After serving as vicar to the bishop of Laon, in 1693 he went to Rome as auditor of the Rota. Created cardinal on 17 May 1706, he was soon afterwards appointed French ambassador to the Holy See and for many years had to deal, among other things, with all religious questions and the bull Unigenitus. On 8 June 1716 he was appointed bishop of Bayeux and on 11 May 1718 archbishop of Cambrai, but he never took possession of these sees.
BIBL.: Moroni, LXXIX, p. 267; M. de Saint-Alias, Nobiliaire universel de France, X, Paris 1876, p. 189; A. Le Roy, La France et Rome de 1700 à 1715, ibid. 1892, V. index; Pastor, XV, V. index; Eubel, V, pp. 111 and 139. Cf. also the bibliography of GIANSENISM. Renata Orazi Ausenda