RICHELIEU
48
RICHELIEU
to the king as an enemy to his power; the Capuchin,
Leclerc du Trembhiy, never succeeded in completely
clearing him in Louis XIII's opinion. To disarm
suspicion Richelieu asked the king to name a place of
exile, and at his order went in 161 S io A\'ignon, where
he passed nearly a year and where he composed a
catechism which became famous under the name of
"Instruction duchr(5tien". This book, destined to be
read in every parish each Sunday at the sermon, was a
real blessing at a time when ignorance of religion was
the principal evil. When Maria de' Medici escaped
from Blois, in 1619, Richelieu was chosen by the min-
ister Lu\Ties to negotiate for peace between Louis
XIII and his mother. By Brief of 3 November, 1622,
he was created cardinal by Gregory XV. On 19 April,
1624. he re-entered the Council of Ministers, and on 12
August. 1624, was made its president. Richelieu's
policy can be reduced to two principal ideas: the do-
mestic unification of France and opposition to the
Hou.se of Austria. At home he had to contend with
constant conspiracies in which Maria de' Medici,
Queen Anne of Austria, Gaston d 'Orleans (the king's
brother), and the highest nobles of the court were in-
volved. The executions of Marillac (1632), Mont-
morency (1632), Cinq-Mars and of de Thou (1642)
intimidated the enemies of the cardinal. He had also
to contend with the Protestants who were forming a
state within the state (see Huguenots). The capitu-
lation of La Rochelle and the peace of Alais (28 June,
1629) annihilated Protestantism as a political party.
Richelieu's foreign policy (for which see Leclerc
DU Trembl.w) was characterized b^' his fearlessness
in making alliances with the foreign Protestants. At
various times the Protestants of the Grisons, Sweden,
the Protestant Princes of Germany, and Bernard of
Saxe-Weimar were his allies. The favourable treaties
signed by Mazarin (q. v.) were the result of Richelieu's
policy of Protestant alliances, a policy which was
severely censured by a number of Catholics. At the
end of 1625, when Richelieu was preparing to give
back Valteline to the Protestant Grisons, the parti-
sans of Spain called him "Cardinal of the Hugue-
nots", and two pamphlets, attributed to the Jesuits
Eudemon Joannes and Jean Keller, appeared against
him; these he had burned. Hostilities, however, in-
crea-sed until finally the king's confessor opposed the
foreign policy of the cardinal. This was a very im-
pfirf ant episode, andon it the recent researches of Father
de Piochernonteix in the archives of the Society of
Jesus have cast new light. P'ather Caussin, author
of "I^ Cour Sainfe", the Jesuit whom Richelieu, on
25 March, 1636, had maxle the king's confessor, tried
to use against the cardinal the influence of Mlle.de La
Fayette, a lady for whom the king had entertained a
ff-rtain regard and who had become a nun. On
S DecernhfT, 1637, in a solemn interview Caus.sin re-
callrfi to the king his dtities towards his wife, Anne of
Austria, to whom he was too indifTerent; asked him
to allow his mother, Maria de' Mr^dici, to return to
France; and p<^jinted out the dangers to Catholicism
which might arise through Richelieu's alliance with
the Turks and the Protestant princes of Germany.
After this interview Caussin gave Communion to the
king and a/ldrc^ssfifl him a very beautiful sermon, en-
treating him to obey his directions. Richelieu was
anxious that the king's cxmfdKHor should occupy him-
nelf Kf*lely with "giving absfjlutions", consequently,
on 10 DecembcT, 1637, Caussin was dismissf^d and
exilr-d to Rennes, and his Huccessor, Father Jacques
Sinnond, e/-l<'brate<l for his hist^)rical knowl(;dge, was
forcf<l to promiw that, if he saw "anything censur-
able in the crjndiicf of the State", he would report it to
the cardinal and not attempt to influence the king's
c/jnwience. However, 1 at her Caussin 'h fears concern-
ing Richelieu's foreign pf)licy were not shared by all of
his confr/TOH. Father I^llemand, for instance, affirmed
that it was rash to blame the king's political alliance
with the Protestant princes — an alliance which had
been made only after an unsuccessful attempt to form
one with Bavaria and the Catholic princes of Germany.
That Richelieu was possessed of religious senti-
ments cannot be contested. It was he who in Febru-
ary, 1638, prompted the declaration by which
Louis XIII consecrated the Kingdom of France to the
Virgin Marj-; in the ministry he surrounded himself
with priests and religious; as general he employed
Cardinal de la Valette; as admiral, Sourdis, Arch-
bishop of Bordeaux; as diplomat, B^ruUe; as chief
auxiliary he had Leclerc du Tremblay. He himself
designated Mazarin his successor. He had a high
idea of the sacerdotal dignity, was continually pro-
testing against the encroachments of the parlements
on the jurisdiction of the Church, and advised the
king to choose as bishops only those who should
"have passed after their studies a considerable time
in the seminaries, the places established for the study
of the ecclesiastical functions". He wished to com-
pel the bishops to reside in their dioceses, to estab-
lish seminaries there, and to visit their parishes. He
aided the efforts of St. Vincent de Paul to induce the
bishops to institute the "exercises des ordinants",
retreats, during which the yoimg clerics were to pre-
pare themselves for the priesthood. Richelieu fore-
saw the perils to which nascent Jansenism would ex-
pose the Church. Saint-Cyran's doctrines on the
constitution of the Church, his views on the organi-
zation of the "great Christian Republic", his liaison
with Jansenius (who in 1635 had composed a violent
pamphlet against France under the name of Mars
gallicus), and the manner in which he opposed the an-
nulment of the marriage of Gaston d'Orleans, drew
upon him the cardinal's suspicion. In having him
arrested 14 May, 1638, Richelieu declared that "had
Luther and Calvin been confined before they had be-
gun to dogmatize, the states would have been spared
many troubles". Two months later Richelieu forced
the solitaries of Port Royal-des-Champs to disperse;
some were sent to Paris, others to Fert^-Milon.
Saint-Cyran remained in the dungeon of Vincennes
until the cardinal's death. With the co-operation of
the Benedictine Gr^goire Tarisse, Richelieu devoted
himself seriously to the reform of the Benedictines.
Named coadjutor to the Abbot of Cluny in 1627,
and Abbot of Cluny in 1629, he called to this monas-
tery the Reformed Benedictines of Saint- Vannes. He
proposed forming the congregations of Saint-Vannes
and Saint-Maur into one body, of which he was to have
been superior. Only half of this i)r()ject was accom-
plished, however, when in 1636 lie succeeded in unit-
ing the Order of Cluny with the Congregation of
Saint-Maur. From 1622 Richelieu was ]>rovi.seur of
th(! Sorbonne, and was in virtue of this office head of
the Association of Doctors of the Sorbonne. He had
the Sorbonne entirely rebuilt between 1626 and 1629,
and between 1635 and 1642 built the church of the
Sorbonne, in which he is now buried.
On the question of the relations between the tem- poral and the spiritual powers, Richelieu really pro- fes.sed the doctrine called Duvalism after the theo- logian Duvjil, who admitted at the same time the supreme power of the pope and the supreme power of the king ;ind the divine right of both. In the dis- sensions between Rome and the Gallicans he most frequently nctcd as mediator. When in 1626 a book by the Jesuit Sanct.'ircl ;tj)pe;ired in I'aris, affirming the right of the iM)pes to depose kings for wrong-doing, heresy, or incai)acity, it was burned in the Place; de Grc^ve; p'ather Coton and the lliree superiors of the Jesuit houses summoned before the Parlement, W(!re forced to nspudiate the work. The enemies of the Jesuits wished immediately to create a new disturb- ance on the occasion of the publication of the "Somme tht^ologique des v^srit^s apostoliques capitales de la re- ligion chrdticnnc", by Father Garasse, but Richelieu
