Claude Fleury (6 December 1640,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

– 14 July 1723,

), was a French priest, jurist, and ecclesiastical

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

. Destined for the bar, he was educated at the elite, Jesuit

College de Clermont A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary school ...

(now that of Louis-le-Grand) in Paris. In 1658 he was accepted as an attorney to the ''

parlement Under the French Ancien Régime, a ''parlement'' () was a provincial appellate court of the Kingdom of France. In 1789, France had 13 ''parlements'', the original and most important of which was the ''Parlement'' of Paris. Though both th ...

'' of Paris, and for nine years practiced law. There he caught the attention of preacher at the royal court, Bishop

Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet Jacques-Bénigne Lignel Bossuet (; 27 September 1627 – 12 April 1704) was a French Bishop (Catholic Church), bishop and theology, theologian. Renowned for his sermons, addresses and literary works, he is regarded as a brilliant orator and lit ...

, who persuaded him to study theology and receive holy orders. Under Bossuet's patronage, he attracted the attention of the king,

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

, who appointed him the tutor of the princes of Conti in 1672 and soon thereafter of the count of Vermandois, one of the king's bastards. For his service Fleury was awarded the

Cistercian The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...

abbey of Loc-Dieu, in the

diocese of Rodez The Diocese of Rodez (–Vabres) (; French: ''Diocèse de Rodez (–Vabres)'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in France. The episcopal see is in Rodez. The diocese corresponds exactly to the Departm ...

. Fleury's aristocratic teaching duties expanded in 1689 when he was appointed sub-preceptor of the dukes of

Burgundy Burgundy ( ; ; Burgundian: ''Bregogne'') is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. ...

, of Anjou, and of

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. He thus curried favor with Fénelon, their chief tutor. In 1696 he was elected to fill the place of La Bruyère in the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

; and on the completion of the education of the young princes the king reassigned to him the

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. They were created by the Catholic Church. Priories may be monastic houses of monks or nuns (such as the Benedictines, the Cistercians, or t ...

Argenteuil Argenteuil () is a Communes of France, commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre Zero, center of Paris. Argenteuil is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the Val-d'Oise Departments of France, ...

, in the

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(1706), a more lucrative

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than Loc-Dieu. About this time he began his great work, the first of the kind in France, and one for which he had been collecting materials for thirty years—the ''Histoire ecclésiastique''. Fleury's evident intention was to write a history of the church for all classes of society; but at the time in which his great work appeared it was less religion than theology that absorbed the attention of the clergy and the educated public; and his work accordingly appealed to the student rather than to the popular reader, dwelling as it does very particularly on questions of doctrine, of discipline, of supremacy, and of rivalry between the priesthood and the imperial power. Nevertheless, it had a great success. The first edition, printed at Paris in 20 volumes ( 4to), 1691, was followed by many others, among which may be mentioned that of Brussels, in 32 vols ( 8vo), 1692, and that of Nîmes, in 25 vols (8vo), 1778 to 1780. The work of Fleury only comes down to the year 1414. It was continued by Jean Claude Fabre and Goujet down to 1595, in 16 vols. (4to). In consulting the work of Fleury and its supplement, the general table of contents, published by Rondet, Paris, 1758, 1 vol. (4to) will be found very useful. Translations have been made of the entire work into Latin, German and Italian. The Latin translation, published at Augsburg, 1758–1759, 85 vols. (8vo), carries the work down to 1684. Fleury was appointed confessor to the young King Louis XV in 1716, because, as the duke of Orleans said, he was neither

Jansenist Jansenism was a 17th- and 18th-century theological movement within Roman Catholicism, primarily active in France, which arose as an attempt to reconcile the theological concepts of free will and divine grace in response to certain development ...

nor Molinist, nor Ultramontanist, but

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. His great learning was equaled by the modest simplicity of his life and the uprightness of his conduct. Fleury left many works besides his ''Histoire ecclésiastique''. The following deserve special mention: *''Histoire du droit français'' (1674, 12mo) *''Mœurs des Israelites'' (1681, 12mo) *''Mœurs des Chrétiens'' (1682, 12mo) *''Catechisme Historique, contenant en abregé l'histoire sainte et la doctrine Cretienne'' (1683, 2vo) *''Traité du choix et de la méthode des études'' (1686, 2 vols 12mo) *''Les Devoirs des maîtres et des domestiques'' (1688, 12mo) A number of the smaller works were published in one volume at Paris in 1807. The Roman Congregation of the Index condemned his ''Catéchisme historique'' (1679) and the ''Institution du droit ecclésiastique'' (1687). See C Ernst Simonetti, ''Der Character eines Geschichtsschreibers in dem Leben und aus den Schriften des Abbé C. Fleury'' (Göttingen 1746, 4to); CFP Jaeger, ''Notice sur C. Fleury, considéré comme historien de l'eglise'' (Strassburg, 1847, 8vo); Reichlin-Meldegg, ''Geschichte des Christentums'', I.

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fleury, Claude 1640 births 1723 deaths Writers from Paris 18th-century French historians Members of the Académie Française French male non-fiction writers 17th-century French Roman Catholic priests 17th-century French historians