Talleyrand, Alexandre-Angélique, Duke of

TALLEYRAND, Alexandre-Angélique, Duke of. - Cardinal, b. in Paris on 16 Oct. 1736, d. there on 20 June 1821. Uncle of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and former bishop of Autun, he studied at the College of La Flèche and at the Seminary of St. Sulpice.

Ordained a priest, he became almoner of the King, vicar general of Verdun in 1762, coadjutor of the archbishop of Reims, de la Roche-Aymon, whom he succeeded in 1777; he entrusted the direction of that Seminary to the Sulpicians and founded a Mont de Piété at Reims. Elected in 1789 as a deputy of the clergy to the Estates General, he was a member of the Constituent Assembly and there defended the rights of the Church. Shortly thereafter he left France and settled at Aachen, at Weimar and at Brunswick, until Louis XVIII in 1803 summoned him to his side at Warsaw. After the Concordat of 1801 he was among the bishops who refused to tender their resignations. Grand almoner of the King in 1808, he returned to France in 1814 and was again in the King's retinue at Ghent during the Hundred Days. Created a Peer of France in the same year, he had a large part in the conclusion of the Concordat of 1817. After finally renouncing the archbishopric of Reims, he was created by Pius VII, on 28 July 1817, cardinal and on 1 Oct. archbishop of Paris. He took possession of the new see in 1819 and imposed upon the priests of the diocese the acceptance of a formulary favorable to Jansenism.