Mazarin, Jules
Mazarin, Jules
Cardinal , and prime minister of France after Richelieu’s death; born 14 July 1602 in Piscina, Italy; died 9 May 1661 in Vincennes, France. After being in turn a captain in the pontifical troops, and a diplomat, he was recommended to Louis XIII by Richelieu for having ably seconded the cardinal’s policy against Spain. He was then naturalized, and although he was only in minor orders Louis obtained for him the cardinal’s hat. His real power began after the death of Louis XIII, and during the minority of his son. Anne of Austria, who favored him greatly, appointed him prime minister, and in spite of fierce opposition he remained in power until death. He continued Richelieu’s policy toward the House of Austria, and brought the Thirty Years’ War to a conclusion by the famous treaty of Westphalia, which was far from favorable to the Church . He continued to curb the princes, and they organized against him the civil war known as the “Fronde.” Although he was obliged to go into temporary exile, he came back stronger than ever and it was he who laid the foundation of the power of Louis XIV. He was a decided enemy of Jansenism . He amassed an enormous fortune by questionable means, but he bequeathed considerable sums to the “Bibliotheque Mazarine” in Paris.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Mazarin, Jules
Born either at Rome or at Piscina in the Abruzzi, of a very old Sicilian family, 14 July, 1602; died at Vincennes, 9 March, 1661. His father was majordomo to the Colonna family at Rome. One of his uncles, Giulio Mazarini (1544-1622), a Jesuit, enjoyed a great reputation in Italy, particularly at Bologna, as a preacher, and published several volumes of sacred eloquence.
His youth was full of excitement: he accompanied the future Cardinal Colonna to Madrid; he was in turn a captain of pontifical troops and then a pontifical diplomat in the Valtelline War (1624) and the Mantuan War of Succession (1628-30). The truce which he negotiated (26 October, 1630) between the French, on one side, and the Spaniards and the Duke of Savoy, on the other, won for him the esteem of Richelieu, who was well pleased at his letting Pignerol fall into the hands of the French. The Spaniards tried to injure him with Pope Urban VIII, but the influence of Cardinal Antonio Barberini and a letter from Richelieu saved him. He became canon of St. John Lateran, vice-legate at Avignon (1632), and nuncio extraordinary in France (1634). The Spaniards complained that in this last post Mazarin made it his exclusive business to support Richelieu’s policy, and he was dismissed from the nunciature by Urban VIII (17 Jan., 1636). Soon after leaving the papal service, he went to Paris, placed himself at Richelieu’s disposition, and was naturalized as a French subject in April, 1639. Richelieu commissioned him, late in 1640, to sign a secret treaty between France and Prince Thomas of Savoy, and caused him to be made a cardinal on 16 Dec., 1641. Shortly before Richelieu’s death, Mazarin by a piece of clever management, had been able to effect the reoccupation of Sedan by French troops, and Richelieu on his deathbed (4 Dec., 1642) recommended him to the king. On the death of Louis XIII (14 May, 1642), Anne of Austria, leaving the Duc d’Orléans the shadowy title of lieutenant-general of the kingdom gave the reality of power to Mazarin, who first pretended to be on the point of setting out for Italy, and then pretended that his acceptance of office was only provisional, until such time as the peace of Europe should be re-established.
But Mazarin, like Richelieu, was, in the event, to retain power until his death, first under the queen regent and then under the king after Louis XIV had attained his majority. His very humble appearance and manner, his gentle and kindly ways, had contributed to his elevation, and Anne’s affection for him was the best guarantee of his continuance in office. The precise character of his relations with Anne of Austria is one of the enigmas of history. Certain letters of Anne of Austria to Mazarin, published by Cousin, and admissions made by Anne to Mme de Brienne and recorded in the Memoirs of Loménie de Brienne, prove that the queen regent was deeply attached to the cardinal. Still, “my sensibilities have no part in it”, she said to Mme de Brienne. Few historians give credence to Anne’s assertion on this point, and some go so far as to accept the allegations of the Princess Palatine in her letters of 1717, 1718, and 1722, according to which Anne of Austria and Mazarin were married. M. Loiseleur, who has made a careful study of the problem, believes that Mazarin was never married; it is certain that he retained the title and insignia of a cardinal until his death; probably he was even a cardinal-priest, though he never visited Rome after his elevation to the purple and seems never to have received the hat. And in any case he held the title of Bishop of Metz from 1653 to 1658.
Mazarin continued Richelieu’s policy against the House of Austria. Aided by the victories of Condé and Turenne, he succeeded in bringing the Thirty Years’ War to a conclusion with the Treaties of Munster and Osnabrück (Treaty of Westphalia), which gave Alsace (without Strasburg) to France; and in 1659 he ended the war with Spain in the Peace of the Pyrenees, which gave to France Roussillon, Cerdagne, and part of the Low Countries. Twice, in 1651 and 1652, he was driven out of the country by the Parliamentary Fronde and the Fronde of the Nobles, with the innumerable pamphlets (Mazarinades) which they published against him, but the final defeat of both Frondes was the victory of royal absolutism, and Mazarin thus prepared the way for Louis XIV’s omnipotence. Lastly, in 1658, he placed Germany, in some sort, under the young king’s protection, by forming the League of the Rhine, which was destined to hold the House of Austria in check. Thus did he lay the foundation of Louis XIV’s greatness. His foreign policy was, as Richelieu’s had often been, indifferent to the interests of Catholicism: the Peace of Westphalia gave its solemn sanction to the legal existence of Calvinism in Germany, and, while the nuncio vainly protested, Protestant princes were rewarded with secularized bishoprics and abbacies for their political opposition to Austria. Neither did it matter much to him whether the monarchical principle was respected or contemned in a foreign country: he was Cromwell’s ally. Towards the Protestants he pursued an adroit policy. In 1654 Cromwell opened negotiations with the Calvinists of the South of France, who, the year before, had taken up arms in Ardeche to secure certain liberties for themselves. Mazarin knew how to keep the Calvinists amused with fine words, promises, and calculated delays: for six years they believed themselves to be on the eve of recovering their privileges, and in the end they obtained nothing. The cardinal well knew how to retain in the king’s service valuable Protestants like Turenne and Gassion. His personal relations with the Holy See were hardly cordial. He could not prevent Cardinal Pamfili, a friend of Spain, from being elected pope (15 Sept., 1644) as Innocent X. He received in France, one after the other, Cardinals Antonio and Francesco Barberini, nephews of the late pope, and the Bull of 21 February, 1646, fulminated by Innocent X against the cardinals, who were absenting themselves without authorization, (by the tenor of which Bull Mazarin himself was bound to repair to Rome), was voted by the Parliament of Paris “null and abusive”. Mazarin obtained a decree of the Royal Council forbidding money to be remitted to Rome for expediting Bulls, there was a show of preparing an expedition against Avignon, and Innocent X, yielding to these menaces, ended by restoring their property and dignities to Mazarin’s protégés, the Barberini. Following up his policy of bullying the pope, Mazarin sent two fleets to the Neapolitan coast to seize the Spanish presidios nearest to the papal frontiers. Apart from this, he had no Italian policy, properly speaking, and his demonstrations in Italy had no other object than to compel Spain to keep her troops there, and to bring the pope to a complaisant attitude towards France and towards Mazarin’s own relations. The elevation of his brother Michael Mazarin to the cardinalate (October, 1647) was one of his diplomatic victories. Though not interested in questions of theology, Mazarin detested the Jansenists for the part taken by some of them — disavowed, however, by Antoine Arnauld — in the Fronde, and for their support of Cardinal de Retz (q. v.). A declaration of the king in July, 1653, and an assembly of bishops in May, 1655, over which Mazarin presided, gave executive force to the decrees of Innocent X against Jansenism. The order condemning Pascal’s “Provinciales” to be burnt, the order for the dismissal of pupils, novices, and postulants from the two convents of Port-Royal, the formula prepared by the Assembly of the Clergy against the “Augustinus” (1661), which formula all ecclesiastics had to sign — all these must be regarded as episodes of Mazarin’s anti-Jansenist policy. On his deathbed he warned the king “not to tolerate the Jansenist sect, not even their name”. Having little by little become “as powerful as God the Father when the world began”, enjoying the revenues of twenty-seven abbacies, always ready to enrich himself by whatever means, and possessing a fortune equivalent to about $40,000,000 in twentieth century American money, Mazarin, towards the end of his life, multiplied in Paris the manifestations of his wealth. He organized a free lottery, at his own expense, with prizes amounting to more than a million francs, collected in his own palace more wonderful things than the king’s palace contained, had no objection to presiding at tournaments, exhibitions of horsemanship, and ballets, and patronized the earliest efforts of the comic poet Molière. The young Louis XIV entertained a profound affection for him and, what is more, fell in love with the cardinal’s two nieces, Olympe Mancini and Marie Mancini, one after the other. Mazarin sent Marie away, to prevent the king from entertaining the idea of marrying her. But if, for reasons of state, he refused to become the uncle of the King of France, it seems that there were moments when he dreamed of the tiara: the Abbé Choisy asserts that Mazarin died “in the vision of being made pope”. One reminiscence at least of the old political ideas of Christian Europe is to be found in his will: he left the pope a fund (600,000 livres) to prosecute the war against the Turks. The cardinal, who throughout his life had given but little thought to the interests of Christianity, seems to have sought pardon by remembering them on his deathbed. The same will directed the foundation of the College of the Four Nations, for the free education of sixty children from those provinces which he had united to France. To this college he bequeathed the library now known as the Bibliothèque Mazarine. Mazarin’s nieces made princely marriages: Anne Marie Martinozzi became the Princesse de Conti; Laura Martinozzi, the Duchesse de Modène; Laure Mancini died in 1657, Duchesse de Mercoeur; Olympe Mancini became Comtesse de Soissons; Hortense Mancini, Marquise de la Meilleraie and Duchesse de Mazarin; Marie Mancini, Countess Colonna; Marie Anne Mancini, Duchesse de Bouillon. All these women, and particularly the last four, had singularly stormy careers.
———————————–
CHÉRUEL AND D’AVENEL, eds., lettres du Cardinal Mazarin pendant son ministère (9 vols., Paris, 1872-1906); RAVENEL., ed., Iettres de Mazarin à la reine, écrites durant sa retraite hors de France en 1651 et 1652 (Paris, 1836); COUSIN, ed., Carnets de Mazarin in Journal des Savants (1855); MOREAU, Bibliographie des Mazarinades (3 vols., Paris, 1849-51); IDEM, Choix de Mazarinades (2 vols., Paris, 1852-58); LABADIE, Nouveau supplément à la bibliographie des Mazarinades (Paris, 1904); CHÉRUEL Hist. de France pendant la minorité de Louis XIV (4 vols., Paris, 1879-80); IDEM Hist. de France sous le ministère de Mazarin (1651-1661) (3 vols., Paris, 1883); PERKINS, France under Mazarin (2 vols., New York, 1886); HASSALL., Mazarin, (London, 1903); BOUGEANT, Hist. des guerres et des négociations qui précédèrent le traité de Westphalie (Paris, 1727); IDEM, Hist. du traité de Westphalie (2 vols., Paris, 1744); COCHIN, Les Eglises calvinistes du Midi, le cardinal Mazarin et Cromwell, in Revue des Questions Historiques (July, 1904); RENÉE, Les nieces de Mazarin (Paris, 1856); CHANTELAUZE, Ies derniers jours de Mazarin in Correspondant (10 July, 10 August, 1881); COUSIN, Mme de Hautefort (5th ed., Paris, 1886), 393-404; LOISELEUR, Problèmes historiques (Paris, 1867); COLQUHOUN-GRANT, Queen and Cardinal (London, 1906).
GEORGES GOYAU Transcribed by Kenneth M. Caldwell Dedicated to the memory of Don McGonigle
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XCopyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Mazarin, Jules
(properly Guilio Mazzarino), cardinal, the celebrated prime-minister of king Louis XIV of France, the successor of cardinal Richelieu, and inaugurator of a reign noted for attainments in arms, language. fine arts, literature, industry, and a superior degree of splendor, was born of a noble Sicilian family July 14,1602, most probably at Piscina, near the lake of Celano, in Abruzzo Citra, though in the letters of naturalization granted him in France in 1639 it is stated that he was born at Rome. It is certain, however, that he received his education at the Eternal City, and hence, no doubt, the mistake as to his native place. In 1619 Mazarin went to Spain to pursue the study of jurisprudence, probably intending to enter the legal profession, but, returning to Rome in 1622, a little later he entered the military service, and was given a captain’s commission in 1625. Soon after this he entered the service of the Church, and was employed as companion of the papal legate to France, and in this mission displayed great political talents. In the difficulties arising out of the contested succession to the duchy of Mantua, in which France supported the pretensions of the count De Nevers, while the emperor of Germany, the king of Spain, and the duke of Savoy supported those of the duke of Guastalla. Mazarin was sent by pope Urban to Turin as the assistant of cardinal Sacchetti. The latter at once perceived his talent, gave him his entire confidence, and in fact devolved upon him the entire management of the negotiation. It was not immediately successful, for in 1629 Louis XIII in person invaded Savoy, took Suza, and forced the duke of Savoy to abandon his alliance with Spain. Finally Sacchetti returned to Rome, leaving Mazarin, with the title of internuncio, to continue the negotiations.
Cardinal Barberini, the pope’s nephew, returned in Sacchetti’s stead, and Barberini found Mazarin as indispensable as had his predecessor. Mazarin labored unceasingly to restore peace. He visited the contending powers; in 1630 he saw Louis XIII and cardinal Richelieu, who both formed a high opinion of him, and in 1631 he finally succeeded in effecting the treaty of Cherasco, by which peace was restored. Mazarin at this time displayed considerable trickery in favor of France. and by this unfair partiality acquired the hatred of the courts of Spain and Germany, but the thanks of Louis and Richelieu, who recommended the able negotiator to the favor of the pope. Shortly after he was to receive at the hands of the French cardinal and prime-minister the reward due for his great services to Louis XIII. In 1634 he was named vice-legate to Avignon, but was sent to Paris as nuncio to intercede with Louis XIII in favor of the duke of Lorraine, whose duchy the king of the French had taken possession of. Mazarin, now unequivocally drawn towards Richelieu, of course failed to accomplish the task assigned him by the holy father. Mazarin returned to Rome in 1636 as the avowed supporter of French interests, and, on the death of Richelieu’s celebrated confidant, father Joseph, pope Urban was solicited by Louis XIII and his minister to bestow upon Mazarin the cardinal’s hat promised for father Joseph, but, as Urban refused, Mazarin in 1639 quitted Italy for France, and there entered the service of the king as a naturalized Frenchman. In 1640 he was nominated ambassador to Savov, where, after a short war, he was enabled to restore peace, and in 1641 he was at length raised to the rank of cardinal, through the persistent efforts of his friend the cardinal and prime-minister of France. Mazarin, in France, was a faithful and useful assistant to Richelieu, especially during the famous conspiracy headed by Henri de Cinq-Mars, which ended by his execution in September, 1642. This was Richelieu’s last triumph. In the following December he died, recommending on his death-bed that Louis should receive Mazarin as his own successor, and Louis, sufficiently predisposed in Mazarin’s favor, gladly acceded to the last wish of his faithful friend and counselor.
In 1643 Louis XIII himself died, and Alazarin’s position became one of great difficulty amid the intrigues, jealousies, and strifes of the courtiers surrounding Louis XIV in his minority. By the will of the late king he had been declared the sole adviser of the queen-regent, Anne of Austria, but the latter assumed a decidedly hostile attitude towards the cardinal, and it was some time before he succeeded in acquiring the principal power in the government, as well as the confidence of the queen-regent. He used his power at first with moderation, and courted popularity by gracious and affable manners. He prosecuted the war against Spain which began under his predecessor, and in which Conde and Turenne maintained the honor of the French arms. A dispute which arose between the court and the Parliament of Paris, regarding the registration of edicts of taxation, was fomented by cardinal De Reiz into the revolt of the Parisians called the Day of the Barricades (Aug. 27, 1648), and was followed by the civil war of the Fronde.
The court was forced to retire to St. Germain, and Mazarin was outlawed by Parliament; but, by the truce of Ruel, he still remained minister. The feeling against him, however, became still more inflamed when, at his instigation, the queen-regent caused the princes of Conde and Conti and the duke of Longueville to be arrested in January, 1650. Mazarin went in person at the head of the court troops to the insurgent provinces, and, after the victory at Rethel, showed so much insolence that the nobles and the people of the capital made common cause against him. He found it necessary to secure his safety by flight to the Netherlands. The press teemed with violent publications against Mazarin, known as Mazarinades (collected by Morean in the Bibliographie des Mazarinades [Paris, 1850- 51, 3 vols. 8vo]; a selection of them was also published by Moreau under the title Choix des Mazarinades [ibid. 1854, 2 ols. 8vo]). After the rebellion of the prince of Conde he ventured to return to France; but Paris makings his removal a condition of its submission, he retired again from the court, and it was not till Feb. 3, 1653 that he made a triumphant entry into the capital, where he was received with significant silence. Yet after a time the skill, patience, and perseverance of Mazarin triumphed, and he regained his former popularity and acquired his former power. See here article Lorus XIV, p. 526, Colossians 1. After governing France with great ability, and just as Louis XIV was arriving at an age when he felt the capacity and desire to sway the scepter himself; Mazarin died, March 9, 1661. In 1690 some letters, written by Mazarin during the negotiation of the peace of the Pyrenees, were published; additional letters were published in 1693, and in 1745 others were added, and the whole arranged under the title of Lettres du Cardinal Mazarin, ou l’on voit le secret de negotiation de la Pai dedes Pyrenees. They were written for the information and instruction of the young king, and form useful examples of clearness and precision in diplomatic writings.
His person was remarkably handsome, and his manners fascinating, and from an opponent he turned Anne of Austria, the queen-regent during Louis XIV’s minority, into his friend, if not secretly affianced companion, as has been asserted with much appearance of truth. Mazarin, says Mignet (Memoires relatifs la succession d’Espagne), had a far-seeing and inventive mind, a character rather supple than feeble. His device was Le Temps et moi.’ Under his administration the influence of France among the nations was increased, and in the internal government of the country those principles of despotism were established on which Louis XIV afterwards acted. The administration of justice, however, became very corrupt, and the commerce and finances of the country sank into deep depression. It is admitted that as a financial administrator he was far inferior to Richelieu. Mazarin was very niggardly and very avaricious, and had acquired in various ways, fair and foul, an immense fortune, amounting to 12,000,000 lives, which he offered to the king shortly before he died; afraid, it is thought, that it might be rudely seized from his heirs. Louis declined the restitution, which was perhaps what the wily minister expected. In his will Mazarin made many and large bequests to students and literary enterprises; indeed, he had always proved himself the friend and patron of learning. The College Mazarin was founded at his wish, to receive students from the provinces acquired by the peace of the Pyrenees, and to this same institution he presented his library, of immense value and size. See the Memoir’s of Mazarin’s contemporaries, Retz, Madame Motteville, La Rochefoucault, Turenne, Grammont, etc.; Mmle. de Longueville, etc., by Victor Cousin; Aubery, Histoire du Cardinal Maszarin (1751); Capefigue, Richelieu, Milazarin, la Froide et la sregne lde Louis XIV (Paris, 1835,8 vols. 8vo); Saint-Aulaire, Histoire de la Fronde; Bazin, Histoire de France sous le Ministere du Cardinal Mazarin (Paris, 1842, 2 vols. 8vo); Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XIV; Gualdo-Priorato. Vita del Cardinal Mazarin (1662); John Calvert, Life of Cardinal Mazarin (1670); Sismondi, Histoire des Fmrsangais; Grammont, Memoires; V. Cousin, La Jeunesse de Mazarin; Hoefer, Nouv. Bio. Generale; Chambers, Cyclop. s.v.; English Cyclop s.v.; Fraser’s Magazine, November, 1831, and February, 1832.