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| Prince-Bishop César-Guillaume de La Luzerne | |
|---|---|
| Name | César-Guillaume de La Luzerne |
| Birth date | 10 January 1738 |
| Birth place | Paris, Kingdom of France |
| Death date | 14 April 1821 |
| Death place | Paris, Kingdom of France |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | Clergyman, diplomat, bishop |
| Office | Bishop of Langres; French ambassador to Rome |
Prince-Bishop César-Guillaume de La Luzerne was a French prelate, diplomat, and royalist politician active in the late Ancien Régime, the Revolution, and the Bourbon Restoration. He served as Bishop of Langres, a peer of France, and as extraordinary ambassador to the Holy See, engaging with figures and institutions across Paris, Rome, and Versailles. His career intersected with numerous clerical, royal, and international actors during the reigns of Louis XV, Louis XVI, and Louis XVIII.
Born into the noble La Luzerne family in Paris, he was the son of Anne-Julienne de Lourmel and César-Antoine de La Luzerne, linking him to the Breton aristocracy associated with Brittany, Normandy, and the House of La Trémoille through intermarriage. His siblings included notable figures in French public life, connecting him to the networks of the Parlement of Paris, the Estates-General of 1789, and families represented at the Palace of Versailles. Educated at institutions influenced by Jansenism controversies and the Sorbonne, he formed early ties with clerical patrons in the Diocese of Bayeux, the Diocese of Évreux, and the Archdiocese of Rouen. His upbringing placed him amid the cultural circles frequented by members of the Académie Française, the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and salons associated with figures like Madame de Pompadour and Marie Antoinette.
Ordained in the mid-18th century, he advanced through benefices and chapters tied to the Catholic Church in France, serving in capacities that brought him into contact with the Curia, the Council of Trent’s historical legacy, and the reformist currents debated at synods in Reims and Tours. Nominated Bishop of Langres, he assumed the episcopal see that historically conferred the secular dignity of peerage, aligning him with other peers such as the Dukes of Burgundy, the Princes of Condé, and cardinals resident in Rome. His episcopal administration engaged with clergy from the Diocese of Langres, seminaries influenced by the Council of Trent catechetical norms, and charitable institutions linked to the Sisters of Charity and the Oratory of Jesus. He presided over liturgical observances connected to relic translations and diocesan visitations, communicating with leading prelates including Cardinal de Rohan, Cardinal de Bernis, and Cardinal de la Roche-Aymon.
As a peer of France and royal chaplain, he operated at the intersection of ecclesiastical and royal politics, interacting with ministers like Étienne François, duc de Choiseul, Charles Alexandre de Calonne, and Jacques Necker. Appointed extraordinary ambassador to the Holy See, he negotiated with Pope Pius VI and officials of the Roman Curia amid disputes involving the Gallican Church, bishops from France, and representatives of the Holy Roman Empire. His diplomatic remit brought him into contact with envoys from the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Habsburg Monarchy, and the Kingdom of Naples, and with intellectual currents represented by Voltaire’s critics and defenders of papal authority like Hugues Felicité Robert de Lamennais’s predecessors. At the royal court, he attended councils chaired by Louis XVI and consulted with court figures such as Comte d'Artois, Madame du Barry, and members of the House of Bourbon.
During the convulsions of 1789 and subsequent years, he remained a royalist and defender of episcopal rights, confronting legislative measures from the National Constituent Assembly, the Legislative Assembly, and later the National Convention. He opposed the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and the policies implemented by ministers like Maximilien de Robespierre and Georges Danton, aligning instead with émigré aristocrats such as the Prince of Condé and clerical counter-revolutionaries collaborating with the Vatican. His stance brought him into contact with other refractory bishops, including Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord’s clerical interlocutors and proponents of ecclesiastical independence like Bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet’s legacy advocates. Exile and diplomatic maneuvering connected him with émigré centers in Coblenz, Brussels, and Coblentz, and with foreign monarchs sympathetic to the Bourbon cause, including representatives of George III and Frederick William II of Prussia.
After years of upheaval, he returned to France following the first Bourbon Restoration and the accession of Louis XVIII, participating in the religious and political realignments overseen by the Congress of Vienna settlement and the policies of ministers such as Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord and Armand-Emmanuel de Vignerot du Plessis, duc de Richelieu. He resumed some pastoral functions in Paris and at his former seat in Langres, interacting with clerical peers like Cardinal Fesch and members of the restored royal household including Comte d'Artois and Prince de Condé. He died in Paris in 1821 during the reign of Louis XVIII, his funeral attracting attendees from the Clergy of France, conservative deputies from the Chamber of Deputies, and royal dignitaries associated with the Bourbon Restoration.
Historians assess him within debates about the Ancien Régime’s clerical elite, the role of the Gallicanism tradition, and the conflicts between the French Revolution and the Catholic Church. Biographers situate him among contemporaries such as Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet’s heirs, Cardinal de Fleury’s network, and the émigré leadership organized around the Prince of Condé. His diplomatic correspondence is compared to dispatches by ambassadors like François-Joachim de Pierre de Bernis and Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, and his episcopal rulings are analyzed in studies of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy controversies alongside works on Pope Pius VII’s later negotiations. In cultural memory he is referenced in scholarship on clerical resistance to revolutionary secularization, studies of the Bourbon Restoration clergy, and monographs concerning noble families such as the La Marck and La Rochefoucauld lineages. Overall, he is regarded as a representative of conservative, monarchical clericalism that navigated ecclesiastical diplomacy, royal patronage, and revolutionary exile.
Category:French Roman Catholic bishops Category:18th-century French people Category:19th-century French clergy