Fleury, CLAUDE

Fleury, CLAUDE, church historian, was born at Paris in 1640, and forsook the law for an ecclesiastical career. In 1672 he became tutor to the young Princes de Conti, and at a later period to the Comte de Vermandois, natural son of Louis XIV. After the death of the young count in 1683, the French monarch appointed Fleury abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Loc-Dieu, and afterwards, under Fénélon, tutor to the Dukes of Burgundy, Anjou, and Berri. He was elected to fill La Bruyère's place in the Academy in 1696; and ten years later, on the completion of the prince's education, he was rewarded with the priory of Argenteuil. The Duke of Orleans selected him for confessor to the young king, Louis XV., giving as his reason for so doing that Fleury was neither Jansenist, nor Molinist, nor Ultramontanist, but Catholic. He died 14th July 1723. Fleury was as learned as he was modest, and as mild and kind-hearted as he was simple in his manners and upright in his conduct. Among his numerous works may be mentioned Mœurs des Israélites (1681); Mœurs des Chrétiens (1662); Institution du Droit Ecclésiastique (1687); and, above all, the Histoire Ecclésiastique (20 vols. Paris, 1691-1720). On this work, really the first complete and systematic history of the church, its organisation, doctrines, and rites, Fleury laboured thirty years. It is marked by great learning, and, on the whole, by a judiciously critical spirit. The work was translated into many languages, and praised by orthodox and heretics, both for its matter and style. Fleury's own work only reached to 1414; it was continued to 1778 by Fâbre, Lacroix, and others.