François Joachim de Pierre de Bernis was of an old family of gentle blood, whose hereditary estate was near Pont St. Esprit, in Languedoc. He had great taste and talent for Anacreontic poetry. His compositions were lively and elegant, but rather too highly coloured, and by no means instructive for youthful readers. It was, no doubt, the error of the times and of the nation. He was of a short stature, and I do not think that either his features or person could ever have been remarkable for beauty, and yet he was universally known in his youth as “le joli petit abbé,” and “l’aimable abbé.” His mind was very liberal, and his temper generous and disinterested, but he seems to have been always somewhat too indiscriminate, or too tolerant, in the choice of his acquaintance. His circumstances were limited, so that during his early years he was often subjected to great pecuniary embarrassments; but he was always cheerful, always the gentleman, and always well received. He established the necessary proofs of ancestry for becoming a Canon of the Noble Chapter of St. Jean de Lion, of which he wore the cross to the last day of his life, with more pleasure than any other of his numerous decorations, for the consciousness of birth made his other honours sit easy on him. He gained the favour of Madame de Pompadour by his verses and the charms of his society, for no one ever said more amiable things in fewer words, or more to the purpose. She was not, however, his only friend, or the sole cause of his promotion, as it has been often reported. A memoir he wrote on the dispute be tween the Jesuits and Parliament pleased the King (Louis XV.), and, besides, he was generally popular, and had great and powerful protectors, through whom he was sent Minister to Venice. While he was there, the husband of the beautiful Princess de Rohan died. The Princess and he had long been attached to each other, and he knew that she would propose to marry him, but he felt that he would be regarded as too much her inferior with respect to rank and fortune to make a graceful figure in the world. He therefore took priest’s orders when he heard that the Prince was so ill that the next courier might bring tidings of his death. This does not sound well; but it did not forfeit him the friendship of the Princess, for, when she died, she left him her whole fortune, which he nobly gave up to the Rohans, merely reserving for himself a ring, on which was a Moor’s head, and this he wore until his death in remembrance of her. At his return from Venice he was made Prime Minister, but was soon displaced by the Choiseul party, when he was created a Cardinal, but exiled to one of his abbeys; subsequently he was allowed to live at his archbishopric of Alby. Restored to some degree of favour when Louis XVI. ascended the throne, he was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary of His Most Christian Majesty at the Court of Rome, whither he had gone for the Conclave of Ganganelli. There he shone with the greatest splendour. His revenues were enormous, and he expended them most generously. Indeed, his liberality to his own countrymen, his hospitality to the natives and to travellers, his charity to the poor, and his beneficence to his own family, were only limited by his income. He never wished to save, but could not bear the idea of debt. His house and table were sumptuous, his conversation lively and animated, his manners polished, his expressions guarded, and his behaviour dignified and correct.
We had letters of recommendation to Cardinal de Bernis when we first went to Rome, and were intimately acquainted with him and his family, particularly with his amiable niece, the Marchioness du Puy-Montbrun, and his adopted nephew and coadjutor, M. de Bernis, who was afterwards his successor. The Cardinal was dismissed from his post at Rome, on refusing to take the oath exacted by the Revolutionists, and deprived of his benefices in France. He had a pension, however, from Spain, and received into his house at Rome, where he continued to reside, Mesdames Adelaide and Victoire, the sisters of Louis XVI. He bore his change of fortune with dignity and temper, and died about eighteen months before the French took possession of Rome. He left behind him a poem on religion, which he gave orders to have printed after his death; and Memoirs of the most active period of his life, intended only for the gratification of his own family, with positive instructions that they should never be made public. The following lines were written by a lady of Alby, to be placed beneath two small medallions, representing the Cardinal and his nephew, the coadjutor:
Alby! tes deux prélats au temple de Mémoire
Attesteront du ciel la plus rare faveur;
Quand il eut fait l’un pour la gloire,
Il fit l’autre pour ton bonheur.
When the Cardinal de Bernis was to receive the red hat, he knew that eight days afterwards he would be exiled from the Court. He was then Prime Minister. The morning he was to go to the King he got up at two, and wrote till eight, when he went to the palace and received the hat, and addressed complimentary discourses to all the Royal Family. He then returned to his own house, and had five tables set out for company, consisting of all the Ministers and clergy. After dinner the King sent for him to the Council, which he left late at night, and went home and wrote till two in the morning. The pomp with which he was surrounded was immensely magnificent—all the royal carriages attending him. The Duke of Fitzjames, who was standing with him at the entrance of his house, remarked: “Quel beau jour pour vous, Monseigneur!” “C’est plutôt un beau parapluie,” replied the Cardinal; but the Duke being ignorant of his approaching downfall did not understand him. The Cardinal said, he remarked, while he was pronouncing his discourses, that the courtiers were endeavouring to find expressions that they could lay hold of, to bring up against him afterwards. Eight days later he was exiled to his abbey of Visurenne, where for the space of one year he was not permitted to see any one but the members of his own family. During the two following years he was allowed to see company, and then sent to his archbishopric of Alby. The greatest demonstrations of joy, such as the ringing of bells, the firing of guns, troops drawn up to salute, &c., were exhibited all along his journey through Languedoc. While at Visurenne he used to dress in grey, lined with red, with a white hat and a red riband round it, like a shepherd.
After the Cardinal de Bernis was recalled from exile he went to Paris, and happened to be in company with the Duchess de Grammont, sister of M. de Choiseul, who was then Minister. She took occasion to introduce the subject of exile, and said it must be the most disagreeable thing in the world. “Madam,” replied the Cardinal, “it is the most disagreeable thing possible when you are expecting it, but the most agreeable when it is over.”