Produced by David Widger
MEMOIRS OF JEAN FRANCOIS PAUL de GONDI,
CARDINAL DE RETZ
Written by Himself
Being Historic Court Memoirs of the Great Eventsduring the Minority of Louis XIV.and the Administration of Cardinal Mazarin.
BOOK II.
MADAME:—I lay it down as a maxim, that men who enter the service of theState should make it their chief study to set out in the world with somenotable act which may strike the imagination of the people, and causethemselves to be discussed. Thus I preached first upon All Saints' Day,before an audience which could not but be numerous in a populous city,where it is a wonder to see the Archbishop in the pulpit. I began now tothink seriously upon my future conduct. I found the archbishopric sunkboth in its temporals and spirituals by the sordidness, negligence, andincapacity of my uncle. I foresaw infinite obstacles to itsreestablishment, but perceived that the greatest and most insuperabledifficulty lay in myself. I considered that the strictest morals arenecessarily required in a bishop. I felt myself the more obliged to bestrictly circumspect as my uncle had been very disorderly and scandalous.I knew likewise that my own corrupt inclinations would bear down allbefore them, and that all the considerations drawn from honour andconscience would prove very weak defences. At last I came to aresolution to go on in my sins, and that designedly, which without doubtis the more sinful in the eyes of God, but with regard to the world iscertainly the best policy, because he that acts thus always takes carebeforehand to cover part of his failings, and thereby to avoid thejumbling together of sin and devotion, than which nothing can be moredangerous and ridiculous in a clergyman. This was my disposition, whichwas not the most pious in the world nor yet the wickedest, for I wasfully determined to discharge all the duties of my profession faithfully,and exert my utmost to save other souls, though I took no care of my own.
The Archbishop, who was the weakest of mortals, was, nevertheless, by acommon fatality attending such men, the most vainglorious; he yieldedprecedence to every petty officer of the Crown, and yet in his own housewould not give the right-hand to any person of quality that came to himabout business. My behaviour was the reverse of his in almosteverything; I gave the right-hand to all strangers in my own house, andattended them even to their coach, for which I was commended by some formy civility and by others for my humility. I avoided appearing in publicassemblies among people of quality till I had established a reputation.When I thought I had done so, I took the opportunity of the sealing of amarriage contract to dispute my rank with M. de Guise. I had carefullystudied the laws of my diocese and got others to do it for me, and myright was indisputable in my own province. The precedence was adjudgedin my favour by a decree of the Council, and I found, by the great numberof gentlemen who then appeared for me, that to condescend to men of lowdegree is the surest way to equal those of the highest.
I dined almost every day with Cardinal Mazarin, who liked me the betterbecause I refused to engage myself in the cabal called "The Importants,"though many of the members were my dearest friends. M. de Beaufort, aman of very mean parts, was so much out of temper because the Queen hadput her confidence in Cardinal Mazarin, that, though her Majesty offeredhim favours with profusion, he would accept none, and affected to givehimself the airs of an angry lover. He held aloof from the Ducd'Orleans, insulted the late Prince, and, in order to suppo