Nicolas-Pierre-Henri de Montfaucon de Villars (1635 or 1638 –1673), the abbot of Villars, also known as Henri de Montfaucon de Villars, was a French

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...

and writer in the 17th century. The "Nicolas-Pierre" (attributed to it only since the beginning of the 20^th Century) are not attested by any

ancient Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian language, Sumerian c ...

source and come from unsubstantiated assumptions.

Biography

Coming from a noble family, Montfaucon de Villars was born in the diocese of

Alet-les-Bains Alet-les-Bains (; ''Alet'' in Occitan, formerly spelt ''Aleth'') is a commune in the Aude department in the Occitanie region in southern France. Geography Alet-les-Bains is located near a hot springs in Aude in the south of France. The vill ...

, in the upper

Aude Aude (; ) is a Departments of France, department in Southern France, located in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region and named after the river Aude (river), Aude. The departmental council also calls it "Ca ...

valley. Nothing specific is known about his studies and his beginnings, except that he was Father of Christian doctrine and had to teach as such in the colleges of this congregation, that is to say in the province

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

, or in that of Paris. Condemned to the wheel by the

Parliament of Toulouse The Parliament of Toulouse (french: Parlement de Toulouse) was one of the ''parlements'' of the Kingdom of France, established in the city of Toulouse. It was modelled on the Parliament of Paris. It was first created in 1420, but definitely estab ...

in 1669 with three of his brothers in a family vendetta affair, he went up to Paris, certainly to escape this sentence, and frequented various somewhat libertine scholars, but evolved especially in the circle of

Jansenists Jansenism was an early modern theological movement within Catholicism, primarily active in the Kingdom of France, that emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. It was declared a heresy by ...

and friends of Port-Royal, through his cousin Jean-François de Montfaucon de La Péjan. He begins a career as a worldly

(he then takes the title of Abbot of Villars without being formally

or receiving any

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

benefit, adopting the name of a land which came to him from his father) and embarks on the literature, successively publishing a satire against the "secret sciences" ('' Le Comte de Gabalis'', November 1670) and a ''Critique de Bérénice'' (early 1671) in which he attacks Racine and Corneille. But his spikes against the

in '' Le Comte de Gabalis'' (deliberate attacks or simple blunders) lead

Antoine Arnauld Antoine Arnauld (6 February 16128 August 1694) was a French Catholic theologian, philosopher and mathematician. He was one of the leading intellectuals of the Jansenist group of Port-Royal and had a very thorough knowledge of patristics. Contem ...

to have the work banned as soon as March 1671, to ban Montfaucon de Villars from preaching and to ruin his reputation with the important families of the nobility he frequented. Montfaucon de Villars takes revenge on passing to the enemy: he defends a

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

, Father Bourhous, against the

in his treatise ''De la Délicatesse'' (September 1671), attacking in particular the writers of Port-Royal and the ''

Pensées The ''Pensées'' ("Thoughts") is a collection of fragments written by the French 17th-century philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal. Pascal's religious conversion led him into a life of asceticism, and the ''Pensées'' was in many ways his ...

'' by

Pascal Pascal, Pascal's or PASCAL may refer to: People and fictional characters * Pascal (given name), including a list of people with the name * Pascal (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name ** Blaise Pascal, Fren ...

. It was certainly Antoine Arnauld who then published in Paris the judgment of the

in 1669 condemning Montfaucon de Villars and his brothers to death "for crimes of murder and fire", thus making public an infamous condemnation which had not been known outside the purview of the Toulouse Parliament. His career was then ruined: nothing left his pen until his death. He died assassinated on the road to

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

in 1673 at the hands of one of his cousins, Pierre de Terroüil, caught up in the family vendetta whose gear had led him to leave

Languedoc The Province of Languedoc (; , ; oc, Lengadòc ) is a former province of France. Most of its territory is now contained in the modern-day region of Occitanie in Southern France. Its capital city was Toulouse. It had an area of approximately ...

Works

Montfaucon de Villars is especially famous for his work '' The Count of Gabalis, or Interviews on the Secret Sciences'' (1670) where he gives a tasty parody of

magic Magic or Magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces * Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic * Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...

astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of Celestial o ...

alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...

divination Divination (from Latin ''divinare'', 'to foresee, to foretell, to predict, to prophesy') is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Used in various forms throughout histor ...

and what he calls "the Holy Cabal", which is none other than the

doctrine Doctrine (from la, doctrina, meaning "teaching, instruction") is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given branch of knowledge or in a belief system ...

Paracelsus Paracelsus (; ; 1493 – 24 September 1541), born Theophrastus von Hohenheim (full name Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim), was a Swiss physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance. He w ...

on elementary spirits, so called because they populate the four elements: "The air is full of an innumerable multitude of peoples he sylphsof human figure, a little proud in appearance, but docile indeed: great lovers of science, subtle, unofficial to the wise, and enemies of the fools and the ignorant their wives and their daughters are male beauties, such as one depicts the Amazons … Know that the seas and the rivers are inhabited as well as the air* the ancient Sages named this species of people waving or nymphs … The earth is filled almost to the center of gnomes, people of small stature, guardians of treasures, mines and precious stones… As for Salamanders, flaming inhabitants of the region of fire, they serve philosophers ..."(p. 169–171). The work, witness and actor of the vogue of

rationalism In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification".Lacey, A.R. (1996), ''A Dictionary of Philosophy' ...

and

libertinism A libertine is a person devoid of most moral principles, a sense of responsibility, or sexual restraints, which they see as unnecessary or undesirable, and is especially someone who ignores or even spurns accepted morals and forms of behaviour ob ...

, aims both to discredit the "secret sciences" and to ruin belief in the

Devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...

, because all the actions usually attributed to the

(

possession Possession may refer to: Law * Dependent territory, an area of land over which another country exercises sovereignty, but which does not have the full right of participation in that country's governance * Drug possession, a crime * Ownership * ...

oracle An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The word '' ...

s of the

pagans Pagans may refer to: * Paganism, a group of pre-Christian religions practiced in the Roman Empire * Modern Paganism, a group of contemporary religious practices * Order of the Vine, a druidic faction in the ''Thief'' video game series * Pagan's ...

pacts The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) is a registered charity. For much of its history, it was also an All-party parliamentary group of the UK parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legisla ...

with

Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as Devil in Christianity, the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an non-physical entity, entity in the Abrahamic religions ...

, sorcerer's

sabbath In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest, as G ...

, etc.) are here related to the harmless action of

sylph A sylph (also called sylphid) is an air spirit stemming from the 16th-century works of Paracelsus, who describes sylphs as (invisible) beings of the air, his elementals of air. A significant number of subsequent literary and occult works have be ...

gnome A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characte ...

nymph A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ty ...

s or

salamanders Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All ten ...

, and the book hammers down the idea that the

has no power in this world. This book, written in a clear and removed style, full of

irony Irony (), in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what on the surface appears to be the case and what is actually the case or to be expected; it is an important rhetorical device and literary technique. Irony can be categorized into ...

and charm in its form of half-philosophical half-

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

dialogues, met with real bookstore success. His call to a certain marvelous completely renewed this genre. Its influence was lastingly exercised in literature, and it is clearly one of the springs of the discredit of

and

in France at the end of the 17^th Century.

Bibliography

Works

* The Count of Gabalis, or Interviews on the Secret Sciences, Paris, Claude Barbin, 1670. rchive * La Critique de Bérénice, Paris, Louis Billaine, Michel Le Petit and Étienne Michallet, 1671, 2 vol. * De la Délicatesse, Paris, Claude Barbin, 1671.

Studies

* Max Milner, The Devil in French Literature: From Cazotte to Beaudelaire, 1772–1861, José Corti Bookstore, Paris, 1960. * Roger Laufer, Introduction to the Count of Gabalis, or interviews on the secret sciences, Nizet, Paris, 1963. * Dominique Descotes, The first criticism of Pensées. Text and commentary of the fifth dialogue of the Treatise on the Delicacy of Father de Villars (1671), CNRS, Paris, 1980. * Antony McKenna, From Pascal to Voltaire. The role of Pascal's "Thoughts" in the history of ideas between 1670 and 1734, The Voltaire Foundation, Oxford, 1990. * Jean Lesaulnier, unusual Port-Royal. Critical edition of the "Collection of various things" , Klincksieck, Paris, 1992. * Antony McKenna, "Ménage et Bouhours", in I. Leroy-Turcan and TR Wooldridge (ed.), Gilles Ménage (1613–1692), grammarian and lexicographer: the influence of his linguistic work, SIEHLDA, Lyon, 1995, p. 121–139 Household and Bouhours rchive . * Philippe Sellier, "The invention of a marvelous: The Count of Gabalis (1670)", in A. Becq, Ch. Porset and A. Mothu (ed.), Amicitia scriptor. Literature, history of ideas, philosophy. Mixtures offered to Robert Mauzi, Champion, Paris, 1998, p. 53–62. * Philippe Sellier, "A Paschal palimpsest: The Count of Gabalis (1670)", in Ph. Sellier, Port-Royal and literature, Champion, Paris, 1999, t. I, p. 185–191. * Michel Delon, Sylphes et sylphides, Desjonquères, Paris, 1999. * Noémie Courtès, The Writing of Enchantment. Magic and magicians in 17th century French literature, Champion, Paris, 2004. * The Count of Gabalis, or Interviews on the Secret Sciences (1670), ed. by Didier Kahn, Paris, Honoré Champion, 2010. * Jean-François Perrin, "Henri de Montfaucon de Villars", Féeries, n ° 10, 2013, p. 273–278. *

References

*D. Kahn, préface à Le Comte de Gabalis, 2010, p. 15. Document utilisé pour la rédaction de l’article : document utilisé comme source pour la rédaction de cet article. *Le Comte de Gabalis, ou Entretiens sur les sciences secrètes (1670), éd. par Didier Kahn, Paris, Honoré Champion, 2010.

Biography

Works

Bibliography

Works

Studies

References

See also