F�nelon, Fran�ois de Salignac de la Mothe 1651-1715
French Catholic prelate and writer

Born in F�nelon, P�rigord, he studied at the Saint-Sulpice Seminary in Paris. He was ordained in 1675, and became director of an institution for women converts to the Catholic faith in 1678. Here he wrote Trait� de l'�ducation des filles (1678, Eng trans The Education of Young Gentlewomen, 1699), urging a more liberal education for women, and criticizing the coercion of Huguenot converts. From 1689 to 1699 he was tutor to Louis XIV's grandson, the young Duke of Burgundy, and wrote Fables (1690), Les Dialogues des morts (1690, 'Dialogues of the Dead'), History of the Ancient Philosophers and Les Aventures de T�l�maque (1699, 'The Adventures of Telemachus'), which displeased the king because of its alleged political satire on the court. As Archbishop of Cambrai from 1695, he wrote a defence (Explication des maximse des saints sur la vie int�rieure, 'Explanation of the Maxims of the Saints on the Interior Life') of the doctrines of the celebrated quietist mystic Madame Guyon (1697, 'Explanation of the Sayings of the Saints on the Interior Life'). After a fierce controversy the pope condemned the book.

Bibliography: P Janet, F�nelon, une biographie (1892)