François Fénelon

François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon (1651 to 1715) was a French Catholic archbishop, theologian, poet and writer, best known as the author of The Adventures of Telemachus. Educated by private tutors and then in Cahors and Paris, he was ordained around 1675, joined the Sulpician Fathers and became tutor to the Duke of Burgundy, grandson of Louis XIV, in 1689. His Telemachus, written for the young duke, doubles as a sharp critique of absolute monarchy. He also wrote a Treatise on the Existence of God, a refutation of the system of Nicolas Malebranche on nature and grace, and works on the education of girls. As Archbishop of Cambrai from 1696 he defended the Quietism of Madame Guyon against Bossuet, and the Inquisition condemned his Maxims of the Saints in 1699, after which he submitted to the pope. He argued that duty to humankind outranks duty to any single country.