John Baptist de La Salle: Two Early Biographies Poster inviting the public to attend baccalaureate ceremonies at which five candidates, John Baptist de La Salle among them, would receive the licentiate in theology. January 26, 1678. Photo E. Rousset (ER, slide 45). John Baptist de La Salle: Two Early Biographies by Dom François-Elie Maillefer, OSB and by Brother Bernard, FSC Original translations by William J. Quinn, FSC Revised translations with notes by Donald C. Mouton, FSC Edited by Paul Grass, FSC 1996 Lasallian Publications Landover, Maryland Lasallian Publications Sponsored by the Regional Conference of Christian Brothers of the United States and Toronto Editorial Board Luke Salm, FSC Chairman William Quaintance, FSC Francis Huether, FSC Director of Publications Copy Editor Miguel Campos, FSC Donald Mouton, FSC Daniel Burke, FSC William Mann, FSC Ronald Isetti, PhD Joseph Schmidt, FSC Augustine Loes, FSC John Baptist de La Salle: Two Early Biographies is volume 1 of Lasallian Resources: Biographies of John Baptist de La Salle by his contemporaries. Copyright © 1996 by Christian Brothers Conference All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress card catalog number 96-083015 ISBN 0-944808-15-8 (hardcover) ISBN 0-944808-16-6 (paperback) Cover: John Baptist de La Salle vested as a canon; portrait in the convent of the Sisters of the Rue d’Ernemont (Rouen), a congregation founded by Canon Blain. Photo E. Rousset (ER, plate 15, slide 81). Lasallian Publications Sponsored by the Regional Conference of Christian Brothers of the United States and Toronto, Lasallian Publications will produce 30 vol- umes on the life, writings, and work of John Baptist de La Salle (1651- 1719), founder of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, and on the early history of the Brothers. These volumes will be presented in two series. ✦ Lasallian Sources, in 13 volumes, consists of new English transla- tions and editions of all the writings of John Baptist de La Salle. ✦ Lasallian Resources consists of the three early biographies of John Baptist de La Salle, four thematic studies based on the documents contemporary with the foundation of the Brothers of the Chris- tian Schools, and translations and editions of current Lasallian studies. Volumes Already Published in This Series Lasallian Sources The Letters of John Baptist de La Salle. Translated and edited by Col- man Molloy, FSC, and Augustine Loes, FSC (1988). The Rules of Christian Decorum and Civility. Translated by Richard Ar- nandez, FSC, and edited by Gregory Wright, FSC (1990). Collection of Various Short Treatises. Translated by William J. Batters- by, FSC, and edited by Daniel Burke, FSC (1993). Meditations by John Baptist de La Salle. Translated by Richard Arnan- dez, FSC, and Augustine Loes, FSC. Edited by Augustine Loes, FSC, and Francis Huether, FSC (1994). Explanation of the Method of Interior Prayer. Original translation by Richard Arnandez, FSC. Revised and edited by Donald Mouton, FSC (1995). The Conduct of the Schools. Translated by F. de La Fontainerie and Richard Arnandez, FSC. Edited with notes by William Mann, FSC (1996). v Lasallian Resources Early Biographies The Life of John Baptist de La Salle. Canon John Baptist Blain. Trans- lated by Richard Arnandez, FSC (1985). Early Documents John Baptist de La Salle: The Formative Years. Luke Salm, FSC (1989). Current Lasallian Studies John Baptist de La Salle and Special Education: A Study of Saint Yon. Othmar Würth, FSC. Translated by Augustine Loes, FSC. Adapted by Francis Huether, FSC. Edited by Bonaventure Miner, FSC (1988). So Favored by Grace: Education in the Time of John Baptist de La Salle. Edited by Lawrence J. Colhocker, FSC (1991). vi CONTENTS Introduction to Dom François-Elie Maillefer’s Manuscript . 11 Author’s Preface . 18 The Life of Saint John Baptist de La Salle . 21 Notes . 200 Introduction to Brother Bernard’s Manuscript . 257 Author’s Preface . 266 John Baptist de La Salle Part One . 271 Part Two . 293 Appendix . 337 Notes . 341 Bibliography Cahiers lasalliens, numerical order . 351 Cahiers lasalliens and other references, alphabetical order . 354 Index . 361 vii ILLUSTRATIONS Invitation poster for De La Salle’s baccalaureate ceremonies frontispiece Title page of Maillefer’s manuscript . 16 Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Reims . 23 Blessed Nicolas Roland . 25 Abbey of Saint-Rémi . 36 Map: France at the time of Louis XIV . 77 De La Salle is named Superior . 91 Chartres . 93 King Louis XIV . 101 Rouen . 121 Avignon . 135 Stairway to De La Salle’s room in Grenoble . 158 De La Salle’s garret room in Grenoble . 159 The monastery of Grande Chartreuse . 161 Parménie . 163 De La Salle is ordered to return . 168 Mme de Maintenon . 173 Brother Barthélemy . 176 Map: Brother Barthélemy’s tour of the Institute . 178 Election of Brother Barthélemy as Superior . 180 viii Illustrations ✦ ix Letters Patent . 195 Brother Timothée . 196 Title page of Brother Bernard’s manuscript . 264 Reims . 275 Nicolas Barré . 298 Three Brothers . 323 Charles-Maurice Le Tellier . 334 Introduction to Maillefer’s Manuscript By Donald C. Mouton, FSC François-Elie Maillefer, the biographer of John Baptist de La Salle, was born in Rouen on August 6, 1684, and baptized François-Hélye. His mother was John Baptist de La Salle’s sister, Marie, married to Jean Maillefer, who came from an established and honorable family of Reims. Like his father before him, Jean also was a cloth merchant, the business of some of the best families in the city.1 His was a family of writers. His grandfather had begun compos- ing the family history, which was continued by François-Elie’s father.2 The literary legacy of François-Elie himself is quite limited. Only one of his works survived a devastating fire that destroyed all but 150 of the 25,000 volumes in the library of the royal abbey of Saint Rémi in Reims on the night of January 15–16, 1774. On April 4, 1711, at the age of twenty-six, François-Elie was or- dained a Benedictine priest of the Congregation of Saint-Maur and en- tered the abbey of Saint Faron in Meaux, where he joined his older brother. Esteemed as a monk of great integrity and talent (he had a sonorous voice for preaching and singing, even unto old age), François-Elie Maillefer held a number of positions of responsibility in various monasteries. In 1723 he was appointed master librarian at the abbey of Saint Rémi. His discernment and good taste for first editions enriched the library with valuable holdings. He remained at the abbey until his death on October 31, 1761. Twelve years later, the library lay in ruins. Amidst the rubble was the one book of his that survived, Vie de M. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, which he had deposited in unpub- lished form in the Saint Rémi library in 1740. 11 12 ✦ John Baptist de La Salle: Two Early Biographies Two manuscripts The 1740 document is a reworked edition of one written earlier by François-Elie Maillefer in 1723 which he had reluctantly handed over in 1724 to the Superiors of the Institute of the Brothers of the Chris- tian Schools at Saint Yon in Rouen. The Brothers no doubt were anx- ious to acquire this unauthorized biography which they had not commissioned.3 In his Preface to the 1740 book, Maillefer complains about the violation of his good faith when the 1723 manuscript was not returned to him, but instead was handed over to an ecclesiastic, Canon Jean-Baptiste Blain, in Rouen, who plagiarized it for his own massive, two-volume biography of De La Salle. Maillefer’s original 1723 manuscript has not survived, but fortu- nately the text itself was saved from oblivion because of two copies which, though made independently of each other, are almost identi- cal. One anonymous copy, dated 1766, eventually found its way to a book-stand on the quays of the Seine in Paris, where someone pur- chased it in February 1870 and a month later thoughtfully gave it to the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, whose head- quarters at the time were in Paris. The other copy was made, proba- bly around 1775, by a distant relative of De La Salle, Jacques Carbon, a Canon Regular of Sainte-Geneviève in Paris. Later it became, for rea- sons unknown, the property of Marquis Ruinart de Brimont, who also bequeathed it to the Institute. Maillefer’s 1740 manuscript, in turn, sur- vived not only the fateful fire at the abbey of Saint Rémi but also the liquidation of the monastic libraries in 1791 during the French Revo- lution. It became the possession of the library of the city of Reims, where it remains safely to this day.4 Two versions In his 1740 Preface, Maillefer proposes to write a biography that is succinct, in contrast to the effusive volumes of Blain, and yet suffi- cient, in contrast to the incompleteness of the biography by Brother Bernard. This is a task, he notes, that he took upon himself in 1723, not on his own initiative but at the request of several intelligent and religious-minded persons. These, no doubt, were relatives who urged the librarian to become the biographer of a saint in the family, a beloved brother, uncle, relative, and Founder. They were acquainted with the attempt by Brother Bernard to write the life of John Baptist de La Salle, but they needed a more acceptable counter-biography be- cause of their family sensitivities and Jansenistic convictions.5 Introduction to Maillefer’s Manuscript ✦ 13 Contribution of Maillefer Although Maillefer had never met De La Salle,6 his admiration and feeling for his uncle are evident. He knew the family, the social circle, and the significant events in De La Salle’s life, and he gives a balanced presentation of the various people, events, and circumstances in- volved in the dramatic unfolding of his biography.