[41] March 23, 1865, Père Theiner, Guardian of the Secret Archives of the Vatican, replied to some one who had pressed the question: "Our acts of December 16, 1641, in which Jules Mazarin was created Cardinal, do not say whether or not he was a priest. How could he then have been admitted to the order of Cardinal-priest? No doubt he was a priest." The letter of Père Theiner has been published by M. Jules Loiseleur in his Problêmes historiques.
[42] Letters of Madame de Maintenon edited by Geoffroy.
[43] For further details see the excellent volume of M. Lacour-Gayet, L'éducation politique de Louis XIV.
[44] December 24th, Relations des ambassadeurs vénitiens.
[45] The letter is dated April 21, 1654. Louis XIV. was then fifteen and a half years of age.
[46] Mme. de Motteville had heard him express the same idea. Cf. his Mémoires, v., 101, ed. Petitot.
[47] Les fragments des mémoires inédits by Dubois, valet of Louis XIV., published by Léon Aubineau in the Biblothéque de l'École des Chartes, and in his Notices littéraires upon the 17th century.
[48] Cf. Lacour-Gayet, p. 203.
[49] M. Dreyss dates the writing of this portion of the Mémoires about 1670.
[50] Letters of June 9, 1654, and April 9, 1658.