Memoirs of Louis XIV and His Court and of the Regency — Volume 02 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 122 pages of information about Memoirs of Louis XIV and His Court and of the Regency — Volume 02.

Memoirs of Louis XIV and His Court and of the Regency — Volume 02 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 122 pages of information about Memoirs of Louis XIV and His Court and of the Regency — Volume 02.
house of the Duke of Parma, at eight leagues from Rome.  He addressed himself to Pere la Chaise, because M. de Torcy, to whom he had previously written, had been forbidden to open his letters, and had sent him word to that effect.  Having, too, been always on the best of terms with the Jesuits, he hoped for good assistance from Pere la Chaise.  But he found this door closed like that of M. de Torcy.  Pere la Chaise wrote to Cardinal de Bouillon that he too was prohibited from opening his letters.  At the same time a new order was sent to the Cardinal to set out immediately.  Just after he had read it Cardinal Cibo died, and the Cardinal de Bouillon hastened at once to Rome to secure the doyenship, writing to the King to say that he had done so, that he would depart in twenty-four hours, and expressing a hope that this delay would not be refused him.  This was laughing at the King and his orders, and becoming doyen in spite of him.  The King, therefore, displayed his anger immediately he learnt this last act of disobedience.  He sent word immediately to M. de Monaco to command the Cardinal de Bouillon to surrender his charge of grand chaplain, to give up his cordon bleu, and to take down the arms of France from the door of his palace; M. de Monaco was also ordered to prohibit all French people in Rome from seeing Cardinal de Bouillon, or from having any communication with him.  M. de Monaco, who hated the Cardinal, hastened willingly to obey these instructions.  The Cardinal appeared overwhelmed, but he did not even then give in.  He pretended that his charge of grand chaplain was a crown office, of which he could not be dispossessed, without resigning.  The King, out of all patience with a disobedience so stubborn and so marked, ordered, by a decree in council, on the 12th September, the seizure of all the Cardinal’s estates, laical and ecclesiastical, the latter to be confiscated to the state, the former to be divided into three portions, and applied to various uses.  The same day the charge of grand chaplain was given to Cardinal Coislin, and that of chief chaplain to the Bishop of Metz.  The despair of the Cardinal de Bouillon, on hearing of this decree, was extreme.  Pride had hitherto hindered him from believing that matters would be pushed so far against him.  He sent in his resignation only when it was no longer needed of him.  His order he would not give up.  M. de Monaco warned him that, in case of refusal, he had orders to snatch it from his neck.  Upon this the Cardinal saw the folly of holding out against the orders of the King.  He quitted then the marks of the order, but he was pitiful enough to wear a narrow blue ribbon, with a cross of gold attached, under his cassock, and tried from time to time to show a little of the blue.  A short time afterwards, to make the best of a bad bargain, he tried to persuade himself and others, that no cardinal was at liberty to wear the orders of any prince.  But it was rather late in the day to think of this, after having worn the order of the King for thirty years, as grand chaplain; and everybody thought so, and laughed at the idea.

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Memoirs of Louis XIV and His Court and of the Regency — Volume 02 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.