ARGENSON, RENÉ DE VOYER DE PAULMY, Count of. – Magistrate, b. at Blois on 13 Dec. 1623, d. at his château of Argenson (Touraine) on 10 May 1700. Upon his father’s death (1651) he succeeded him as ambassador to Venice. Recalled to Paris in 1655, he was sidelined by Mazarin and later by Colbert because he was “too devout.” He took advantage of this to devote himself entirely to good works in the Company of the Most Holy Sacrament (v.), to which he had been admitted in 1656.
A. Works: *Traité de la sagesse chrétienne, ou de la riche science de l'uniformité aux volontés de Dieu* (Paris 1651), attributed by many to the Jesuit father, and *L'art d'aimer Dieu*, akin to the foregoing. In 1695 he published his *Annales de la Compagnie du St. Sacrement*; for the poor of the Company’s hospital he compiled a collection of *Cantiques spirituels*.