Ch. 12: Madame de Maintenon as a Political Woman, Pt. 2

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section seventeen of Women of Versailles, The Court of Louis
the fourteenth by artou Leon Ambert de Saint Ament, translated
by Elizabeth Gilbert Martin. This librovox recording is in the
public domain. Read by Pamel and Agami, Chapter twelve, Madame
de mantineand as a political woman, Part two to sum

(00:25):
up what is the chief accusation brought against Louis the
fourteenth His wars, his passion for luxury, his religious fanaticism.
How can this triple accusation weigh upon Madame de Mantinean,
For far from urging him to war, she always desired
peace ardently. I long after peace, she wrote in sixteen

(00:48):
eighty four. I shall never give the King any councils
prejudicial to his glory. But if he would believe me,
he would be less dazzled with this a claw of victory,
and would think more seriously of his salvation. But it
is not my business to govern the state. I ask
God daily to inspire and direct the Master, and make

(01:10):
him know the truth unfavorable to her as he is.
Monsieur Michelet nevertheless owns that she profoundly regretted the War
of the succession in Spain. He says that the only
ones who retained good sense, old Mantenau and the sickly Beauvilliers,
saw with terror that they were plunging into the frightful enterprise,

(01:34):
which was going to swallow up everything. Just as she
allowed a written decision for the revocation of the Edict
of Nantes to be extorted from her, so she yielded.
She submitted for the succession. She was no fonder of
luxury than of war. Living with extreme simplicity herself, she

(01:55):
sought to deter Louis the fourteenth from magnificent constructions and
ostentacious displays of pride. According to Mademoiselle d'mardles, the confidant
of her good works, she reproached herself on account of
her modest personal expenses. She never bought a new gown
until it was absolutely needed, and then said, I am

(02:17):
taking that away from the poor. My position has many
unpleasant sides, but it procures me the pleasure of giving.
And yet as it prevents me from lacking anything, and
as I can never encroach upon my necessaries, all my
alms are a sort of luxury, good and permissible. It

(02:37):
is true, but devoid of merit. Madame de Mantineau not
only counted for nothing in the luxury of Louis the fourteenth.
She not merely never ceased recalling him to ideas truly Christian,
but she incessantly pleaded the cause of the people, whose
wretchedness she pitied, while she admired their resignation, never allowing

(03:01):
herself to be elated by the incense burned at her
feet as well as at those of Louis the fourteenth.
She had neither those bursts of pride, that thirst for riches,
nor that eagerness for domination, which one finds in the
lives of nearly all favorites. She was indifferent to jewels,
rich stuffs, and costly furniture, even in her youth and

(03:24):
amidst the infatuation excited by her beauty. Her mind had
been her chief adornment, and she had never been dazzled
by exterior display. No prodigality is connected with her name.
The chief complaint formulated against Madame de Maintenon by certain
historians is the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. They

(03:47):
load her with anathemas as if she alone were responsible
for that fatal measure. Forgetting that it was during his
passion for Mademoiselle de Fontane that Louis the fourteenth began
to take rigorous legislative proceedings against the Protestants. They attribute
the persecution to the hypocritical zeal of a narrow devotion

(04:09):
inspired by Madame de Manteneau alone. On the contrary, the
revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which we are very
far from approving, was one may say, coursed on the
king by public opinion. As has been remarked by Monsieur
Theophia la Valais, those of the Reformed Church preserved toward

(04:31):
the government the attitude of children in disgrace, and toward
the Catholics that of disdainful enemies. They persisted in their isolation.
They continued their correspondence with their friends in England and Holland. France,
said Monsieur Michelee, found a Holland in her own bosom

(04:51):
which was rejoicing at the success of the other one.
To recall the dissidence to unity was the fixed idea
of Louis the fourteenth. This, as was said at the time,
would be the meritorious work and proper characteristic of his reign.
The assembly of the clergy, the Parliament of Toulouse, the
Catholics of the south of France had urgently solicited the revocation.

(05:17):
When the decree appeared, there was an explosion of enthusiasm.
Whatever Saint Simon may say, a court of Rome testified
an extreme joy. Innocent the eleventh hastened to address a
brief to Louis the fourteenth, thanking him in the name
of the church. He caused the canon of Castle Saint

(05:37):
Angelo to be fired, and held a papal chapel at
which the Taidean was chanted. The Duc d'Estree, French ambassador
to the Holy See, wrote to the king. His holiness
said to me that what Charlemagne had done was nothing
in comparison to what has just been accomplished by your majesty,
That there was nothing so great, and that no example

(06:00):
of a similar action could be found. Chancellor le Tellier,
intoning the canticle of Simeon, died, saying that he had
nothing left to wish for after this final act of
his long ministry. Bassuet rose to lyrical transports, delay not
to publish this miracle of our own days, pass on

(06:22):
the story to future ages. Take up your sacred pens, ye,
who compose the annals of the church, touched by so
many marvels, Let our hearts dilate over the piety of Louis.
Lift even to Heaven our acclamations, and say to this
new Constantine, this new Theodosius, this new Charlemagne, what the

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six hundred and thirty fathers said of old in the
councils of Chalcedon. You have consolidated the faith. You have
exterminated the heretics. San Simon, who blames the revocation with
so much elek quince, avows that Louis the fourteenth was
convinced of having performed a holy action. The monarch has

(07:08):
never thought himself so great in the sight of men,
nor so far advanced in the sight of God. In
the reparation of the sins and scandals of his life,
he heard nothing but eulogies, Madame de Savignier wrote, October eighth,
sixteen eighty five. Never has any king done, nor ever

(07:29):
will do so memorable a thing. Rolin la Fontaine Labriere
displayed as much enthusiasm as Fenelon, Massillon and Flechier. These
lines by Madame de Julier reflect the general impression. Ah
pour sauvetan peurple e pour la fois suctu veen a

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fair eotic sus de lamme dequelgegrandames conte nomme mon tabees
nes plu d'as si grand nod pourtois ah, to save
thy people and to avenge the faith. What hast thou
just done is above the power of man. By whatever
great names they name, thee, thou art a bast no

(08:15):
name henceforth is great enough for THEE. Doubtless, Madame de
Mantinant allowed herself to be carried away by the unanimous
sentiment of the Catholic world. But it was assuredly not
she who took the initiative. Voltaire recognizes this when he
says one sees by her letters that she did not
urge the revocation of Nantes, but that she did not

(08:38):
oppose it. In the letter of September fourth, sixteen seventy eight,
she writes concerning abjurations which were insincere. I am indignant
at such conversions. The state of those who abjure without
being truly Catholics is infamous. We read in the note
des Dame de Saint Cyr. Madame de Mante, while desiring

(09:01):
with all her heart the reunion of the Huguenot to
the Church, would have desired that it might rather be
by the way of persuasion and gentleness. And she told
us that the King, who was very zealous, would have
liked to see her more eager than she seemed, and
that he said to her, on this account, I fear, Madame,

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lest the consideration you wish shown to the Huguenot may
be the result of some remaining bias towards your former religion.
Phenelon himself, who was represented as the apostle of Tolerance,
approved the principle of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes,
though no sovereign said he may require interior belief in

(09:45):
religious matters from his subjects. He may prevent the public
exercise or the profession of opinions or ceremonies which disturb
the peace of the commonwealth by the diversity and multiplicity
of sex. Such was also the opinion of Madame de Maintenon,
but Protestant writers themselves have recognized that she blamed the

(10:08):
employment of force. It is the historian of the French
refugees in Brandenburg who says, let us do her justice.
She never counseled the violent means that were used. She
abhorred persecutions, and those that were practiced were concealed from her.
Madame de Maintenon was essentially moderate, both in religion and

(10:30):
in politics. Her counsels counted for something in the Declaration
of December thirteenth, sixteen ninety eight, which, while maintaining the
revocation of the Edict of Nantes, established a toleration which
lasted until the end of the reign. Let us be
on our guard. Moreover, against sharing the gross error of

(10:52):
those who behold servitude in Catholicism and liberty in Protestantism.
Luther recommended the extermination of Anabaptists. Calvin executed Michael Cervites,
Jacques Brune, and Valentine Genti for heresy. The inhumanities of
Louis the fourteenth toward Protestants did not equal those of

(11:15):
William of Orange against Catholics. The English laws were of
draconian severity. Any Catholic priest residing in England who had not,
after three days embraced the Anglican cult was liable to
the penalty of death, and nowadays they 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 up, whether the revocation of the
Edict of Nant or any other act of the Great
reign is in question, Madame de Maintenon did not play
the odious part which has been attributed to her by Calumny.

(11:57):
We do not believe she ever outstepped the limits of
that legitimate influence which a devoted an intelligent woman usually
exercises over her husband. If she was often mistaken, at
least she was mistaken in good faith. The real Madame
de Mantonau is not the mischievous, malicious, crafty, and vindictive

(12:18):
bigot imagined by certain writers. She is a pious and
reasonable woman, animated by the noblest intentions, loving France, sincerely,
sympathizing deeply with the sufferings of the people, detesting war,
respecting right injustice, austere in her tastes, moderate in her opinions,

(12:42):
irreproachable in her conduct. Speaking of the accord which existed
between her and the group of truly religious great nobles,
Monsieur MICHELI has said, let us regard this little group
as a convent in the midst of the court, a
convent conspiring for the amelioration of the king. In general,

(13:03):
it is the converted court. What is fine, very fine
in this party, What constitutes its honorable bond, is the
edifying reconciliation of mortal enemies. The Duchesse, the Bethune Schahrost,
daughter of Fouquet, the man whom Colbert imprisoned for twenty years,

(13:25):
became the friend almost the sister the three daughters of
her father's persecutor. Such were the sentiments which Madame de
Mantainon knew how to inspire. Every morning and night she said,
from the depths of her soul, this prayer which she
had composed, Lord, grant me to gladden the king, to

(13:47):
console him, to encourage him, to sadden him. Also, when
it must be for thy glory, cause me to hide
from him nothing which he ought to know through me,
and which no one else would have the courage to
tell him. No, there was nothing hypocritical in such piety,
And the companion of Louis the fourteenth was sincere. When

(14:07):
she said to Madame de Clapion I should like to
die before the King, I would go to God. I
would cast myself at the foot of his throne. I
would offer him the desires of a soul that he
would have purified. I would pray him to grant the
King greater lights, more love for his people, more knowledge

(14:28):
of the state of the provinces, more aversion for the
perfidy of the courtiers, more horror of the ways in
which his authority is abused. And God would hear my
prayers and of Section seventeen