Henry de Bethune

Henry de Béthune (* August 1604 in Rome , † May 11, 1680 in Bordeaux ) was Bishop of Maillezais (1629-1646) and Archbishop of Bordeaux (1646-1680).

Life

origin

Henry de Béthune came from the old, northern French noble family Béthune . His father, Philippe de Béthune, was in the service of the French kings Henry III. , Heinrich IV. , Ludwig XIII. and held various offices, u. a. Ambassador to the Holy See in Rome (1601–1605), where Henry de Béthune was born in August 1604 and baptized on September 7, 1604 in the Church of St. Lawrence in Lucina. His uncle was the (Protestant) Duke von Sully , finance minister under Henry IV.

Henry de Béthune was the fourth of five children. As was customary in his day, he was destined for the clergy as the youngest son; his younger brother died early. While still a child, he was awarded the benefits of three monasteries, including the Cadouin Abbey ( Sarlat diocese ), which gave the family another secure income. After several unsuccessful attempts, he was appointed Bishop of Bayonne in 1626, but de Béthune never took possession of this bishopric. According to the Concordat of 1516 , it was up to the French royal family to appoint the bishops. From around the middle of the 16th century until Louis XIV took office , a large number of French bishops were elected from noble families. The elevation of one of the family members to bishop was seen as a reward for services rendered to the king.

Bishop of Maillezais

On March 23, 1629, he was appointed bishop of Maillezais by Louis XIII. However, he had to leave the three abbeys to his predecessor, Henri d'Escoubleau de Sourdis , who himself succeeded his deceased brother at the archbishopric in Bordeaux. The episcopal ordination took place on January 6, 1630 in Paris in the church of the Feuillants. The consecrator was the Paris Archbishop Jean-François de Gondi , co- consecrator were the Bishop of Nantes , Philippe Cospéan, and the Bishop of Luçon Emery de Bragelongue.

The 26-year-old bishop continued the reform efforts of his predecessor Henri de Sourdis, visited all parishes in his diocese and carried out a diocesan synod in 1635 and 1640 . In 1641, as the elected representative of the first estate of the ecclesiastical province of Bordeaux at the assembly of the French clergy in Mantes , he opposed Richelieu's financial demands , which earned him the recognition of his colleagues, but a warning from the cardinal. The bishopric was moved from Maillezais to la Rochelle in 1648.

Archbishop of Bordeaux

After the death of the Archbishop of Bordeaux, Henry de Sourdis, the regent Anna of Austria appointed Henry de Béthune on November 21, 1646 as his successor. But it was not confirmed until the Consistory of Cardinals on May 18, 1648. Pope Innocent X awarded the new archbishop the pallium on August 15, 1648. Due to the poor health of the father, however, he stayed at the bedside until his death. Henry de Béthune did not move into Bordeaux until May 6, 1649, so the bishopric in Bordeaux remained vacant for four years.

He continued the reform movement of his predecessors, but held only one diocesan synod per year in Bordeaux. He no longer considered the second synod in Blaye , which had been customary until then , to be necessary.

In addition to holding diocesan synods, de Béthune carried out regular visitations for the renewal of ecclesiastical life, through which grievances in the clergy and the preaching could be uncovered and partially eliminated. In 1659 he visited all 52 parishes of the Archdeaconate Moulis and Lesparre . Of course, he was unable to eliminate the imbalance in the division of the clergy in pastoral care between town and country, especially in favor of Bordeaux. He was benevolent towards the female and male religious communities , and he also promoted pilgrimages , especially those to the Marian pilgrimage site of Verdelais. Under Henry de Béthune, so-called "missions" were carried out for the first time, the aim of which was to bring the population back to the Catholic faith. The success of the improvement of the ecclesiastical situation was also shown by the fact that the number of brotherhoods continued to grow.

His rather peaceful nature enabled him to intervene in both ecclesiastical and political spheres. Immediately after taking possession of the archbishop's chair in Bordeaux in May 1649, he tried to mediate between the Fronde and the governor Epernon, but the negotiated peace did not last long. He was loyal to the king, which seems understandable since he was appointed by the royal family. Béthune left the city during the armed conflict and only returned to Bordeaux after the peace treaty of July 27, 1653 .

During his long tenure, de Béthune attended several meetings of the French clergy. In 1665 he was elected vice-president of the assembly, in 1676 he chaired 32 meetings and then presented the results and critical comments of this clergy assembly to the French King Louis XIV.

He had the archbishop's country castle at Lormont , at the gates of Bordeaux, destroyed during the uprisings of the Fronde , rebuilt from 1655 onwards.

After 30 years of tireless work, through which he tried to continue the Tridentine church reform of his predecessors in the archdiocese, Henry de Béthune died on May 11, 1680 in Bordeaux.

literature

• Boutruche, Robert, Histoire de Bordeaux, tome IV, Bordeaux de 1453 à 1715. Fédération historique du Sud-Ouest, Bordeaux 1966.
• Daniel-Rops, L'Eglise des temps classiques. Le grand siècle des âmes. Fayard, Paris 1958.
• Peyrous, Bernard, La Réforme catholique à Bordeaux, 1600-1719. Le renouveau d'un diocèse. (Recherches et travaux d'histoire sur le Sud-Ouest de la France VII). Fédération historique du Sud-Ouest, tome 2, Bordeaux 1995.

predecessor	Office	successor
Henri d'Escoubleau de Sourdis	Bishop of Maillezais 1630–1646	Jacques Raoul
Henri d'Escoubleau de Sourdis	Archbishop of Bordeaux 1646–1680	Louis d'Anglure de Bourlemont