Francois De Salignac De La Moth

The Existence of God Francois De Salignac De La Moth

An ancestor of the French divine who under the name of Fénelon has made for himself a household name in England as in France, was Bertrand de Salignac, Marquis de la Mothe Fénelon, who in 1572, as ambassador for France, was charged to soften as much as he could the resentment of our Queen Elizabeth when news came of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. Our Fénelon, claimed in brotherhood by Christians of every denomination, was born nearly eighty years after that time, at the château of Fénelon in Perigord, on the 6th of August, 1651. To the world he is Fénelon; he was François de Salignac de la Mothe Fénelon to the France of his own time. Fénelon was taught at home until the age of twelve, then sent to the University of Cahors, where he began studies that were continued at Paris in the Collège du Plessis. There he fastened upon theology, and there he preached, at the age of fifteen, his first sermon. He entered next into the seminary of Saint Sulpice, where he took holy orders in the year 1675, at the age of twenty-four. As a priest, while true to his own Church, he fastened on Faith, Hope, and Charity as the abiding forces of religion, and for him also the greatest of these was Charity.