Jesuit Confessor To Louis XIV Amid The Jansenists

Fr. François de la Chaise, S.J., confessor of Louis XIV., born at the chateau of Aix, in Forez, Aug. 25, 1624, died Jan. 20, 1709. He taught philosophy and theology with brilliant success at Lyons, was afterward rector at Grenoble and provincial of his order at Lyons, and in 1675 succeeded Fr. John Ferrier, S.J. as confessor of the king. He maintained his position amid the difficulties between Madame de Montespan and the queen, Madame de Montespan and Madame de Maintenon, the Jesuits and the Jansenists, Bishop Jacques-Benigne Bossuet and Fenelon, and the courts of Rome and of France. He promoted the revocation of the edict of Nantes (1685), but exerted a conciliatory influence with respect to François Fenelon, Pasquier Quesnel, and the Jansenists. Louis XIV. built for him a country seat on an estate called Mont Louis, which belonged to the Jesuits, the gardens of which are now transformed into the cemetery named Pere La-chaise.

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