[841] There were three saints of the name of Cyrillus, but the one mentioned above was probably bishop of Jerusalem (315-388); Saint Thascius Cæcilius Cyprianus (210-285) was bishop of Carthage: whilst Saint Aurelius Augustinus (354-430) was the celebrated author and bishop of Hippo.
[842] The preachers accused of a florid style were, according to the “Keys,” the Oratorian Senault, and Fléchier, who in 1685 had been appointed bishop of Nîmes.
[843] Theodorus is supposed to be Bourdaloue (see page [165], note 326). Some other celebrated preachers have also been named.
[844] Charles Boileau, abbé de Beaulieu, and a member of the French Academy, who died in 1704 (see page [49], note 135), is said to have preached a morality such as is mentioned in the above paragraph.
[845] A certain Abbé de Roquette, a nephew of the Bishop of Autun (see page [226], note 453), had to preach one Holy Thursday before the king, but through some unfortunate accident Louis XIV. could not be present, and the preacher, disconcerted at the absence of the monarch, for whom probably he had prepared the most fulsome flatteries, did not dare to mount the pulpit and deliver his sermon.
[846] In the original clercs, to which our author added a note in the first four editions to say that he meant “clergymen.” The whole paragraph alludes to the missionaries sent into the provinces to convert the Protestants. Did La Bruyère, in speaking of the “converts who had already been made for these clergymen,” hint at the dragonnades and at the other wretched and inhuman means employed to compel people to change their religion? I am afraid not, though he admits some persons could not be converted.
[847] Saint Vincent de Paul (1566-1660), a well-known philanthropical preacher, very successful in his missions; Saint Francis Xavier (1506-1553), a Jesuit missionary, who made many converts in the East Indies.
[848] See page [173], note 346.
[849] See the chapter “Of Works of the Mind,” page [65], § 3.
[850] Some scribbler of the time, a certain Gédéon Pontier, author of the Cabinet des Grands, is said to have written almost similar nonsense.