HARLAY DE CHAMPVALLON, FRANÇOIS DE

HARLAY DE CHAMPVALLON, FRANÇOIS de. – French prelate, born on 14 August 1625 in Paris, died on 6 August 1695 in Conflans. Archbishop of Rouen in 1651, he was transferred in 1671 to the see of Paris.

A skilled speaker and preacher, ambitious in character, an accomplished courtier, and imbued with Gallican ideas, he was particularly favored by Louis XIV. He presided over the Assembly of the French clergy in 1681, which drew up the four Gallican Articles. He was always profoundly opposed to the authority of the pope. He maintained that a bishop, once confirmed by the pontiff, could act within his diocese in whatever manner seemed most appropriate to him, without having to render an account of it to the bishop of Rome.