590 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



brother, arid the abbe Devisse, 

 their nephew, came successively, 

 during his lucid intervals, to im- 

 plore and receive his benediction, 

 to present him the crucifix to kiss, 

 and to address to him some words 

 of pious consolation. There were 

 also some persons of the town, 

 who came to receive his last bene- 

 diction. His servants then ap- 

 proached all together, and bathedin 

 tears, to ask it of him, and he gave 

 it them with friendly kindness. 

 The abbe le Vayer (of the con- 

 gregationof St. Sulpice), superior 

 of the seminary at Cambrai, re- 

 ceived it also for the seminary, and 

 for the diocese. He then recited 

 the prieres des agonisants, inter- 

 mingling occasionally short and 

 affecting passages from scripture, 

 most suitable to the condition of 

 the dying man, who was about 

 half an hour without giving any 

 sign of consciousness : after which 

 he gently expired, at a quarter 

 past five in the morning, on the 

 7th of January, 1715. 



" We believe that our holy and 

 pious archbishop died, as he had 

 lived, with perfect sanctity. Every 

 one who had been most intimate 

 with him, was eager to possess 

 something which had belonged to 

 him. He left behind him no ready 

 money; the losses and the great ex- 

 pense which the vicinity of the ar- 

 mies, during the last three cam- 

 paigns, had occasioned, was the 

 cause of it ; for notwithstanding 

 them, he retrenched none of the 

 alms which he gave to the con- 

 vents of the town, to the poor or- 

 dinands of his seminary, to the 

 nuns of charity for the indigent 

 sick, to the parishes which he vi- 

 sited, to the students of the diocese 

 vhom he supported at the univer- 



sities, and to various other pur- 

 poses. Hence, his revenues were 

 absolutely exhausted. He appoint- 

 ed by his will, the abbe de Beau- 

 mont, his nephew, his sole heir, to 

 executehis pious intentions, which 

 were communicated to him alone ; 

 and M. de Beaumont continued to 

 dispense the same alms to the poor, 

 as the archbishop had done, till 

 the arrival of his successor. 



'• Such are the things which I 

 observed respecting the conduct of 

 our holy archbishop, during the 

 last days of his life. His nephews, 

 and the other persons, who scarely 

 ever quitted him during his illness, 

 may have noticed things which I 

 did not, or which I cannot now 

 recollect." 



The death of Fenelon excited sin- 

 cere and universal regret through 

 the whole of the Netherlands; and, 

 notwithstanding the clamours of 

 party which divided the church, 

 every heart was ready to deplore 

 the death of a bishop who had 

 won the respect, the esteem, and 

 the affection even of his adver- 

 saries. We have already said, 

 that notwithstanding his opposi- 

 tion to the doctrine of the Jansen- 

 ists, and though he had encoun- 

 tered them with great success in 

 numerous writings, he had always 

 turned from them the hand of 

 power, and had preserved them, 

 by his zeal, from the personal 

 dangers to which they might have 

 been exposed. Far from detract- 

 ing from the general love which 

 was felt for Fenelon, they were 

 the more afflicted at his loss, as 

 they were ignorant what might be 

 the dispositions of his successor 

 with regard to them, and as they 

 could scarcely expect, under exist- 



