The royal confessor and his rivals in seventeenth-century France

The most memorable portraits of the French royal confessorsof any period are in Saint-Simon's memoirs, and his judgementsof them have survived relatively unscathed compared to thosehe delivered on Louis XIV's ministers generally. His accountassumes that royal confessors normally wielded huge influence,but in fact the situation that he describes applies only toLouis XIV's confessors. This essay attempts to put the riseof the confessor into its historical context from Henri IV'sreign onwards, primarily by attempting to analyse the rivalsand alternatives to the confessor—grand almoners, archbishopsof Paris, cardinal ministers. The solutions that emerged underLouis XIV were in no way inevitable, which may explain why theydid not survive him. The longevity of his confessors in officecontrasts sharply with the fragility of earlier generationsof confessors and reflects the shifts in the roles they playedwithin court and ecclesiastical politics.