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François de Salignac de la Mothe Fénelon |
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Fénelon was a great and influential Catholic churchman, theologian, pedagogical thinker, and leader of quietism, a spiritual movement eventually declared heretical, an occurrence that caused his disgrace and exile from his prestigious and influential post as bishop of Cambrai and as preceptor of the duc de Bourgogne, grandson of Louis XIV. Fénelon's 1694 eloquent letter to Louis XIV boldly criticizing the sun-king's financial and foreign policies testifies to his courageous independence of thought in an age of absolutism. He also had a lively interest in tragedy, comedy, history, and rhetoric and played a notable part in the Quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns. His 1699 pedagogical novel Les Avantures de Télémaque, fils d'Ulysse (The Adventures of Telemachus, Son of Ulysses), written primarily for his royal pupil, was immensely popular and testifies to a growing interest in education that culminated in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile, ou De l'éducation (Emile, or on Education, 1762).
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