my proselyte. As I was then but twenty-six years
of age, this made a great deal of noise, and among
other effects, was productive of one that had not the
least connection with its cause, which I shall mention
after I have done justice to a civility I received
from my antagonist in one of the conferences.
I had the advantage of him in the fifth meeting, relating
to the spiritual vocation; but in the sixth, treating
of the Pope’s authority, I was confounded, because,
to avoid embroiling myself with the Court of Rome,
I answered him on principles which are not so easy
to be maintained as those of the Sorbonne. My
opponent perceived the concern I was under, and generously
forebore to urge such passages as would have obliged
me to explain myself in a manner disagreeable to the
Pope’s Nuncio. I thought it extremely
obliging, and as we were going out thanked him in
the presence of M. de Turenne; to which he answered,
very civilly, that it would have been a piece of injustice
to hinder the Abbe de Retz from being made a cardinal.
This was such complaisance as you are not to expect
from every Geneva pedant. I told you before that
this conference produced one effect very different
from its cause, and it is this: Madame de Vendome,
of whom you have heard, without doubt, took such a
fancy to me ever after, that a mother could not have
been more tender. She had been at the conference
too, though I am very well assured she understood
nothing of the matter; but the favourable opinion she
had of me was owing to the Bishop of Lisieux, her
spiritual director, who, finding I was disposed to
follow my profession, which out of his great love
to me he most passionately desired, made it his business
to magnify the few good qualities I was master of;
and I am thoroughly persuaded that what applause I
had then in the world was chiefly owing to his encouragement,
for there was not a man in France whose approbation
could give so much honour. His sermons had advanced
him from a very mean and foreign extraction (which
was Flemish) to the episcopal dignity, which he adorned
with solid and unaffected piety. His disinterestedness
was far beyond that of the hermits or anchorites.
He had the courage of Saint Ambrose, and at Court
and in the presence of the King he so maintained his
usual freedom that the Cardinal de Richelieu, who had
been his scholar in divinity, both reverenced and
feared him. This good man had that abundant
kindness for me that he read me lectures thrice a week
upon Saint Paul’s Epistles, and he designed
also the conversion of M. de Turenne and to give me
the honour of it.
M. de Turenne had a great respect for him, whereof he gave him very, distinguishing marks. The Comte de Brion, whom, I believe, you may remember under the title of Duc d’Amville, was deeply in love with Mademoiselle de Vendome, since Madame de Nemours; and, besides, he was a great favourite of M. de Turenne, who, to do him a pleasure and to give him the more opportunities to see Mademoiselle