RETZ
797
RETZ
retreats for women have been formed, such as Notre
Dame du Cenacle, and Marie Reparatrice.
Retreats for laymen have spread greatly throughout the Catholic world during the last twenty-five years. A P'rench Jesuit, Pere Henry, was the pioneer in this great revival. In 1882 he gave himself to the task of instituting retreats for working-men, and it was not long before houses devoted to this purpose were founded all over Europe. During 1908, in Belgium alone 243 retreats were given, attended by 10,253 exercitants, and since 1890 in that country at least 100,000 of the labouring classes and about 25,000 pro- fessional and business men have made retreats. France, Germany, and Holland and other European States have also extended the work with gratifying results. In one house in France, Notre Dame du Haut^Mont, more than 30,500 men have made the retreat within the last twenty-five years. England and Ireland have taken up the movement, and are at present engaged with retreat organizations, as also is Canada. In the United States a generous response has been given to the movement, and a house of re- treat has been founded (1911) on Staten Island, New York City.
The principal reason of the success of these retreats, called cloistered to distinguish them from the parochial retreats open to all, is their very necessity. In the fever and agitation of modern life, the need of medita- tion and spiritual repose impresses itself on Christian souls who desire to reflect on their eternal destiny, and direct their hfe in this world towards God.
Paul Debuchy.
Retz, Jean-Francois-Paul-Gondi, Cardinal de, Archbishop of Paris, b. at the Chateau of Mont- mirail, Oct., 1614; d. in Paris, 24 Aug., 1679. His father, becoming a widower, entered the Oratory, and was for a time (1643) the director of Anne of Austria. Retz was destined for the Church, al- though, as he himself declares, he "had neither the taste nor the disposition for it" ; his preceptor was St. Vincent de Paul. His youth was stormy, not exempt from gallantries. However, he acquired a solid educa- tion, learned seven languages, studied sacred and pro- fane literature and from reading Plutarch and Sallust developed a wild taste for republican maxims, and for the role of conspirator. This taste reveals itself when at the age of eighteen years he wrote a book on the conspiracy of Fieschi. He imitated an Italian author named Mascardi, but while Mascarui blamed the conspiracy, the young Retz approved of it. From 1638 to 1641 he took a certain part in the plots of the Count de Soissons against Richelieu; later, after the Count had been killed at the battle of La Marfee (6 July, 1041), Retz devoted himself definitively to an ecclesiastical career. Louis XIII on his death- bed named him coadjutor to his uncle, Gondi, Archbishop of Paris; on 31 Jan., 1644, Retz was con- secrated at Notre Dame, receiving the title of Arch- bishop of Corinth. He soon became popular in Paris by his sermons, and by his manner of reforming the priests of the diocese. This popularity brought upon him the hostility of Mazarin, especially as in 1649 he threw himself into the movement of the so-called Fronde against this minister. He knew how to stir up the peasantry against the cardinal, the Parlement, and the Duke of Orleans. But he hated Condi-, the head of the Fronde princes, as much as he hated Mazarin, and when the Prince de CondiS openly revolted against the king, Retz attached himself to the Court party.
On 21 Sept., 1651, Louis XIV informed him that Innocent X had made him cardinal. From that time Retz promised fidelity to the royal family, and kept his promise, still continuing however in his opposition to Mazarin. Mazarin, wishing to exile him from Court, nominated him as "Director of French Affairs at Rome". This Retz refused, and, according to an
expression of Bossuet, "continued to threaten with
severe and intrepid mien the victorious favourite".
At the instigation of Mazarin, Louis XIV (16 Dei;.,
1652) signed an order of arrest against Retz. The
latter surrendered himself, and was imprisoned at
Vincennes. His uncle having died on 21 March,
1654, Retz, though a prisoner, took possession of the Archiepiscopal See of Paris by power of attorney. He soon resigned it in exchange for some abbeys, and was transferred to the Chateau of Nantes, pending the acceptance by Innocent X of his abdication. He escaped, sailed for Spain, then went to Rome, where Innocent X wished him to retain the Archbishopric of Paris. A fugitive in a strange land, he then re- mained as archbishop at Rome, whence he directed the clergy of Paris, in spite of Mazarin, by a number of letters which Mazarin caused to be burned succes- sively by the pub- lic executioner. He played a decisive role in the con- clave which elected Alexander VII in
1655. His influ- ence at Rome op- posed that of Lionne,the ambas- sador of France. Seized by the spirit of political in- trigues, we find him from 1658 to 1661 travelling in Germany, and Hol- land, and interest- ing himself in the restoration of the Stuarts. The con- test between Retz and Mazarin end- riiA.N..ois-iAui. ll uetz
ed only with the death of the cardinal; and as Louis XIV, even after Mazarin's death, did not wish Retz to return to Paris as archbishop, Retz finally re- signed his see in 1662, receiving as compensation the Abbey of St. Denis, whose revenue of 120,000 livres was double that of the archbishopric. He established himself at the Chateau of Commercy.
More than once he played an active part in the quarrels between Louis XIV and Rome. It was he who, during the conflict between Louis XIV and Alexander VII regarding the reservation of the Host, advi-sed Louis XIV to seize Avignon. In 1665 and 1666 he was connected with the difficulties resulting from the Bulls of Alexander VII against two decisions of the Sorbonne which were directed against two infallibilist publications. He tried in vain to induce the pope to declare that anti-infallibilist teachings were not heretical, but he succeeded in preventing Alexander VII from launching an excommunication against the Parlement which had joined forc<'S with the Sorbonne; then he obtained a condemnation by the Index of one of the two publications (•(iiiilcmncd by the Sorbonne, and he interi)rctc(l this Act as a sort of indirect disavowal of the Bulls which had been directed against the Sorbonne. In his memoir on the SacTed College written in Sept., 1666, he contended that the Universal Church, in its coni^laves, shouhl be represented by cardinals chosen from all the countries of Christendom. This memoir and the dispatches written to Louis XIV and the minister Lionne are masterpieces of diplomatic language. He took a prominent part in the conclaves which elected Clement IX and Clement X, and even obtained eight votes in the conclave of 1676 which elected Innocent XI. He died three years later during a sojourn in
