BERNIS, FRANÇOIS-JOACHIM DE PIERRES de. — Cardinal, born 22 May 1715 at St.-Marcel de l'Ardèche, of noble family, studied first with the Jesuits, then at the seminary of Saint-Sulpice. He settled in Paris as a guest of his cousin, the Baron de Montmorency. He lived at court. A man of sensitive and refined spirit, he embodied the typical, ultimately absurd figure of the Christian illuminist: he rejected impiety but believed in the rationalism of his age. “I have reproached myself as a Christian,” he said, “but not as an honnête homme.” He is among the most suggestive figures of bourgeois humanitarianism in the century. Voltaire praised his esprit. His poems opened the doors of the French Academy to him in 1744. In 1751 he was sent as ambassador to Venice, where he led a very worldly life. Returning to Paris, he was ordained a priest (1755) and the following year departed for Vienna.
The situation was very delicate, and he sought to temporize diplomatically until the agreement reached between Prussia and England convinced him to
(photo Alinari)
BERNINI, PIETRO — *The Assumption*, relief in the baptistery chapel of the basilica of Saint Mary Major — Rome.