Fabio Brûlart de Sillery

Fabio Brûlart de Sillery

Fabio Brûlart de Sillery (born October 25, 1655 in Le Grand-Pressigny , † November 20, 1714 in Paris ) was a French Catholic bishop and poet who became a member of the Académie française in 1705 .

Life

Fabio Brûlart de Sillery was the sixth son of Louis-Roger Brûlart, Marquis of Sillery (* 1619 - 19 March 1691 in Liancourt), and Marie-Catherine de La Rochefoucauld († 7 March 1698), daughter of Duke François V. de La Rochefoucauld. He was born on October 22 or 25, 1655 (the details differ) at the Château de Pressigny in Touraine . His godfather was the Apostolic Nuncio Celio Piccolomini , who gave the child the name of the ruling Pope, Alexander VII (Fabio Chigi).

Intended for a religious career, Brulart received in 1670 the Abbey of Saint-Michel de Tonnerre in Coming , he five years later with his uncle François-Nicolas Brulart de Sillery exchanged against the Abbey Lespau in the diocese of Mans. He also owned the abbeys of Pelice (La Plisse) in the same diocese and Saint-Bâle in the diocese of Reims. In 1681 he received his doctorate in theology from the Paris faculty and received a canon position at the Notre-Dame cathedral.

Appointed Bishop of Avranches on June 10, 1689 , after a few months he exchanged his diocese with Pierre Daniel Huet , who had been appointed Bishop of Soissons . The exchange took place in October 1689, Brûlart was due to the differences between the French government and St. Chair (→ Gallicanism ) but only preconceived in the consistory of January 9, 1692 and finally consecrated on March 23, 1692 in the house chapel of the Jesuits in Paris by Archbishop Charles-Maurice Le Tellier of Reims. On September 14, 1692, the new prelate took possession of his diocese personally and on October 11, 1693, he preached to the cathedral chapter in Reims. On November 1, 1693, he received the Gard Abbey in Coming.

In the hungry winter of 1693/94, Bishop Brûlart had so many alms distributed that no one had to starve to death. In 1694 he sent the protocol of the solemn anointing of the king of Louis XIV compiled by his predecessor Simon Le Gras to the Metropolitan of Reims and the other bishops of the ecclesiastical province . This document, in which he conclusively stated that if the Archbishop of Reims were unable to do so, the Bishop of Soissons would have the right to anoint the French king, brought him a sharp protest from the dignitaries and the cathedral chapter of Reims, who took this point of view that no stranger may perform ecclesiastical functions in Reims Cathedral without their consent . The protocol and the protestations appeared in print in 1697 and were reprinted in 1717 as Le sacre et couronnement de Louis XIV, roi de France et de Navarre (Reims: Jacques Chardon, 1717).

In 1695, on behalf of the National Assembly of the French clergy, Bishop Brûlart gave a welcoming address to King James II of England, who had fled to France before the Glorious Revolution . He was able to receive King Louis XIV several times in his episcopal palace and also accompanied him to the battlefield in Compiègne . During this time he also laid the foundation stone for the Dominican Church there, founded by Duke Philipp von Anjou , who later became King of Spain, and received the Valsery Abbey for the episcopal cafeteria, which had been greatly reduced by several foundations from his predecessors. He also received significant endowments for his cathedral church. He had the episcopal palace enlarged and embellished, supported the episcopal seminary with completed benefices from the chapter of Mont-Notre-Dame and donated several grants from his private fortune for destitute candidates for priesthood in his diocese. He also built a new small seminary and set up several charitable institutions.

In 1694 he published a ritual, in 1696 a catechism, 1700 synodal statutes and a new breviary.

On February 12, 1705, he succeeded Étienne Pavillon as a member of the Académie française , where he took the seventh armchair (Fauteuil 7). He was also an honorary member of the Académie royale des Inscriptions et Médailles and the Academy of Soissons . In addition to his episcopal activity, he also wrote a number of poems .

Bishop Brûlart died in Paris in 1714 and was buried in Soissons Cathedral.

literature

• Honoré Fisquet : La France pontificale (" Gallia Christiana ") . Paris, Repos, 1864-1871.
• Jean, Armand: Les Évêques et les archevêques de France depuis 1682 jusqu'à 1801. - Paris [et al.]: Picard [et al.], 1891
• Vedrenne, Prosper: Fauteuils de l'Académie française: etudes biographiques et littéraires sur les fauteuils de Fléchier, Gresset, Volney, d'Agnesseau, Esménard, Montesquieu, Fénélon, Maury. - Paris: Blond & Barral, 1887–1888

Web links and sources

• Literature by and about Fabio Brûlart de Sillery in the catalog of the German National Library
• Short biography and list of works of the Académie française (French)