Table Of ContentFORDHAM UNIVERSITY
GRADUATE SCHOOL
.....................19. AZ.
This dissertation prepared under my direction by
Mother Maria Teresa Gruevaraj .H.iS.C.J.
entitled ffhe Htimanlam. of St; Francis de Sales
has been accepted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the
Degree of Dootor of P hilosophy
(Faculty Adviser)
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THE HUMANISM OF ST. FRANCIS BE SALES
BY
MOTHER M. T, GUEVARA, R.S.C.J.
M.A#, FordHam University, *39
DISSERTATION
SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR IN PHILOSOPHY IN THE DEPARTMENT OF
ROMANCE LANGUAGES AT FORDHAM UNIVERSITY
NEW YORK
1941
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter
Page
PREFACE .......................................... iv
introduction
The Times of Saint Francis de S a le s......................... 1
Part the First
. CLASSICAL HUMANISM AND ST. FRANCIS DE SALES
I. HUMANISTIC PREPARATION OF ST. FRANCIS IN PARIS ................. 38
II. LEGAL AND THEOLOGICAL. STUDIES OF ST. FRANCIS AT PADUA 67
III. FAVORITE AUTHORS AND THEIR AUTHORITY . . . . . . . . ____ .... 83
IV. CLASSICAL INFLUENCE OH HIS MATTER AND THOUGHT...............................97
V. ■ CLASSICAL INFLUENCE IN RELATION TO FORM .114
VI. THE STYLE OF ST. FRANCIS ............ ...135
Part the Second
THE HUMANISM OF THE RENAISSANCE AND ST. -FRANCIS BE SALES
VII. PRINCIPAL PHILOSOPHICAL CURRENTS OF THE TIMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 5 7
VIII. STOICISM AND ST. FRANCIS DE SALES ...............................1 7 4
IX. ST. FRANCIS DE SALES AND MONTAIGNE’S NATURALISM...................195
X. THE PLATONISM OF ST. FRANCIS DE SALES *.......... 813
XI. SYNTHESIS OF ST. FRANCIS’ PERFECT HUMANISM: HIS
INFLUENCE AND POWER OF ATTRACTION.............................. 229
APPENDIX I ....................... .243
St. Francis de Sales’ Explanation of the Apostles’ Creed
APPENDIX II .............................. ............2 4 4
Comparative Study of Periodical Sentences in the Astree
Df H. D’Urfe and in the Traitte de 1* Amour de Dieu
BIBLIOGRAPHY . ..................... 346
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THE HUMANISM OP ST. FHANCIS DE SALES
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PREFACE
The literary portrait of St, Francis de Sales, was for a long
time not only incomplete, but even out of focus. It was due in part to
i
the fact that the first Editors of his works had presented him only as
the holy director of souls, the apostle of perfection and Divine Love,
To realize this picture of the master of interior life , they had sup
pressed some of his letters, or had linked together passages of differ
ent wo lies teaching the same spiritual principles or dealing with spe
cial virtues. They have le ft out the Humanist, overlooked the loving
and tender friend, ignored the winning personality of the saint who
could so simply and so truly say of himself: "Je suis tant horame que
rien pius.**
Sainte-Beuve, in the first volume of his Port-Royal, was the
first literary critic to realize the importance of St, Francis de Sales
as a classical author of French literatu re. But he had not the appro
priate m aterial to work with, as it was only at the end of the nine
teenth century that a scholarly and complete edition of the works of
St. Francis de Sales was undertaken by the Visitandine Huns of An
necy,
The enormous labor involved in auch a publication was directed
nr-,,-- “ 'kM ......' k/v r n - »■ ,; x ^ ti.it, r ' .< . ' ’X ' ’ T ^ ' 11 ’ ^ '
1, Saint Franqois de Sales, Oeuvres Completes. The edition defini
tive quoted in th is thesis (unless stated di fferentiy) w ill be
that* of Annecy, 1693-1035, in 26 volum es.The number of the
volume and a shortened title w ill be given in each case. For
instance: Oeuvres, III, Vie devote. (For introduction a la vie
devote)•
by the learned Do® Benedict llackey, O.S.B,, and Father Navatel, S. J.
Thus the ardent zeal of the Daughters of St. Francis acquired the addi
tional quality of patient and scientific erudition* The work of re
search, the collation of the numerous manuscripts widely scattered
throughout the country in various convents, as well as in private hands,
was only the firs t step in their enterprise. They had to check the
authenticity, compare and correct the successive end various editions
of each particular document when the manuscripts were not extant.
■ ■ v
The success of th eir work was deeply appreciated by scholars as
well as by lovers of St. Francis. To mention but one instance: When
Mgri du Bois de la V illerabel, Bishop of Annecy, was received in prl-
n
vate audience by the Holy Father, H us HI expressed his warn approval
on receiving one of the la st volumes of the splendid series:
Nous croyons avoir quel que competence en cette
mailers* Eh blent croyez-nous; cette edition dee
Oeuvres de Saint Francois de Bales est une des plus
belles et des mieux rdussies de noire epoqua. Bien
ne lu i manque; alia nous prdsente telle quell© et
sans defeats 1 * oeuvre incomparable du saint dveque.^
Nor should i t cause surprise that from the publication of the
firs t volumes keen interest was aroused in this figure of an earlier
day who had once occupied the foreground of the literary stage.
Saint Francis was a pure Frenchman from every point of view but that
of birth, for he was born in Savoy, at that time an independent duchy.
In his education at Paris, in his literary tradition, la his fam iliar
ity with a ll the native lights and shades of thought and expression
1. Ibid. . XXVI, Opuscules. Introdue., p. vi.
n i
la an age so passionately devoted to every fineness of good form - he
is gloriously and super-excellently French.
It is generally agreed that French prose in a master hand is un
rivalled in its subtlety, precision and epigrammatic force. The logi
cal bent of the French mind, its love of rule, its ceremonial cheer*
vances dating from bygone times, its attention to the slightest shades
of nuance have given modem French a power and definiteness that make
it e perfect medium of clear expression, the foundation of this consum
see
mate medium was laid in the sixteenth century* We it in the fertile
mind and subtle wit of Saint Francis, whose prose is already an amalgam
of diamond clarity, astounding sim plicity and extraordinary power*
On the appearance of the firs t volumes of the Oeuvres Completes,
c ritics lost no time in availing themselves of the new vistas thus of*
fared* A brief survey of these w riters may be useful and give point to
the aim of th is thesis*
Strowski seems to have been the firs t. His monograph, published
in 1898 as a doctoral thesis, was entitled: Saint Francois de Sales:
Introduction a i yhistoire da sentiment religious en France an dlx-
septiemo siecle* This was an authoritative woik, revised and enlarged
in 1928, which set out to demonstrate that St. Francis was: VL’homraa
qui propagea dans la France entisre le sentiment rellgieux, lu i donna
une nature et une definition particulieres, et forma ainsi, pour un
siecle, l ,ane de la France*
1. F. Strowski, Saint Francois de Sales, Paris, PI on et Nourrit,
1928, p* 43.
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