F L E 
F L E 
d. 5 u 
French republican army, in which the former were de¬ 
feated with great lofs. Six miles north-eaft of Charleroy. 
FLEU'RY, a town of France, in the department of 
the Loiret, and chief place of a canton, in the difirict of 
Orleans : two miles north of Orleans. 
FLEU'RY, a town of France, in the department of 
the Straits of Calais, and chief place of a canton, in the 
d i ft riot of St. Pol: one league and a half north-weft of 
St. Pol. 
FLEU'RY (Andrew-Hercules de), cardinal and prime 
minifter, born at Lcdeve, June 22, 1653. He was edu¬ 
cated at Paris in the Jefuits’ college, and entering into 
the eccleliaflical (fate, became canon of Montpellier, and 
dodtor of the Sorbonne. Poffeffing an agreeable perfon, 
and qualifications proper for fucceeding at court, he ob¬ 
tained the poft of almoner to the queen, and afterwards 
to the king. In 1698, he was nominated to the bifliopric 
of Frejus, and on this occalion received a very handfome 
compliment from the king. “ I have made you wait a 
long while, (laid Louis XIV.) but you have fo many 
friends, that I was defirous you fltould be obliged for 
your advancement to no one but myfelf.” He was in his 
diocefe when the allies, under the duke of Savoy and 
prince Eugene, made an irruption into Provence. By his 
engaging manners he faved his city and its environs from 
pillage, and perfuaded the generals to be contented with a 
moderate contribution. His filtered with madame Main- 
tenon, and other perfons at court, caufed him to be no¬ 
minated in the teftament of Louis XIV. as preceptor to 
the young king Louis XV. He ingratiated himfelf fo 
much with his pupil, as to infpire him with a prufound 
efteem and attachment ; at the fame time he paid his court 
to the marlhal de Villeroy, the king’s governor, and to 
the regent duke of Orleans, by the molt refpeCtful de¬ 
meanour. The regent would have conferred upon him 
the archbifhopric of Rheims, but he refufed that fplendid 
promotion, probably through the apprehenliori that it 
might be made a pretext for removing him from the 
king’s perfon. At the death of the regent, it was through 
his recommendation that the duke of Bourbon was ap¬ 
pointed prime minifter; but in fa£t it was himfelf who 
governed, by means of the influence he poffeffed over the 
king’s mind. This was eminently put to the trial when 
the fluke, urged by his miftrefs, attempted to exclude 
the bifhop from his private confultations with the king. 
Fleury immediately retired to the houfe of a religious fra¬ 
ternity, and wrote to his majefty a letter filled with ex- 
preffions of tendernefs and regret, the effect of which was 
fuch, that it was impoflible to pacify the king till lie was 
recalled and reltored to his prefence. It was during this 
period that Horace Walpole, then ambaffador from Eng¬ 
land, paid Fleury a vifit in his retreat ; which well-timed 
mark of refpeft he took fo kindly, that it was the foun¬ 
dation of the conftant friendfhip which he maintained with 
(ir Robert Walpole during his ad mini drat ion. From this 
time Fleury became chief minifter, but without affuming 
the title and apparent functions which had marked out 
the premier. He was created a cardinal in 1726; and, 
though turned of feventy, did not hefitate to undertake 
the burthen of governing a vaft kingdom. The fpirit of 
his adminiftration was economy in the public revenue, 
and the prefervation of peace. The latter object he was 
not able long to maintain ; but he terminated in three 
years the war of 1733 with the emperor Charles VI. and 
obtained for Fiance the important acquifirion of Lorraine. 
His policy is blamed in confiding fo much in the pacific 
intentionsof Walpole, as to hope for uninterrupted friend¬ 
fhip with Englai. ■ ; whence he was led to exercife his 
economy tovvards the navy fo as to fuffer it to fall to ruin. 
His tm; quit and unenterprifing difpofition was not cal¬ 
culated to gain the refneCt of a nation like the French, 
which profited by his good qualities in the extenfion of 
its commerce and mat ufaCtures, though without gaining 
him adequate efteem. He was alfo thought to give ear 
too readily to the projects of financiers; and he /hewed 
himfelf too much the ecclefiaftic in the attention he paid 
to the quarrels of Janfeniftn. In private life he was af¬ 
fable and modeft, content with a very moderate income, 
and remote equally from avarice and oftenta'tion. He was 
a member of the French academy, and of the other lite¬ 
rary focieties, yet is charged with neglecting men of ge¬ 
nius. The war of 1 740, which began with difafters for 
which liis adminiftration was blamed, embittered the clofe 
of his life ; which however, by the aid of temperance and 
cheerfulnefs, he protracted to his ninetieth year. He died 
in January 1743, and was buried under a magnificent tomb, 
at the king’s expence, in the church of the Louvre. 
FLEU'RY (Claude), a learned French ecclefiaftical hif- 
torkm, born at Paris, in 1640. His father was an efteemed 
advocate, originally of Rouen: and the fon was bred up 
to the fame profeffion, and admitted an advocate of the 
parliament of Paris, in 1658 ; but finding his inclination 
ftronger for ftudious retirement than the profeffion of the 
law, he determined to embrace the ecclefiaftical (late. 
He was admitted to the conferences which the cele¬ 
brated Boffuet held at his own houfe, on the fubjects 
of religion and literature ; and was made fccretary to 
thofe meetings. About this time he tranflated into Latin 
the well-known work of that bifhop, entitled Expofition 
of the Catholic DoCtrine. In 1672, he was chofen pre¬ 
ceptor to the princes of Conti ; and difeharged the duties 
of that appointment with fuch credit to himfelf and pu¬ 
pils, that, in 1680, Louis XIV. named him preceptor to 
his favourite natural fon the count of Vermandois. After 
the death of that young prince, in 1683, the king, by w r ay 
of recompence for Pleury’s Cervices, prefented him to the 
abbey of Loc-Dieu, in the diocefe of Rltodez. In 1689, 
the king fixed upon him as the fitted perfon to be alfo-' 
ciated with Fenelon, in the education of his legitimate 
offspring, and made him fub-preceptor to his grandlons, 
the dukes of Burgundy, Anjou, and Berry. In 1696, he 
was admitted a member of the French academy; and was 
fhor1 1 y afterwards prefented with the priory of Argenieuil, 
in the vicinity of Paris. In this ftudious retreat he con¬ 
tinued till the year 1716, when he was drawn out of it 
by the duke of Orleans, the regent of the kingdom after 
the death of Louis XIV. to fill the place of confeffor to 
the young fttcceffor to the crown. His infirmities, how¬ 
ever, and the intrigues of the jefuits to obtain the direc¬ 
tion of the king’s confcience for a member of their fociety, 
obliged him to refign his office in 1722. He died in 1723, 
in the eighty-third year of his age, leaving behind hint 
a character eftimable for extenlive learning, firm and 
fcrupulous integrity, true modefty and candour, great 
purity and fimplicity of manners, and unaffected piety. 
His moft confiderable work was his Ecclefiaftical Kiftory, 
20 vols. i2tno. of which the firft was publifhed in 1691, 
and the laft in 1722. It lias alfo been publifhed in 13 vols. 
4to. It contains the hiftory of the Chriftian church from, 
the earlieft times to the council of Conftance, in 1414, 
and was received with great and deferved applaufe. He 
followed up this work by Difcourfes on Ecclefiaftical 
Hiftory. Eight of them appeared in the author’s lite- 
time; and after his death a ninth was publifhed, in 1724, 
with notes. They are written with more elegance, pu¬ 
rity, precilion, and force, than the author’s Hiftory, and 
difeover proofs of profound enquiry, a calm and found 
judgment, and an enlightened and liberal mind. His next 
work, Manners of the Ifraelites, publifhed in 1681, and 
Manners of the Chriftians, publifhed in the following 
year, and afterwards united, form an ufeful and intereft- 
ing introduction to facred and ecclefiaftical hiftory. His 
Hiftorical Catechifm, publifhed in 1679, > s drawn up with 
a method and clearnefs that render it a proper model for 
works of a fimilar kind. In 1686, the abbe Fleury pub¬ 
lifhed A Treatife on the Choice and Conduct of Studies, 
in w hich he has difplayed the fame logical precifion and 
the fame fund of good fenfe which appear in his Difcourfes 
on Ecclefiaftical Hiftory. I11 168S, he publiihed A Treatife 
on the Duty of Mafters and Servants, which contains 
1 many 
