Nicolas Caussin (1583– July 2, 1651) was a French

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, orator; and for a time, confessor to King Louis XIII of France. His treatise, ''The Holy Court'', a guide for courtiers in living a Christian life, was published in 1624. Caussin was removed from his position as royal confessor after only nine months and exiled to Quimper when his spiritual counsel seemed to clash with Cardinal Richelieu's political policies.

Life

Caussin was born in

Troyes Troyes () is a commune and the capital of the department of Aube in the Grand Est region of north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about south-east of Paris. Troyes is situated within the Champagne wine region and is near to ...

, the son of a physician. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1609. He taught at

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...

, La Flèche, and Paris, and became a noted orator. Famous for his 1624 ''La Cour saincte'', in March 1637,

Cardinal Richelieu Armand Jean du Plessis, Duke of Richelieu (; 9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642), known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a French clergyman and statesman. He was also known as ''l'Éminence rouge'', or "the Red Eminence", a term derived from the ...

chose Caussin for the position of Louis XIII's confessor; and at the same time admonished him to stay out of politics. France and Spain had been at war since 1635. In the summer of 1637, Richelieu ordered an inquiry into secret communications between Anne of Austria and her brother, Philip IV of Spain. The queen had been a long-time opponent of the Cardinal. While her household was replaced by people loyal to the king and cardinal, Caussin's counsel was crucial in obtaining royal clemency for the queen. He encouraged the king to honor his conjugal obligations and after twenty years of marriage and four miscarriages, an heir, Louis XIV, was born the following September.Bailey, Donald A. Ph.D. (2008) "Power and Piety: The Religiosity of Michel de Marillac," Vincentian Heritage Journal: Vol. 28 : Iss. 1 , Article 3. n.3
/ref> As a conscientious and rigorous spiritual director, Caussin drew the king's attention to his strained relations with his mother; the damage caused by France's policies not only in France but in Christendom, the destruction caused by the country's wars, and the high taxes levied to fight them.Bergin, Joseph. ''The Politics of Religion in Early Modern France', Yale University Press, 2014, p. 102
/ref> In particular, he maintained that the war with Catholic Spain was against God's will. In December of that same year, Richelieu exiled Caussin to Quimper.Cassidy, John. "Nicolas Caussin." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 24 May 2021 Caussin returned to Paris in 1643, following the death of Richelieu. When the Jesuits attacked the Jansenists as heretics similar to Calvinists, Antoine Arnauld wrote in defense the ''Théologie morale des Jésuites'' (Moral Theology of Jesuits), which denounced the "relaxed moral" of Jesuit casuistry. Caussin was charged by his order with the task of writing a defense against Arnauld's book. ''Réponse au libelle intitulé La Théologie morale des Jésuites'' was issued in 1644. According to Sellier, due to his rigorism and to the formulations in those books justifying the "relaxed moral" concerning confession, the public generally considered that he had written against his thought by fidelity to his jesuit order. Caussin became confessor to Louis, Grand Condé. He died July 2, 1651. Jansenist Antoine Arnauld said that the reason for Caussin's fall from grace was that he spoke against the efficacy of

Imperfect contrition In Christianity, contrition or contriteness (, i.e. crushed by guilt) is repentance for sins one has committed. The remorseful person is said to be ''contrite''. A central concept in much of Christianity, contrition is regarded as the first step ...

. This cause was re-asserted by Philippe Sellier and Gérard Ferreyrolles in their 2004 edition of

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 ...

's works.Pascal, ''Les Provinciales - Pensées et opuscules divers'', Lgf/Le Livre de poche, La Pochothèque, 2004, edited by Philippe Sellier & Gérard Ferreyrolles (note p.427)

Works

* ''De Eloquentia sacra et humana'' * ''Tragœdiae sacrae'', 1620. * "De symbolica Aegyptiorum sapientia", 1623. * ''La Cour sainte'' * ''Apologie pour les religieux de la Compagnie de Jésus, à la reine régente'', 1644. * ''Réponse au libelle intitulé La Théologie morale des Jésuites'', 1644. * https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Caussin%2C%20Nicolas%2C%201583%2D1651

Bibliography

* G.-D. Hocking: ''A Study of the 'Tragœdiae sacrae' of Father Caussin'', Baltimore, 1943.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Caussin, Nicolas 1583 births 1651 deaths People from Troyes 17th-century French Jesuits 17th-century French Catholic theologians