BERNIS, FRANCOIS JOACHIM DE PIERRE DE (17151794)

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BERNIS, FRANCOIS JOACHIM DE PIERRE DE (17151794) , French cardinal and statesman, was born at St Marcel-d'Ardeche on the 22nd of May 1715. He was of a noble but impoverished family, and, being a younger son, was intended for the church. He was educated at the Louis-le-Grand college and the

seminary

SEMINARY (Lat. seminarium, from semen, seed)

of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, but did not take orders till 1755. He became known as one of the most expert epigrammatists in the gay society of Louis XV.'s court, and by his verses won the friendship of Madame de Pompadour, the royal mistress, who obtained for him an apartment, furnished at her expense, in the Tuileries, and a yearly pension of 1500 livres (about L6o). In 1751 he was appointed to the French embassy at Venice, where he acted, to the

satisfaction

SATISFACTION (Lat. salisfacerc, to satisfy)

of both parties, as mediator between the republic and

Pope

Benedict XIV. During his stay in Venice he received subdeacon's orders, and on his return to France in 1755 was made a papal councillor of state. He took an important part in the delicate negotiations between France and Austria which preceded the Seven Years' War. He regarded the alliance purely as a temporary expedient, and did not propose to employ the whole forces of France in a general war. But he was over-ruled by his colleagues. He became secretary for foreign affairs on the 27th of June 1757, but owing to his attempts to counteract the spendthrift policy of the marquise de Pompadour and her creatures, he fell into disgrace and was in December 1958 banished to Soissons by Louis XV., where he remained in retirement for six years. In the previous November he had been created cardinal by Clement XIII. On the death of the royal mistress in 1764, Bernis was recalled and once more offered the seals of office, but declined them, and was appointed archbishop of Albi. His occupancy of the see was not of Iong duration. In 1769 he went to Rome to assist at the

conclave

CONCLAVE (Lat. conclave, from cum, together, and clavis, a key)

which resulted in the election of Clement XIV., and the talent which he displayed on that occasion procured him the appointment of

ambassador

AMBASSADOR (also EMBASSADOR, the form sometimes still used in America; from the Fr. ambassadeur, with which compare Ital. ambasciatore and Span. embajador, all variants of the Med. Lat. ambassiator, ambassiator, ambasator, &c., derived from Med. Lat. amba

in Rome, where he spent the

remainder

REMAINDER, REVERSION

of his life. He was partly instrumental in bringing about the suppression of the

Jesuits

JESUITS

, and acted with greater moderation than is generally allowed. He lost his influence under Pius VI., who was friendly to the

Jesuits

JESUITS

, and the French Revolution, to which he was hostile, reduced him almost to penury; the court of Spain, however, mindful of the support he had given to their

ambassador

AMBASSADOR (also EMBASSADOR, the form sometimes still used in America; from the Fr. ambassadeur, with which compare Ital. ambasciatore and Span. embajador, all variants of the Med. Lat. ambassiator, ambassiator, ambasator, &c., derived from Med. Lat. amba

in obtaining the condemnation of the Jesuits, came to his relief with a handsome pension. He died at Rome on the 3rd of November 1794, and was buried in the church of S. Luigi de' Francesi. In 1803 his remains were transferred to the

cathedral

CATHEDRAL

at Nimes. His poems, the longest of which is La Religion vengee (Parma, 1794), have no merit; they were collected and published after his death (Paris, 1797, &c.); his Memoires et lettres 171558 (2 vols., Paris, 1878) are still interesting to the historian.
See Frederic Masson's prefaces to the Memoires et lettres, and Le Cardinal de Bernis depuis son ministere (Paris, 1884); E. et J. de

Goncourt

GONCOURT, DE

, Mme de Pompadour (Paris, 1888), and Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, t. viii.

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