Caussin, Nicolas

CAUSSIN, NICOLAS. - Jesuit, b. at Troyes on 27 May 1583, d. at Paris on 2 July 1651. Chosen, for his fame as a preacher and writer, by Richelieu as confessor to Louis XIII (1637), he soon incurred the wrath of the powerful cardinal, who had him exiled to Quimper the same year, because he had insisted with the king that he remedy three abuses, all the work of the cardinal: discord within the royal family, the impoverishment of France on account of so many wars, and the alliance with the Protestants. After Richelieu's death, C. was recalled to Paris by Anne of Austria. His disgrace was judged in various and insulting ways; but its only cause was his uprightness of conscience, which did not permit him to tolerate, without opposing them, the grave evils mentioned (cf. B. Duhr, I Gesuiti. Favole e leggende, Italian trans., II, Florence 1908, pp. 290-91).

He wrote collections of sermons and works of literature and controversy; particularly to be remembered: Eloquentiae sacrae et humanae parallela (Paris 1619) against the defects of the preaching of that time, and La Cour sainte (3 vols., ibid. 1624, 1629, 1631), a kind of sacred politics to be used by the great of the earth: sovereigns, prelates, statesmen for good example and the good of the people.

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