Lachaise, FRANÇOIS D'AIX DE

Lachaise, FRANÇOIS D'AIX DE, a Jesuit, born of a noble family, 25th August 1624, in the castle of Aix, now in the department of Loire, made his studies at Rohan, and was already a provincial of his order when Louis XIV. selected him for his confessor on the death of Father Ferrier in 1675. His position was one of great difficulty, owing to the different parties of the court, and the strife between Jansenists and Jesuits. In the most important questions of his time Father Lachaise avoided extreme courses. A zealous Jesuit, and of moderate abilities, he yet sustained among his contemporaries the reputation of a man of mild, simple, honourable character. Madame Maintenon could not forgive him the little zeal with which he opposed the reasons urged against the publication of her marriage with the king; but during the thirty-three years that he filled his office of confessor he never lost the favour of the king. He died 20th January 1709.—Louis XIV. built him a country-house to the east of Paris, the large garden of which was in 1804 converted into a burial-place, and is known as the Père-la-Chaise, the resting-place of many famous men. See PARIS.