Christophe de Beaumont
Antoine-Eléonore-Léon Le Clerc de Juigné | |
---|---|
Other post(s) | Archbishop of Vienne Bishop of Bayonne |
Orders | |
Ordination | 19 June 1734 by François de Crussol d’Uzès |
Consecration | 24 December 1741 by Louis-Jacques Chapt de Rastignac |
Personal details | |
Born | |
Died | 12 December 1781 Paris, France | (aged 78)
Nationality | French |
Coat of arms |
Christophe de Beaumont du Repaire (26 July 1703 – 12 December 1781) was a
History
The Struggle Against Jansenism
Beaumont is noted for his struggle with the Jansenists. To force them to accept the bull Unigenitus (1713) which condemned their doctrines, he ordered the priests of his diocese to withhold sacraments from those who would not recognize the bull, and to deny funeral rites to those who had confessed to a Jansenist priest.[1] This measure had severe, damning implications for Jansenists, provoking widespread outcry against such intolerance from the Jansenists themselves, the Philosophes, the parlements, and the larger public.[citation needed]
While other bishops sent Beaumont their adhesion to his crusade, the
To his polemic against the Jansenists he added an attack on the philosophes, and issued a formal mandatory letter condemning
Defending the Authority of the Church
Archbishop de Beaumont was a forthright and powerful voice in defence of Church authority and an opponent of anything that he saw as undermining it. This often put him at odds with statesmen and thinkers alike. He was strongly opposed to the project of
In 1762 the Society of Jesus was suppressed in France, and de Beaumont realised that if the king and the Parlements were able to take such a drastic step the Church itself was in potential danger. In October 1763 he published a pastoral instruction condemning the encroachment of civil authority upon the spiritual. The Parlement of Paris responded by ordering the public hangman to burn the book and summoned the Archbishop to appear before it. Louis XV, anxious to avoid a major confrontation, once again banished de Beaumont from his diocese.[9]
On 21 July 1773 the international campaign against the Jesuit Order reached the point where Pope
‘This brief which destroys the Company of Jesus is nothing other than an isolated and particular judgement, pernicious, reflecting little honour on the Papal tiara and deleterious to the glory of the Church and to the glory and propagation of the orthodox (i.e. Catholic) faith….. Holy Father, it is not possible for me to commit the Clergy to the acceptance of the said brief. I would not be heard on this point were I wretch enough to lend my ministry to it, which I should be dishonouring.’ [10]
De Beaumont's Mandements, lettres et instructions pastorales were published in two volumes in 1780, the year before his death.[1]
Notes
- ^ a b c d e Chisholm 1911.
- ^ Saint-Amand, Imbert de (1900). The Court of Louis XV. Femmes de Versailles.English. Translated by Elizabeth Gilbert Martin. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 196.
- ^ Saint-Amand (1900) p.197
- ^ Saint-Amand (1900) p.199
- ^ Saint-Amand (1900) p.200
- ^ Blom, Philipp, Encyclopedie, the Triumph of Reason in an Unreasonable Age Fourth Estate, London 2004 p. 155
- ^ Pevitt Algrant, Christine, Madame de Pompadour, Harper Collins, London 2003 p.137
- ^ Mitford, Nancy, Madame de Pompadour, Hamish Hamilton Ltd. 1972 p.175
- ISBN 1887178058.
- ^ Lacouture (1995) p.298
References
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Beaumont, Christophe de". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 591. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the