Paul Philippe Hardouin de Beaumont de Péréfixe (; 1606 – 1 January 1671,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

) was a French historian and clergyman. He was

bishop of Rodez The Diocese of Rodez (–Vabres) (; French: ''Diocèse de Rodez (–Vabres)'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in France. The episcopal see is in Rodez. The diocese corresponds exactly to the Departm ...

, then archbishop of Paris.

Biography

Born at Beaumont, Vienne into a family of Neapolitan origin, he was the son of a maître d'hotel to Richelieu. he studied at the

University of Poitiers The University of Poitiers (UP; , ) is a public university located in Poitiers, France. It is a member of the Coimbra Group. It is multidisciplinary and contributes to making Poitiers the city with the highest student/inhabitant ratio in France ...

and

where he received a doctorate at the Sorbonne. In 1644 he became

preceptor A preceptor (from Latin, "''praecepto''") is a teacher responsible for upholding a ''precept'', meaning a certain law or tradition. Buddhist monastic orders Senior Buddhist monks can become the preceptors for newly ordained monks. In the Buddhi ...

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

, who also made him his

confessor In a number of Christian traditions, including Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Lutheranism and Anglicanism, a confessor is a priest who hears the confessions of penitents and pronounces absolution. History During the Diocletianic Persecut ...

. After being Abbot of Saint-Michel-en-l'Herm, he was appointed Bishop of Rodez in 1649 and he was elected member of the ''Académie française'' in 1654. In 1662, Louis XIV appointed him Archbishop of Paris, headmaster of Sorbonne, and commander of the

Order of the Holy Spirit The Order of the Holy Spirit (; sometimes translated into English as the Order of the Holy Ghost) is a French order of chivalry founded by Henry III of France in 1578. Today, it is a dynastic order under the House of France. It should not be c ...

. Engaged in the fight against Jansenism, Monseigneur de Beaumont de Perefixe published in 1664 an order "for the signature of the form of faith, drawn up in execution of the Constitutions of our Holy Fathers Popes

Innocent X Pope Innocent X (6 May 1574 – 7 January 1655), born Giovanni Battista Pamphilj (or Pamphili), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 September 1644 to his death, in January 1655. Born in Rome of a family fro ...

and

Alexander VII Pope Alexander VII (; 13 February 159922 May 1667), born Fabio Chigi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 April 1655 to his death, in May 1667. He began his career as a vice-papal legate, and he held various di ...

" which aimed to compel the nuns of Port-Royal des Champs to sign a form condemning the Jansenist theses. He travelled several times to Port-Royal, deprived the recalcitrant of the sacraments, then ordered their captivity. The affair ended in 1669 with a new ordinance "in favor of the nuns of Port-Royal des Champs" which forced them to submit. Henry de Montherlant brilliantly staged all the protagonists of this struggle in his play, ''Port-Royal''. As his reputation of intransigence seemed firmly established – it is he who prohibited the Tartuffe Molière the day after his first public performance at the Palais Royal Theater in 1667 – as Hardouin Perefixe continued to enjoy all his life in the favor of Louis XIV. After having composed for the young king a collection of Latin maxims in 1647, he wrote for him a History of King Henry the Great which appeared in 1661. The book was very widely published and is translated into many languages.

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit ...

made some praiseworthy comments on this book: "''Perefixe moves all sensible hearts, and has the memory of that prince, whose weaknesses were only those of a kind man, and whose virtues were those of a great man''." For Sainte-Beuve, Hardouin de Perefixe was "''a rather agreeable writer in his''" Life of Henry the Great, "''rather learned, rather good-natured, but without character, without elevation of soul, or any exterior dignity; he was never at the height of his high position, and in more than one case incurred ridicule''."''Nouveaux Lundis'', V, 1863.

References

External links

*
Biography at the Académie française site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hardouin De Perefixe De Beaumont 1606 births 1671 deaths University of Poitiers alumni People from Vienne (department) University of Paris alumni Bishops of Rodez Archbishops of Paris Members of the Académie Française 17th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in France French male non-fiction writers

Biography

See also

References

External links