Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle

Providence, which watches especially over the elect, then made him known to Dom Beaucousin, vicar of the Carthusians of Paris; he was one of those rare men whose piety, simple and manly like the Gospel, served as a compass for the righteous and the penitent. Although a solitary, he knew better than any director how to guide people of the world in the ways of salvation. Skilled in discerning the operations of grace, he glimpsed all that the young de Bérulle would one day become, and he consequently charged him to see a person whose soul was torn by interior sorrows and to give them counsel. This endeavor succeeded, calm returned, and M. de Bérulle emerged victorious from an undertaking where several learned men had failed.

There is no time that the righteous man does not put to good use. As soon as the vacations arrived, the servant of God would go with his mother to the Château de Sérilly, and there, in deep meditation on the mysteries, he would attempt a spiritual and marvelous life, the fruits of which he has given us. He would withdraw into a wood, where, having only oaks and beeches as witnesses, he would contemplate the Divinity in silence; then he would read, he would pray, and, exercising his charity toward the unfortunate and especially the sick, he would multiply himself into as many forms of aid as he found needs. Nothing was more admirable than to see the happy harmony of a mother and son who mutually encouraged each other to merit immortal goods. When he had reached the age of seventeen, he appeared a doctor consummate in the science of salvation; entirely in Jesus Christ, he loved only the exercises that reminded him of the life of this divine Savior. He formed the design of entering some religious Order, but Providence did not permit it; it was reserving him for extraordinary works.

VIES DES SAINTS. — TOME XV. 39

Despite his talents and progress, he never wished to support public acts or take degrees, and if, at the age of eighteen, he produced a small treatise on interior abnegation, a work filled with science and unction, it was only to obey his superior. He was constantly called to all the assemblies of piety and all the conferences held for the conversion of heretics. It seemed he had the art of multiplying himself: in churches, in prisons, in hospitals, he never ceased to occupy himself with his own salvation and that of his neighbor. However, his piety was neither outwardly austere, nor anxious, nor troublesome. Gentle by character and by reflection, he showed on his face all the serenity of his soul and all his candor. His reprimands had neither bitterness nor acrimony. Those who served him found a father in him rather than a master.

His mother wished to entrust him with temporal affairs, but he never consented. The holy ministry for which he was preparing had already made him a man entirely celestial. Imploring for seven years all the help of heaven to form an ecclesiastic after the heart of God, he became a victim of penance before offering that of propitiation. His parents opposed his pious designs and forced him to enter the magistracy, but his docility was of no use to them. Despite the vivacity of his mind, he did not succeed in jurisprudence. He himself admitted that he had an attraction only for pious studies; this is the testimony rendered to him by Mgr de Salette, Bishop of Lescar, who had been his fellow student. "The young de Bérulle," he said, "explained the words of the Holy Scripture with such clarity and discovered their meaning with such ease that you would have thought he alone held the key to them." The heretics he converted at different times confirm this truth. The first was a president of the Parliament of Pau, who, despite his obstinacy, could not refuse the evidence; he solemnly abjured his errors. Entire families imitated this conversion, and four young ladies of the house of Abra de Raconis entered the Church with docility. Also counted are the Baron de Solignac, a son of the Governor of Vendôme, and above all a lady of Les Bains, famous among the sectarians. It is thus that he converted the enemies of religion, at an age when one ordinarily thinks only of perverting oneself. The Bishop of Lisieux said on this occasion that "France had seen nothing similar to the doctrine of M. de Bérulle, nor anything as solid for the refutation of errors." — "The conversion of heretics," added Cardinal du Perron cardinal du Perron Cardinal and famous controversialist, admirer of Bérulle. , such a good connoisseur in this genre, "is not only an effect of his profound science, but of his profound humility."

The age required for the priesthood having arrived, he went to seclude himself with the Capuchins of the Rue Saint-Jacques (there were no seminaries at that time); and there, concentrated for forty days in prayer and penance, he urgently asked Jesus Christ to live only by His grace, to act only by His spirit, to spread His love in all hearts, and to be entirely consumed in the service of His Church. He celebrated his first Mass on June 5, 1599, and never was a sacrifice offered with a more vivid and tender piety; his tears united with the blood of the divine Lamb to water the altar of propitiation. He invited neither relatives nor friends, wishing to be entirely for God in this august and formidable function; he contented himself with writing to them a few days later, "that having received the priesthood, there remained nothing more for him to desire on earth; that this state committed him to live in solitude and to make new efforts to acquire a purity

wholly heavenly." This fervor was not fleeting; penetrated by his new dignity, he felt all its obligations every day and fulfilled them. He appeared as if in ecstasy every time he celebrated the holy mysteries, and one cannot doubt that it was then that he gathered the sublime ideas with which his works are filled, and which represent to us so eminently the greatness of Jesus Christ. When he could give himself over to the transports of his devotion, all his senses appeared annihilated; there was only his faith that sustained and animated him.

He had not been a priest for three months when his initial ideas about religious life began to reawaken, and he imagined this state as finally being able to resolve his perplexities. He consulted God for a year, and then he left for Verdun. The purpose of this journey was to make a retrea t unde Verdun City where the Abbey of Saint-Vanne is located. r the eyes of Father Magius, provincial of the Jesuits, a very pious and very enlightened man. Scarcely had he begun his exercises of piety when Jesus Christ, his light and his guide, revealed to him, during the Holy Mass, that He was calling him to a change of spirit rather than of state; that He was reserving him for an important work that would not attach him to any religious Order, but which would require all its virtues; that, finally, he should make no choice, but abandon himself solely to His. Thus he felt an all-powerful hand that stopped his sacrifice; and the lights he received in his retreat were found to be perfectly in conformity with those of Father Magius, who, despite all the difficulty he had in letting such a great subject escape, said to him: "I do not know what God's counsel may be for your soul, but He is not calling you into our Company." His ties were thus broken by those very people who had an interest in tightening them.

The time had come when religion was preparing new victories and new struggles for the Abbé de Bérulle. Madame Acarie, inspired to bring to France the Carmelite nuns who were edi fying all Carmélites Contemplative order reformed by Saint Teresa of Avila, introduced to France by Bérulle. of Spain, communicated this pious design to him. Mgr de Sales, coadjutor of Geneva, as well as MM. Gallemand and Bretigny, reflected seriously on this project, judged the enterprise very useful, and consequently assembled twice at the Carthusians. The King's approval was obtained, and the Abbé de Bérulle was charged by the monarch to complete this good work as soon as possible. The priory of Notre-Dame des Champs, dependent on Marmoutier, seemed a suitable asylum to receive the Carmelites; but it was not easy to obtain the consent of the religious and of Cardinal de Joyeuse, their abbot. Mlle de Longueville took charge of the commission and succeeded. The Abbé de Bérulle went immediately to Tours: he obtained what he desired, and even beyond his hopes, for he won a soul for God, who later became the honor of the Carmelites: she was called des Fontaines, and her father, although very old, entered the Oratory a few years later. As soon as he returned to Paris, he felt obliged to go to Verdun. It was a matter of leading to a convent in that city a person he had converted to Catholicism. He visited the monastery of Saint-Nicolas, a famous pilgrimage site between Nancy and Lunéville. The establishment of the Carmelites in France occupied his mind entirely. Several respectable people joined the servant of God, and they worked seriously to prepare the house intended for the Spanish nuns. Materials were gathered, workers were urged on, God was prayed to in all the churches to attract the blessing of heaven, and they began to receive postulants. Among those who presented themselves, Mlle de Brissac, daughter of the Marshal of France, showed eminent piety. She found in the spirit and charity of the Abbé de Bérulle the means to make her father consent. The Lord accepted the sacrifice of his servant, and hastened to reward her. She died two years later the death of the predestined. The Abbé de Bérulle performed her funeral, and, during the burial, he experienced such superior consolations that he believed himself to be in heaven with this pious soul, and he never lost the memory of it. It was then, as he himself confessed, that, filled with the happiness of the other life, he thought he heard a secret voice that calmed his anxieties, assuring him that he would be free to refuse the position of tutor to the Dauphin, which was being insistently offered to him. God, who wishes to test his servants, allows the holiest works to be often exposed to the greatest contradictions. The step taken by a king who asked Spain for a few Carmelites, to spread the spirit of Saint Teresa and perpetuate it, did not seem a very difficult thing to obtain, and yet the troubles and obstacles multiplied in a way that went as far as vexation. The Spanish Carmelites opposed with all their might the departure of a few poor nuns, as if they were to be transported to infidel lands. M. de Bretigny, who had first gone to Madrid to prepare the way, could obtain nothing. The Abbé de Bérulle having gone there in his turn was at first hardly more successful. He waited while praying for God's moment. He made the journey to Alba twice to visit the tomb of Saint Teresa, to gather her spirit, and to obtain through her intercession the grace he was soliciting. He cast his sights mainly on the very niece of this blessed reformer, whose fervor seemed a continual miracle; but her great age was an obstacle. The circumstances required a trip to Valladolid, and the servant of God, full of that zeal which consumes, went there in the midst of the most burning heat. Errands, memorials, conferences with the opponents, everything was employed. The Clerics Minor, a congregation somewhat similar to that of the Theatines, bonded particularly with the Abbé de Bérulle, who often admired their virtue while envying their lot. From then on, people began to look upon him as a saint; and although his Mass lasted three-quarters of an hour, people hastened to attend it. It is true that his fervor and his raptures were like so many miraculous rays that spread in all directions. The man seemed to disappear, and one thought one saw an angel at the altar; and this impression was felt every time he celebrated the holy mysteries. However, the difficulties only increased: neither the intervention of the King nor that of the Nuncio could smooth them out. Constancy alone, along with the other virtues of the Abbé de Bérulle, finally triumphed over them. He was able to bring back six Carmelites with him to Paris; this Order was established in France, and he was named its head. He directed it so well and made it so religiously prosperous tha t the whole ki six Carmélites Contemplative order reformed by Saint Teresa of Avila, introduced to France by Bérulle. ngdom was edified by it.

The Abbé de Bérulle, whom we have seen acting and praying alone, would associate himself with worthy co-workers who would share his spirit—that is to say, the spirit of Jesus Christ—and who would worthily serve the Church by participating in its works. At that time, the priesthood was in some way deba sed; there w Congrégation Society of secular priests founded by Bérulle in 1611. ere neither seminaries nor congregations where one could acquire the spirit of this state; its dignity was despised due to the ignorance and vices that dishonored most of its ministers. The Abbé de Bérulle was the man who, in concert with Saint Vincent de Paul and the Abbé Olier, was to restore everything. Incorporated with Jesus Christ by the ardor of his charity and the lights of his faith, he could, better than anyone, recall its maxims and represent its eternal priesthood. He therefore determined to found a Congregation that would resurrect the spirit of the new covenant, and for this purpose, he desired that divine love be its soul and principle. After recalling what the Holy Spirit communicated to him during his retreat at Verdun, what so many pious persons predicted for him, and after conferring with Fathers de Bus and de Romillon, who were then following the institute of the Blessed Philip Neri, he declared that his society would have no other object than prayer and instruction, in accordance with these words of the Apostles: Nos vero ministerio verbi et orationi instantes erimus. (Acts vi, 4.) The hardships he foresaw in this establishment did not astonish him; he feared only the dignity of being a leader, and to avoid it, he sought for a long time some man capable of leading the Congregation he was drafting. He first addressed himself to the famous Francis de Sales, then to the disciples of Saint Philip Neri in Rome. All his efforts were without effect and served only to make it known that God willed him to direct his Congregation himself.

It was after ten years of resistance, labors, and perplexities that he finally established it. He began to perform the functions of Superior General on November 11, 1611. He desired to have at least twelve priests, and only five were found: Fathers Bance and Gastaud, of the Sorbonne, François Bourgoing and Paul Metezeau, bachelors of the same faculty, along with Father Caron, who left his parish of Beaumont. They rented a house in the Faubourg Saint-Jacques, known then by the name of Petit-Bourbon; and soon this house edified all of Paris and filled with a multitude of subjects. Paul V gave the bull of erection, in accordance with the views of the founder. To pray and study, to instruct the people through preaching, the youth through teaching, and to prepare Oratoire Society of secular priests founded by Bérulle in 1611. them for the priesthood: such is the goal he assigned to the Oratory. He wanted the members of this Congregation to be subject to the bishops like simple priests. "In order that this institution be uniform in the diversity of places, it will be necessary that its regulation and conduct depend on a superior, who will himself depend on the bishops in the exercise of ecclesiastical functions." One sees here a difference between this establishment and that of Saint Philip Neri. The houses of the Oratory in Italy are isolated and entirely independent of one another, whereas in France they were all united under a single head. The special spirit that the Abbé de Bérulle tried to inspire in his disciples is to meditate, to adore, and to imitate Jesus Christ in everything. "Grant, O Jesus," he cried out, "that among all the Orders, of which some have chosen penance, others solitude, these psalmody, and those manual labor, we may be the one that has as its distinctive mark a particular devotion toward Jesus Christ." Thus, each house of this Order was dedicated to a mystery of Our Lord, and all exercises and prayers there had Jesus Christ as their object. This Congregation particularly invoked all the Saints who had more intimate relations with the eternal Word; and on the twenty-fifth day of each month, it made a special commemoration of His Nativity in an office whose words and chant penetrate and enrapture. If one adds to these traits the testimonies rendered in favor of this Congregation, one can only conceive the highest idea of it. The Bishop of G eneva asserted "th L'évêque de Genève Bishop of Geneva who prophesied the vocation of Olier. at he would have willingly left his state to live under the guidance of this great man, and that there was nothing more holy and more useful to the Church of God than his Congregation." Thus, he never called the priests of the Oratory anything but our Fathers, and he asked the Pope for permission to come and contribute to its establishment. Father Cotton himself said that the Oratory was necessary to the Church, and "that he regarded this institute as a new creation that was missing for the perfection of this second and divine universe."

Several Carmelites eminent in piety, who by their prayers and care determined the servant of God to establish the Oratory and to take charge of its conduct, offer a praise of this Congregation that leaves nothing to be desired. But the most famous testimony is that of the great Boss uet. He speak grand Bossuet Preacher and bishop who delivered the funeral oration for the Oratory. s thus of the Oratory and its founder in the Funeral Oration of Father Bourgoing: "At that time," he says, "Pierre de Bérulle, a man truly illustrious and commendable, to whose dignity I dare say that even the Roman purple added nothing, so much was he already elevated by the merit of his virtue and his science, began to make the purest lights of the Christian priesthood and ecclesiastical life shine upon the entire Gallican Church. His immense love for the Church inspired in him the design of forming a company to which he did not wish to give any other spirit—it is the very spirit of the Church—nor any other rules than its canons, nor any other superiors than its bishops, nor any other bonds than its charity, nor any other solemn vows than those of baptism and the priesthood. There, a holy liberty makes a holy engagement; one obeys without depending, one governs without commanding: all authority is in gentleness, and respect is maintained without the aid of fear. Charity, which banishes fear, works such a great miracle; and, with no other yoke than itself, it knows not only how to captivate, but even to annihilate one's own will. There, to form true priests, they are led to the source of truth: they always have the holy books in hand to search therein tirelessly for the letter through study, the spirit through prayer, the depth through retreat, the efficacy through practice, and the end through the charity in which everything terminates, and which is the unique treasure of the Christian."

This perfect union with our divine Savior made him love all men tenderly. There was no individual in his Congregation whom he did not carry in his heart, and whom he did not assist, whether by his visits or by his counsel. Loving to fail himself much more than to fail others, he became the nurse and servant of all those who were sick; he consoled them, he relieved them, and did not abandon them day or night. When he returned from the city, however weary and tired he might be, he would run to the infirm and exhort them to resignation and patience. He administered the sacraments to them, without excepting the last one in the house, regarding them all as a precious deposit entrusted to him. While he was thus occupied with the needs of his Congregation, and thought only of governing it, the King chose him to go to Rome. It was a matter of obtaining from the Pope a dispensation allowing Henrietta Maria of France to marry the Prince of Wales, and of negotiating peace in the Valtellina. He left for Rome in the month of August 1624, accompanied by Father Guy de Faur, and by all the prayers of the Oratory and the Carmelites. He visited the tomb of Saint Dominic and the relics of Saint Catherine in Bologna and the house of Loreto. Everything in his journey excited thoughts and feelings of piety. A fountain, a flower, an insect raised him to the Creator, and filled him with admiration. As soon as he caught sight of Rome, his tears flowed and his soul felt a truly divine impression. He visited the churches, or rather, he remained there with the most tender piety. The Pope esteemed him even more after having seen him. "Father de Bérulle," he said, "is not a man, but an angel."

Father de Bérulle did not solicit for his Congregation either grace or privileges, although he was at the source, and it happened that a father who had so much affection for his children took no other means to enlarge them than to recommend them to Providence. He spoke of his Congregation only to God alone, more jealous of heavenly gifts than of all riches and honors. As he was one day making his prayer in the church of San Pietro in Montorio, he heard a voice that said to him: "I want you to be of my Church." He did not understand the meaning of these words until his return to France, when a holy soul, without knowing what had happened in Italy, wrote these words to him: "God wants you to be a cardinal, do not resist it."

He was again obliged to separate from his dear disciples to go to England where God was calling him. Charged by the Pope himself with the conscience of the new queen and the faith, so to speak, of that whole kingdom, he left France with the princess in the month of June 1625. He defended the rights of this princess, supported her with his counsel, and established his Order in London. Everything that was most difficult and thorny was entrusted to him, because one was almost assured of success; but all these advantages did not prevent the man of God from appearing at court always modest, always humble, always disinterested.

Father de Bérulle was one of the most enlightened minds of his time. Philosopher, theologian, orator, he thought and spoke like the Fathers of the Church. Cardinal du Perron often said: "If you want to convince heretics, send them to me; if you want to convert them, send them to the Bishop of Geneva; but if you desire to convince and convert them all at once, address them to Father de Bérulle." Father Suffren, a famous preacher, added to this testimony "that, since the Apostles, no one had better known Jesus Christ and his mysteries and had spoken of them in a more sublime manner than the servant of God." He had especially drawn this science from Saint Augustine, whom he read assiduously, and from the New Testament which he always carried on him. When he went to see someone and was obliged to wait, he would take his New Testament which he always carried with him and read a few verses from it. He would insensibly bring back the useless words of others to some pious and interesting conversation, and he never spoke himself without instructing and edifying. If he was obliged to give a few hours to the affairs of the world, one could hear him in the evening exclaim: "O futility!" and, after having complained of himself and others, he would say with David: "Children of men, how long will you love falsehood and vanity!" However, he rejected affairs that had no relation to his state, and he never saw the great to flatter them. God, and always God, was the principal object of all his steps and all his thoughts. One day, someone came to warn him that a prince was asking for him; he left at once to go and receive him; but remembering that he had not offered or recommended this visit to God, he forgot the prince for some time to converse with God.

His virtues were too brilliant not to be honored as they deserved. Despite all his excuses and refusals, the King and the Pope obliged him to accept the dignity of cardinal. The evening of the day he received the biretta, he served his community in the refectory. He wanted his disciples to treat him as before, and he forbade them to make any difficu lty abou cardinal Cardinal and founder of the Oratory of France. t covering themselves and sitting in his presence. A priest of the Congregation having called him "Monseigneur" at the beginning of a letter, he became angry and said to the one who had delivered it to him: "Has one then forgotten the manner in which one treats with me? I am only your Father, and do not even deserve to be that." He observed the same frugality, the same mortification, the same poverty. His clothes were always of serge, his room without any ornament. He never consented to having his portrait made: "I do not want," he said, "to be engraved on earth or in time, but in heaven and in eternity."

His love for the poor knew no bounds. He often went himself to the door to distribute bread to them and console them. Those who were covered with ulcers had a greater share in his conversations and his kindnesses. A few years before the establishment of the Oratory, having met, near the Carthusians, a wretch covered with sores, he dismounted from his horse, heard his confession, and had food brought to him. He did the same with regard to a woman afflicted with the plague. Fasting, vigils, retreats, pilgrimages, hair shirts, everything was employed to mortify his senses, and to participate in the sufferings of Jesus Christ. Although very sensitive to cold and heat, he took pleasure in enduring their rigors. Sometimes he made part of his journeys on foot, in a spirit of mortification. The dignity of cardinal appeared to him only as a new obligation to work, to suffer, and to humble himself even more than he had done until then: thus he did not disdain to descend to the lowest functions. He did not lose sight of the annihilation of Jesus Christ, and it was to conform to it that he himself did not cease to annihilate himself. Thanks were as unbearable to him as praise. He did not want to see a lady who came to thank him for having been the minister of her conversion, contenting himself with saying to the one who urged him to give her an audience: "She owes everything to the mercy of Our Lord, and as for me, I am assured that I have no part in it." It was through such affectionate, sublime, and divine sentiments that he perfected his Congregation.

The King, always attentive to giving proofs of his esteem to Cardinal de Bérulle, named him Abbot of Marmoutier; but besides the fact that death, which occurred six months later, prevented him from enjoying it, he was preparing to abandon the income to the poor. This is what he said to a person who hoped that such a benefice would serve the needs of the Oratory. "The wealth of abbeys," he replied, "must be used to help the unfortunate in the places where they are situated: one must not defraud the intention of the founders; and this is not the means that God has chosen to relieve the Congregation." He always had answers that announced his indifference to the goods of the world, and his attachment continued to Jesus Christ. An ecclesiastic complaining before him of deafness, he replied: "Provided that you hear well the inspirations of God, that is enough. I would like to be deaf on that condition." Seeing one day some workers who were working with ardor, he made this reflection: "These poor people will condemn us at the last judgment. What do they not do to earn their living, which is however only the life of the body, while we are so timid and so little eager to acquire Jesus Christ, the eternal life?"

Our pious cardinal continued, according to his custom, to share his zeal and his time between the Oratory and the Carmelites, when, in the month of April 1628, he fell into a kind of languor. His face became livid, his breath labored, his appetite universally gone. He only asked for health, however, on the condition of being able to work with more ardor. Life seemed indispensable to him as soon as it was useful to his neighbor. Thus, he never stayed in bed, not even on the day of his death. He always said Mass with a zeal that revived as his strength failed him; and, as head of the Queen Mother's council, he did not interrupt the course of public affairs. It was even during this time that he composed the book of the Life of Jesus Christ. It is true that this great object raised him above himself, and that he seemed to have no more body when he applied himself to the contemplation of the mysteries. One would have assured, however, that his labors and his infirmities must cause his imminent death; but, by a miracle of the holy Virgin, as he himself said, his health returned all of a sudden. This recovery, or rather this resurrection, became the cause of a new fervor. Not content with confessing every day, he wished to make a general confession to Father de Condren. He considered himself as a man who no longer has an hour, and who always has his soul in his hands to return it to God. In a word, he lived in a continuous desire for heaven, sighing only for eternal goods. The priests of the Oratory, attentive to observing all the holy steps of their pious founder, admired and tried to imitate his virtues.

His illness was only suspended, and death was working silently within him. Proof of this was seen on September 27, 1629, the day the holy cardinal returned from Fontainebleau with a fever accompanied by great difficulty in breathing. It was a complete collapse, and the doctors recognized it after having treated his illness as repletion. Nature, weighed down under a multitude of labors of all kinds, was succumbing and could no longer repair itself. As it was proposed to send for a famous doctor, then absent from Paris, the holy man replied that his life was not his own, but belonged to the Fathers of the Oratory and the Carmelites, and that therefore their advice should be taken. He said Mass on the first day of October, with incredible difficulty, which would have truly altered him, had it not been for the efforts of divine love, with which he was imbued. He had a conversation in the evening with Cardinal de la Valette, who came to visit him, and immediately afterward he attempted in vain to recite his office. His breathing became obstructed and he had to pray mentally. His whole soul, applied to Jesus Christ, exhaled in longings and sighs, to the point that, on the very day of his death, he made the greatest efforts to celebrate the holy mysteries. Although in a kind of agony, he went up to the altar on two different occasions, and he chose the Mass of the Incarnation. It was natural that this great object should revive him at the last moment of his life and be the final act of his love. They removed his priestly vestments and then he put them back on, looking at the altar as a Calvary where he was to consummate his sacrifice with the Savior of men. His desires were fulfilled. Ready to take the host, and already pronouncing the words that precede the consecration, he was the victim immolated in place of the one he was about to offer. Then he was laid on a bed that was set up in the chapel itself, and his senses only awakened when Father Gibieuf, the superior, brought him the holy Viaticum. Immediately he cried out, in a transport of joy: "Where is He, my Lord and my God? Let me see Him, let me adore Him, let me receive Him!" After he had received it with the most vivid and tender piety, the superior asked him to bless the Congregation and to give his children this sad and final mark of his love. "It will not be I who will bless you," he replied, "but the Son of God, as principle in the Trinity and as Father in the Incarnation." They took advantage of a few intervals of consciousness to administer Extreme Unction. He united himself in heart and spirit to all the prayers, and, after having invoked the name of Jesus Christ over the Oratory, as over a work that was particularly dedicated to him, after having recommended it to the protection of the most holy Virgin, he expired, on October 2, 1629. His funeral was celebrated with as little pomp and ceremony as possible. The regrets of the king and queen, the tears of the bishops, and the consternation of his disciples were the most beautiful funeral oration. His heart was sent to the Carmelites of the Rue Saint-Jacques, as he had desired, and his body, except for an arm that is kept at the institution, rests in the church of Saint-Honoré.

Cardinal de Bérulle was not yet buried when his holiness manifested itself through miracles. One of his servants, tormented by a high fever, having had himself placed on the Blessed one's straw mattress, was cured on the spot. A Jesuit, having a revelation of the death of the servant of God at the very instant it occurred, told six young men he was leading to La Flèche that the Church had just lost one of its holiest doctors and that a Mass of thanksgiving must be celebrated to thank God for the great mercies He had shown him. Several Carmelites had warnings that the most clear-sighted criticism cannot suspect of being illusions. Forty-five miracles have been collected, performed by the prayers or by the touching of the relics of the servant of God. It suffices to say to those who are convinced of the divine power in the Saints, that a Carmelite, at the convent of Morlaix, only recovered her sight through the application of a letter from the pious cardinal to her eyes; that a child of eight years, paralyzed in all his limbs, had barely touched his relics when he suddenly enjoyed perfect health, and that this miracle, performed in Caen, in the month of May 1680, was clothed with all the formalities.

Although the style of Cardinal de Bérulle has aged and is often too diffuse, one cannot deny that he is a vigorous writer, filled with sublime images, and that his eloquence is that of religion itself. One finds in his works a marvelous fecundity, an unction that penetrates, an impression of truth that strikes, and, what is surprising, is that, while speaking of the mysteries in the most abstract and elevated manner, he never employs an expression that is not just and in all the exactitude of theology. His first work was a *Treatise on Interior Abnegation*. One discovers there a soul that knows itself and knows the ways of God, and the result is a total indifference to the goods of this life, a universal disgust, and an inviolable attachment to Jesus Christ, as to the absolute master of all creatures and the author of all felicity.

The *Treatise on the Possessed* was composed on the occasion of a possession whose reality he undertook to prove. The style is concise, the reasoning powerful, and such that the ignorant are instructed and the indocile convinced. From the possession of bodies, the author passes to that of spirits who are dominated by heresy, and he combats them in three excellent discourses, one of which has as its object *the mission of pastors*, the second *the sacrifice of the Mass*, and the third *the real presence of Jesus Christ in the sacrament of the altar*.

The *Discourses on the State and Greatness of Jesus*, twelve in number, and that of the life of this divine Savior, are his principal works. He envisions only Jesus Discours de l'État et des grandeurs de Jésus Major work by Bérulle on the theology of the Incarnation. Christ, he occupies himself only with Him, and one feels that all his words are so many desires that tend only to be intimately united to Him. His first discourse on greatness can be called the *Panegyric of the Incarnation*. The second contains a *vow* of servitude to Jesus, in the form of an elevation, worthy of the doctrine and piety of the author. Each proposition is supported by the solid foundations of theology.

The following discourses are devoted to the search for the inconceivable wonders of the unity of God, of his ineffable communications, and of his divine love. The author describes the life of Jesus Christ, which he divides into thirty chapters, in a manner both simple and sublime. He represents Him living in the bosom of the Father, in the unity of essence, in the equality of power, in the communication of his infinite greatness, in the splendor of his glory, in the distinction and property of his person. He shows Him living in the world, from the beginning of the world, living in the faith of the patriarchs and Prophets, in a word, living in the nature that desires Him, in the law that figures Him, in the grace that gives Him. He shows the unworthiness of the earth to receive Him, and on the earth, the only Virgin who is without sin, prepared by the Holy Spirit, to be the dwelling of the Son of God. He reports the mission of the angel, his conversation with Mary, the greatness of the mystery that is accomplished in her, finally the homage that we owe to Jesus Christ, at the first moment that He began to live corporally in the world and to do his work there. He follows Jesus Christ in all his steps and in all the different states of his life, until he has adored Him ascending to heaven and seated at the right hand of God his Father; he discovers in each of these mysteries the hidden treasures. This work was only a trial, and it is very unfortunate that death prevented the author from finishing it.

There are besides this two Elevations of Cardinal de Bérulle to Jesus Christ Our Lord: one on the mysteries, the other on the economy of his grace toward Saint Magdalene, and a narrative of the persecutions that happened to him on the occasion of these elevations. The author justifies himself there against false accusations, and it is this apology that he only made public after ten years of silence and patience.

One finds in his Refutations of heresy the great arguments that Bossuet made use of with such energy. About eighty years ago, he says to the Protestants, your pretended Church was not born, the sovereigns of Christendom knew neither its doctors, nor its assemblies, nor its synods; the earth had not yet heard its voice, and did not know in what language it spoke or prayed, and heaven, opened for more than sixteen hundred years, had not yet received the first fruits of its labors, nor given crowns to its battles.

The Works of controversy and piety are another work where there is much strength and elevation, according to the subjects he treats. The author begins with a Discourse on the Eucharist, then On the sacrament of the Mass; then comes a Discourse on justification, then finally another on the authority, perpetuity, and infallibility of the Church, which he demonstrates to the Protestants in such a way that they would be convinced if they were reasonable.

The Works of piety have as their object all the mysteries that are celebrated in the year, all the feasts that recall their memory, but especially the Incarnation. One can regard all the chapters that compose the Works of piety as so many conferences, some of which are addressed to the Fathers of the Oratory, and others to the Carmelites.

The Memorial of some points serving for the direction of superiors is not the least interesting treatise. He proves there that to govern a soul is to govern a world; that a single soul is more precious in the eyes of God than the whole universe, that the dignity of the Christian grace that grafts and incorporates us with Jesus Christ surpasses all greatness; that one must work to fulfill one's ministry holily; that there is none that approaches that of priests; that every superior is particularly obliged to spread the good odor of Jesus Christ, to desire his coming, and to subject himself in all things to his will.

Letters conclude his works. One hundred and seven have been collected to the Carmelite nuns, and one hundred and twenty-nine, both to the Fathers of the Oratory and to various persons distinguished by their birth or rank. These letters all have as their object the love and dependence of Jesus Christ, and there is not one that is not marked with the seal of Divinity. The advice they contain is luminous, relative to the needs of the persons, and serves as instruction for all the circumstances of life.

This biography is an abridgment of the one found at the beginning of the complete works of Cardinal de Bérulle, edited by H. Migne (1856).

VIES DES SAINTS. — TOME XV. 40