Francois Fenelon

François Fénelon was a prominent French Catholic archbishop, theologian, poet and writer in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. He was born into a noble family in the Dordogne region of France and received a classical education at the University of Cahors and the Collège du Plessis in Paris. He was ordained as a priest in 1676 and became involved in the conversion of Protestants to Catholicism after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. He also founded a school for girls and wrote a treatise on the education of women. In 1689, he was appointed as the tutor of the Duke of Burgundy, the grandson and heir of King Louis XIV. He wrote several works for the instruction of the young prince, including Fables, Dialogues of the Dead, and The Adventures of Telemachus, a novel that criticized the absolutism and wars of Louis XIV. In 1695, he was made the Archbishop of Cambrai, a diocese in northern France. He became involved in a controversy over Quietism, a mystical movement that advocated a passive and simple way of prayer and spirituality. He befriended Madame Guyon, a leading Quietist writer, and defended her teachings against the attacks of Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, the Bishop of Meaux and a powerful theologian. Fénelon's views were condemned by Pope Innocent XII in 1699 and he was forced to submit and retire to his diocese. He spent his last years in Cambrai, where he continued to write on various topics such as education, morality, politics, and religion. He died in 1715 at the age of 63. Fénelon is regarded as one of the most eloquent and influential writers of his time. His works have been praised for their style, wisdom, and humanism. He is also remembered as a champion of tolerance, reform, and liberty. He influenced many thinkers and leaders such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson.