The Political Testament of Cardinal Richelieu: The Significant Chapters and Supporting Selections

II. The Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Order (Selections)

CHAPTER 11 THE REFORMATION OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL ORDER ~ One could write whole books on the subject of the various classes of this realm.s My objective, however, is not that of most others who content themselves with describing an of the factions of a country without considering whether or not the public derives any benefit from the description. Rather, I will try to present to Your Majesty in a few words what is most important for the establishment of the well-being of all your subjects, whatever be their station. When I remember that in my youth I saw noblemen and other lay individuals hold "in confidence" 4 not only the greater part of the priories and abbeys, but also parishes and bishoprics, and when I also consider that in 8 The traditional pattern of three classes-ecclesiastics, nobles, and commoners-is followed, this chapter being concerned with the first of these. 4 A scheme by which a layman could acquire part of the income of a position in th~ church. I) 14 REFORMATION OF THE my early years of service license was so widespread in the monastic communities of both men and women that scandals and bad practices prevailed where one would expect to find only the quest for spiritual edification, I avow that I derive not a little consolation from the realization that those abuses have been abolished during your reign, and that now appointments "in confidence" and other malpractices in monastic matters are as rare as legitimate possession and good conduct were then. In order to sustain and extend this blessing, Your Majesty should, in my opinion, take great pains to fill all bishoprics with persons of both real merit and commendable habits, and to give abbeys and other simple benefices at your disposal only to candidates of recognized probity, frowning publicly on all those holding ecclesiastical positions who act licentiously and punishing in exemplary fashion those churchmen whose actions are scandalous. • • • • learning, one of the greatest adornments of nations, should be spoken of in this chapter because its achievements are to be attributed to the church, since so many ofits truths bear a natural relationship to the sacred mysteries which divine wisdom has entrusted to the care of the ecclesiastical order. Because a knowledge of letters is entirely indispensable to a country, it is cenain that they should not be indiscriminately taught to everyone. A body which had ECCLESIASTICAL ORDER IS eyes all over it would be monstrous, and in like fashion so would be a state if all its subjects were learned; one would find little obedience and an excess of pride and presumption. The commerce of letters would drive out that of goods, from which the wealth of the state is derived . It would ruin agriculture, the true nourishment of thepeople, and intime would dryup thesourceofthe soldiery , whose ranks flow more from the crudities of ignorance than from the refinements of knowledge. It would, indeed, fill France with quibblers more suited to the ruination of good families and the upsetting of public order than to doing any good for the country. H learning were profaned by extending it to all kinds of people one would see far more men capable of raising doubts than of resolving them, and many would be better able to oppose the truth than to defend it. It is for this reason that statesmen in a well-run country would wish to have as teachers more masters of mechanic arts than of liberal arts. • It seems to me, in fact, when I consider the great number of men who profess to teach and the multitude of pupils they instruct, that I see an infinite number of sick people who wish only to drink pure clear water for their cure but are pressed by a thirst so consuming that they down uncritically all that is presented to them. Most of them as aresult drink impure concoctions from what are 16 REFORMATION OF THE frequently unclean containers, thereby increasing their thirst and illness rather than assuaging either. Indeed the great number of schools ineffectively operating in so many places has given rise to two evils. One, of which I have just beenspeaking, consists of the mediocre capacity of those who teach, there being an insufficiency of candidates properly qualified to fill the available posts. The other arises from the lack of natural talent for letters among many of those whose...