Monsieur Fléchier (1671)
  • Histoire de Théodose le Grand, pour Monseigneur le Dauphin (1679).[1] Translated into English by F Manning (1693)
  • Histoire du cardinal Ximenès (1693) [2] [3]
  • Panégyriques des saints et quelques sermons de morale (1695)
  • Lettres de Mr. Flechier, evêque de Nismes, sur divers sujets (1711) [4]
  • Lettres choisies de Mr Fléchier, avec une Relation des fanatiques du Vivarez et des réflexions sur les différens caractères des hommes (2 volumes, 1715) [5][6]. Reedition : Fanatiques et insurgés du Vivarais et des Cévennes : récits et lettres, 1689–1705, Jérôme Millon, Grenoble, 1997.
  • Œuvres complètes (10 volumes, 1782)
  • Voyage de Fléchier en Auvergne (1796) [7]
  • Oraison funèbres (2 volumes, 1802) [8]
  • Œuvres complètes de Fléchier, classées pour la première fois, selon l'ordre logique et analogique (2 volumes, 1856). Published by Jacques Paul Migne (Paris)
  • Mémoires de Fléchier sur les Grands-Jours tenus à Clermont en 1665–1666 was first published in 1844 by Benoît Gonod. The second edition (1856), Mémoires de Fléchier sur les Grands-Jours d'Auvergne en 1665, had a notice by Sainte-Beuve and an appendix by Pierre Adolphe Chéruel.[9] Reedition : Mercure de France, Paris, 1984.

Fléchier left a portrait or caractère of himself, addressed to one of his friends. The "Funeral Oration of Marshal Turenne" has been translated in English in HC Fish's History and Repository of Pulpit Eloquence (ii., 1857).

Memory

[edit]

There are streets named after Esprit Fléchier in several communes of France, including Éleu-dit-Leauwette, Marseille, Paris and Tarascon.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Ménard, M. (1763). Oeuvres de Messire Esprit Fléchier (in French). Paris: Christophe Ballard, Imprimeur du Roi, & Libraire.
  2. ^ a b c Fabre, Antonin (1842). La Jeunesse de Fléchier (in French). Paris: Didier et Cie libraires-éditeurs.
  3. ^ a b c Chisholm 1911, p. 491.
  4. ^ Recueil de la Commission des Arts et Monuments historiques de la Charente-Inférieure et Société d'archéologie de Saintes, 3e série, Tome II (Tome IX de la collection), Mme Z. Mortreuil, Libraire, Saintes, 1888, pp. 63, 190–199, 235–248, 280–290.
  5. ^ Esprit Fléchier entry on the Académie française website Archived May 30, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Academie-francaise.fr. Retrieved on 2011-07-15.
  6. ^ Chisholm 1911, pp. 491–492.

Further reading

[edit]
[edit]