[228] Nicolas de Catinat commanded with success the French army in Piedmont in the campaigns of 1690-1696 against Victor-Amédée of Savoy. His most important victory was gained at Staffarde in 1690. He was created a Marshal in the following year. In the War of the Spanish Succession he was less successful. In a short portrait (IX. 188-189) Saint-Simon does full justice to his character, “to his wisdom, his modesty, his disinterestedness, his great ability as a commander,” and he compares him in his simplicity, his frugality, his contempt for the world, his peace of soul, to the great Roman generals who after their well-merited triumphs returned to their plough, faithful lovers of their country, which they had served so well, and heedless of its ingratitude.
[229] The order of the Saint-Esprit.
[230] Four bishops, of whom the chief was Nicolas Pavillon, the devout Bishop of Alet, had formally protested against the persecution of the nuns of Port-Royal in order to force them to sign the “formulary” declaring that the Augustinus had been rightly condemned. At last in 1668 they were induced to make an ambiguous submission, with which Clement IX declared himself satisfied. A medal was struck to celebrate the “Peace of the Church,” but the peace was a sham one, as the Jesuits well knew.
[231] Mabillon and Montfaucon, perhaps the two most learned of the Bénédictines of St Maur, were both at Saint-Germain-des-Prés when the Cardinal was abbot.
[232] For a charming portrait of this Cardinal see III. 426-429. He was Archbishop of Narbonne and grand almoner to the Queen. He died in 1703. The Marquis de Castries (see [above], p. 142) was his nephew.
[233] Ed. Chéruel. X. 344 ff.; ed. Boislisle, XXV. 163 ff.
[234] Charles-Honoré d’Albert, Duc de Luynes et de Chevreuse, was the grandson of the Constable de Luynes, the minister of Louis XIII, and the son of the Duc de Luynes who retired to Port-Royal and was the friend of Pascal. The Dukedom of Chevreuse came from his grandmother, who after the Constable’s death married the Duc de Chevreuse, the youngest son of Henri de Guise (Le Balafré), and in the days of the Fronde was conspicuous for her intrigues. He died in 1712, nearly two years before his brother-in-law. See IX. 378-387 for a charming portrait.
[235] Ed. Chéruel, X. 276 ff.; ed. Boislisle, XXV. 42 ff.
[236] See E. de Broglie, Fénelon à Cambrai, 1884.
[237] Les Maximes des saints was published in 1697 and was condemned by the Court of Rome in 1699.