Dubois, Guillaume
Dubois, Guillaume
Born on 6 September 1656 at Brive-la-Gaillarde, France ; died on 10 August 1723 at Versailles, France. Son of a physician. Educated by the Brothers of the Christian Doctrine. Tutor to the Duke of Orleans. He violated this position of trust, encouraged every bad element in the duke, corrupting him and securing his own power. Seeing the Church as a means of further power, he intrigued his way to being archbishop of Cambrai, the richest diocese in France. Created cardinal in 1721 following long negotiations and further intrigue. Prime minister of France in 1722. Though an able administrator, he was consumed by his own ambition, and shamed his clerical positions.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Dubois, Guillaume
A French cardinal and statesman, born at Brive, in Limousin, 1656; died at Versailles, 1723. He was the son of an honourable physician and received his first education from the Fathers of the Christian Doctrine in his native place, whence he went in 1672, as beneficiary, to the Collège Saint-Michel in Paris. He had been engaged some nine years in private teaching when he was appointed (1683) sub-preceptor to the Duke of Chartres, nephew of Louis XIV, the full tutorship following four years later. When the Duke of Chartres became Duke of Orléans (1700), Dubois was made his secretary. During the regency of Philippe d’Orléans he rose in rapid succession to the high positions of state councillor (1716), secretary of foreign affairs (1717), Archbishop of Cambrai (1720), cardinal and surintendant des postes (1721), member of the Conseil de régence, and soon after, ministre principal (1722). The French Academy admitted him the same year and the Assembly of the French Clergy elected him president in 1723, the year of his death.
Owing to his humble birth, his stanch opposition to Jansenism, and his bold reversal of the aristocratic regime prevalent under Louis XIV, Dubois was disliked by the noblemen of his day. On the authority of contemporary libels and Saint-Simon’s memoirs, historians of France have long repeated against him such charges as corrupting the morals of his pupil, accepting money from England, seeking, though unworthy, ecclesiastical dignities, etc. The publication by Sévelinges of Dubois’s memoirs and correspondence together with the careful study of contemporary documents by Seilhac, Wiesener, and Bliard — e.g. the diplomatic papers preserved in the archives of the French, English, and Spanish foreign offices — have thrown a new light on the subject and partly verified the words of Fontenelle at the time of the reception of Cardinal Dubois into the French Academy: “Les siècles suivants en sauront davantage; fiez-vous à eux”. Far from catering to his pupil’s wantonness, Dubois did what he could to check it, and his Plan d’éducation pour le duc de Chartres shows a competent and conscientious tutor. The expediency of his foreign policy, resulting in the Triple Alliance of France, England, and Holland against Spain, like the contrary policy of Cardinal de Bernis, must be largely a matter of opinion. In so far as Dubois was concerned, it was the best way of serving the interests of France and counteracting the intrigues of Alberoni. Stair and Stanhope had a high regard, almost amounting to friendship, for the minister of France, but on both sides the charge that bribery was resorted to is untrue. That Dubois was not set against the natural amity between France and Spain was shown later, when, after Alberoni’s fall and the restoration of peace, he successfully negotiated the treaty of 1721 and the marriage of Louis XV with the Infanta and that of the Prince of the Asturias with Mlle de Montpensier. Dubois’s career as a churchman is not above reproach. While there is no foundation for the oft-repeated assertion of his secret marriage, his gross licentiousness, and notorious impiety even at the hour of his death, still it cannot be denied that he sought and used ecclesiastical dignities principally as props to his political prestige. Tonsured at the age of thirteen he bethought himself of sacred Orders only in his old age, when, the better to secure the long coveted and long denied red hat, he asked for the Archbishopric of Cambrai merely as a stepping stone to the cardinalate.
The “Mémoires du cardinal Dubois” published by P. Lacroix (Paris, 1829) are apocryphal. His genuine writings were edited by Sévelinges: “Mémoires secrets et correspondance inédite du cardinal Dubois” (Paris, 1815).
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SAINT-SIMON, Mémoires, ed. CHÉRUEL (Paris, 1858), with remarks of CHÉRUEL; Relations de Saint-Simon el de l’Abbé Dubois in Rev. Hist., I, 140; SEILHAC, L’Abbé Dobois, premier ministre de Louis XV (Paris, 1862); WIESENER, Le Régent, l’Abbé Dubois et les Anglais (Paris, 1893); BLIARD, Dubois, cardinal el premier ministre (Paris, 1902), reviewed by SHAHAN in Catholic Univ. Bulletin, VIII, 350. See also HARDWICKE, State Papers (London, 1778); COXE, Memoirs of the Life of Walpole (London, 1798); GRAHAM, The Stair Annals (Edinburgh, 1875); HASSALL, Alberoni and Dubois in Periods of European history (New York, 1903), VI, 25.
J. F. SOLLIER. Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VCopyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Dubois, Guillaume
a French prelate and statesman, was born at Brives-la-Gaillarde September 6, 1656. He studied at the college of St. Michael, at Paris, and afterwards became tutor in the family of the marquis de Pleuvant, and later of the duke of Orleans. He spared no pains to obtain the full confidence of his pupil, and for that end connived at all his excesses. Finally he succeeded, in 1692, in inducing the duke to marry Mademoiselle de Blois, a legitimized daughter of Louis XIV, who rewarded him for this service by giving him the abbey of St. Just. We now find him mixed in all the political events of the time. Two years after the death of Louis XIV he was made councilor of state by the regent, and soon found himself at the head of the government. Intent only on furthering his own interests, Dubois’s policy was the precise opposite of Louis XIV’s, and he became the obedient agent of England, with which power and Holland he concluded the treaty called the Threefold Alliance, at Hague, January 14, 1717. Appointed minister of foreign affairs, Dubois wished to be also archbishop, and especially cardinal, as Richelieu and Mazarin had been. He had caused, for that end, the bull Unigenitus to be registered in France, but had obtained nothing but promises from Clement XI. The archbishopric of Cambrai becoming vacant, Dubois applied for it, although he had only received the tonsure, without being in holy orders. The regent acceded to his demand, and after receiving all the necessary ordinations in one day, Dubois was consecrated June 9, 1720, all the most eminent members of the French clergy, with the exception of the cardinal de Noailles, taking part in the ceremony. He was made a cardinal in 1721 by Innocent XI (q.v.), whom, it is said, he helped with large sums of money at the time of his election. Dubois finally became prime minister in 1722, and president of the assembly of the French clergy. In this position he proved a capable and intelligent administrator, but ambitious and thoroughly unprincipled. He died at Versailles August 10, 1723. The duchess of Orleans, mother of the regent, wrote of him: “If abbot Dubois had as much honesty and religion as he has wit, he should be an excellent man; but he believes in nothing, and regards neither manners nor truth. He is very learned; he has taught my son, but yet I could wish that he had never seen him.” Dubois, besides the archbishopric of Cambrai, had seven abbeys, and his revenues amounted to two millions, not counting a million he was said to have received from England for his secret services.” See Duclos, Mem. secrets sur les reignes de Louis XIV et de Louis XV; Saint- Simon, Memoires, 18-20; G. Brunet, Memoires de la Princesse Palatine; Sismondi, Hist. des Franzais, 26 to 28; Sevelinges, Mem. secr. et Corresp. ined. du Cardinial G. Dubois, etc. Paris, 1814; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 13:859 sq.