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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
If one studies rather attentively either the religious trends or the minor literary movements of seventeenth-century France, one constantly runs across the name of Jean-Pierre Camus, bishop of Belley, and yet one finds that adequate investigation of his work has not yet been undertaken. He does have, however, several claims to our attention. More exactly than any of his contemporaries, he interpreted the spirit of saint François de Sales. Fifty years before Quietism was introduced into France, he wrote at length and with discernment about pure love. He was famous in his day for his fearless attacks on the monastic orders; at the same time, Richelieu considered him one of his most valuable allies in his efforts to reconcile the Protestants and the Catholics. For all intents and purposes, he invented the religious novel, a genre which in our century has again become important in France. Finally he has the rather doubtful honor of being one of the three or four most prolific writers of France.
1 Charles Perrault, les Hommes illustres qui ont paru en France pendant ce siècle … (Paris, chez Antoine Dezallier, 1696-1700) i, 9-10.
2 Loret, la Muze historique …, Nouvelle édit. (Paris, chez Jannet, 1857-78), i, Lettre 16e, dimanche, 28 avril 1652.
3 Antoine Godeau, Oraison funèbre de Messire Iean-Pierre Camvs … (Paris, chez A. Vitré, 1653), p. 37.
4 la Pievse Ivllie … (Paris, chez Martin Lasnier, 1625), p. 570.
5 Idem, p. 579.
6 Lengley Dufresnoy, De l'usage des romans … avec une Bibliothèque des romans …, (Amsterdam, 1734), ii, 165-169. By error, two religious works are included in this list, Agathe et (sic for à) Lucie and Banquet d'Assuere. In t. i, pp. 23-28, the author discussed quite at length the moral issue involved in the writing of novels by the three prelates, Camus, Fénelon and Huet.
7 Bibliothèque universelle des romans (Paris, Lacombe, jan. 1776), ii, 5-17.
8 Saint-Marc Girardin, Cours de littérature dramatique, Nouvelle édit. (Paris, 1872), iv, 336-347.
9 Jean-Pierre Camus, Palombe ou la Femme honorable, précédée d'une étude littéraire sur Camus et le roman chrétien au XVIIe siècle par H. Rigault (Paris: Hachette, 1853), xlviii, 105.
10 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, édit. par Doyon et Marchesne (Paris, 1926-32), i, 169-184.
11 A copy of this rather rare work, which appears not to have been listed by any of Camus's bibliographers, is to be found in the University of Michigan library.
12 Joppin is mistaken about the order of publication of the various sorts of Camus's works, mentions only part of his numerous mystical treatises, and continues the error of former biographers on the date of Camus's birth.
13 Published in Etudes fransiscaines, mai-juin 1928, pp. 225-242.
14 Henri Bremond, Histoire littéraire du sentiment religieux en France depuis la fin des guerres de religion jusqu'à nos jours, Paris, Bloud et Gay, 1916-33, 11 vol. See especially t. i, p. 149-186, les Maítres salésiens. II. Jean-Pierre Camus; p. 273-307, le Roman dévot; t. vii, p. 140-162, Jean-Pierre Camus et le panmysticisme salésien; t. xi, pp. 184-283, Premiers assauts contre le pur amour. Camus et le panmysticisme salésien is reprinted from the Etudes fransiscaines in t. vii, pp. 140-162.
15 t. i, p. 150.
16 t. i, p. 186.
16a Paris, 1932. See especially pp. 89-90, 140-149, 165-167, 284-288, 329-333, 351-353, 357-359, 383-394, 410, 419-420, 442-445. Unfortunately, the work is not provided with an index.
17 Révérend père Niceron, Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire des hommes illustres dans la République des lettres. Avec un catalogue raisonné de leurs œuvres (Paris, Chez Briasson, 1729-45), xxxvi, 92-138.
18 Three of these, the novels, Alexis and la Corisande, and the collection of short stories, les Succès différens, are certainly by Camus: the first is mentioned by him in his Dessert au lecteur, following la Pievse Ivllie, the second is found in one of the catalogues which he was so fond of placing at the end of his works, and he mentioned the last in the preface of his Bovqvet d'histoires agréables. Most of the other titles are controversial works which may possibly have appeared in collections after having been printed separately. That the Bibliothèque nationale did not receive or keep all the writings of our fertile author is proved by the astonishing fact that it has now only three of the six volumes of his most important work, l'Esprit du B. François de Sales, Paris, 1641. Indeed I do not know where this work can be found. The British Museum does not possess a copy and as far as I know, it is not to be had in this country. Sainte-Beuve regretted that only an abridged edition was available when he wrote his Port-Royal in 1840. Camus bequeathed his library to the Capucian monastery which he had founded at his own expense in Belley. Probably he had in it copies of his own works, at least of this, his most important one. It would be interesting to investigate the fate of the monastery and of the bequest. When Depery wrote his Histoire hagiologique de Belley … in 1834 (Bourg, 2 vol.), Mgr. Devie, then bishop of Belley, was in possession of the precious collection of Camus's writings. Perhaps it is now preserved in the library of the bishopric of Belley.
There have been many abridged editions of l'Esprit du B. François de Sales, the first by Pierre Collot in 1727, Paris, 1 vol. (evidently the original was then obtainable); one by Depery, based on Collot, Paris, 1840; another by Baudry, Lyon, 1846; and one by l'abbé Migne, Petit-Montrouge, 1861. Among the English translations, note that by Mrs. Henrietta Louisa Farrer Lear, The Spirit of Saint Francis de (sic) Sales . . . (London, 1872).
18a Thus we see how erroneous is Joppin's assertion that Camus's novels, religious works and controversial writings appeared in about equal numbers yearly.
19 l'Esprit de François de Sales, édit. Collot (Paris, 1821), p. 179.
20 Depery, Histoire hagiologique de Belley, ii, 188-231.
21 C.-A. Sainte-Beuve, op. cit., i, 155-184, especially pp. 178 ff.
22 Tallemant des Réaux, Historiettes, 3e édit. par Monmerqué et Paulin Paris (Paris, 1854-60), iv, 148.
23 Naudœana et Patiniana … (Paris, 1701), i, 8-9.
24 Agathonphile, pp. 849-850.
25 la Pievse Ivllie, p. 579.
26 Cieoreste, ii, 782.
27 Cleoreste, ii, 646.
28 Petronille, Dilude, p. 480.
29 His humility in accepting this office after having had a diocese of his own ought to have silenced his bitter enemies.
30 Petronille, Dilude, p. 479.
31 Naudæana et Patiniana …, Paris, Florentin et Pierre Delaulne, 1701, Naudæana, pp. 8-9. “Les Italiens fond grand état de M. l'evêque de Bellay (sic), ils traduisent ses Livres, & admirent la fecondité de son esprit, d'en faire tant & de si bons & si promptement; ils sont un tems infini à faire un Romant, & se donnent bien de la peine & du mal de tête pour y reüssir …”
32 Admirable Events … (London, Printed by Thomas Harper for William Brooks, 1639).
33 The Loving Enemie … Written originally in the French Tongue, by the most incomparable Pen-man of this Age, J. P. Camus, B. of Belley… . (London, printed by J. G. and are to be sold by John Dakins, 1650).
34 le Choraste, ii, 711-712.
35 Agathonphile, pp. 837-938.
36 le Cleoreste, ii, 689, 696, 701.
37 Agathonphile, pp. 879-880.
38 la Pievse Ivllie, p. 577.
39 Agathonphile, pp. 860-867.
40 Cf. des Passions de l'âme.
41 Agathonphile, p. 907.
42 See les Spectacles d'horrevr, Préface, and the Subtitle of le Temoing aueugle, p. 58.
43 les Spectacles d'horrevr, pp. 164-172.
44 Idem, pp. 263-273.
45 l'Amphitheatre sanglant, Livre ii, no. XIV.
46 Idem, Livre i, no. XI.
47 Petronille, pp. 337.
48 Petronille, pp. 338-339.
49 This is the second time that Camus treated of this theme, which makes one wonder whether the author of Phèdre had read either one.
50 Agathonphile, p. 728.
51 A True Tragical History of Two Illustrious Italian Families: Couched under the Names of Alcimus and Vannoza (London, 1677), Book iv.
52 Idem, p. 62 (wrongly numbered 60).
53 Elise or Inocencie Guilty, p. 150.
54 Varietez historiques, t. 1, no. 1.
55 Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de Port-Royal … (Autrecht, 1742), iii, 368-369.
56 Palombe, p. 224 ff.
57 Palombe, p. 72.
58 Cleoreste, ii, 191-194.
59 Cleoreste, ii, 677-678.
60 Pétronille, Prelvde.
61 Bovqvets d'histoires agreables, pp. 54-110.
62 Cleoreste, ii, 791.
63 la Chaste martyre in les Evenemens singvliers, pp. 257 ff.
64 Agathonphile, p. 880. Elsewhere he declared that as for this novel, “le fond en est tres-veritable, & tout tiré des veines inespuisables & de ces mines d'or des Annales Ec-cléisastiques, qui ne peuuent estre contrariées sans offencer la Religion” (p. 851).
65 Amphitheatre sanglant, Au Lecteur.
66 For Straparole, see Cleoreste, I, 509-519; for Cervantes, les Evenemens singvliers, Preface; Boccace, Decades historiques, l'Avtevr à son lecteur.
67 Petronille, p. 444: “des Essais de Montaigne, Liure qui estoit autant en delices durant ma jeunesse qu'il m'est maintenant à desgoust.”
68 See Agathonphile, p. 880-881. See Magendie, op. cit., pp. 351-353, for discussion of sources.
69 Decades historiques, p. 152.
70 Petronille, p. 477.
71 Pelronille, p. 411-445.
72 les Evenemens singvliers, Préface.
73 Cleoreste, ii, 40.
74 Cleoreste, ii, 324.
75 Palombe, p. 523-524.
76 Cleoreste, i, 650-651.
77 Agathonphile, p. 54.
78 Palombe, p. 121.
79 Agathonphile, p. 13.
80 Agathonphile, pp. 214-215.
81 Agathonphile, pp. 92-94.
82 Decades historiques, pp. 295 ff, 5e Decade, no. 1.
83 Decades historiques, p. 295.
84 Decades historiques, p. 328, le Sainct mespris. Also see Petronille, p. 117, where he upheld a girl who resisted a forced marriage.
85 les Evenemens singuliers. ii, 39-50, la Femme accorte.
86 Bovqvet d'histoires agreables, pp. 264-281, la Vierge prudente.
87 Bovqvet d'histoires agreables, pp. 292-307, l'Enfant prodigue.
88 Varietez historiques, i, 263-267, le Serviteur reconnaissant.
89 les Leçons exemplaires (bound with Varietez historiques), Livre i, no. 7, le Financier.
90 Varietez historiques, i, 268-273, l'Impuissance de la grandeur. See also les Leçons exemplaires, Livre ii, no. 3, la Soudaine punition.
91 See Cleoreste, ii, 385-388, where Camus discussed frankly the merits and faults of the Spanish, Italian and French character. With a really international spirit, he declared: “Il n'y a rien de parfait sous la voute des Cieux, toutes les nations en general, ainsi que les particulieres, ont leurs deffauts … Chaque oyseau treuue beau son nid, son ramage & son plumage; mais c'est à ceux qui ne sont point partiaux de iuger auec églaité. La vraye Iustice est celle qui n'a point d'esgard aux personnes, ny aux nations, mais qui estime la Vertu par tout où elle loge, fust-elle dans vn Suisse ou dans vn Goth.” See also Varietez historiques, les Termes ambigus for rather fine observations on differences between the French and Italian races and on misunderstandings due to divergences in language.
92 Agathonphile, p. 914.
93 l'Amphitheatre sanglant, Livre ii, the last story, l'Intrigue funeste.
94 Tallemant des Réaux, Historiettes, 3e édit… . par Monmerqué et Paulin Paris (Paris: Techener, 1854-1860), iv, 146-157.
95 See Emile Magne, Bourgeois et financiers du XVIIe siècle. La Fin troublée de Tallemant des Réaux (Paris, 1922), p. 172.
96 See Antoine Adam, Théophile de Viau et la libre pensée française en 1620 (Paris, 1935). For Théophile's close relations with M. de Liancourt, see a manuscript Ode à M. de Liancourt, published by Jules Andrieu, in his Théophile de Viau, étude bio-bibliographique, avec une pièce inédite du poète … (Bordeaux, 1887), pp. 20-26. In the scholarly work by René Pintard, le Libertinage érudit dans la première noitié du XVII siècle, Paris 1943, we see Camus moving about with ease among the learned free-thinkers of his time.
97 Esprit du B. saint François de Sales, édit. Collot, p. 166. The none too authoritative Amelot de La Houssaye declared in his Mémoires historiques, politiques, critiques et littéraires, (La Haye, chez Pierre de Hondt, 1737), ii, 268, that Camus ate a great deal at noon but in the evening contented himself with a crust of bread and a glass of water.
98 There is a handsome full page in-folio portrait of him in Perrault's Hommes illustres, which was reproduced by Depery in his Histoire hagiologique. Also a portrait by Mellan is found in Bremond's Histoire littéraire du sentiment religieux en France. Philippe de Champagne painted a portrait which is now in the museum at Ghent.
99 See for example, Palombe (1625), la Pievse Ivllie … Par M. L'Evesqve de Belley (1625), and le Cleoreste de Monseignevr de Belley (1626), the dédicace of all three of which is signed Iean Pierre E. de Belley. In Agathonphile par Monseigneur l'Euesque de Belley (1621), the dédicace is signed, I. P. C. According to the title-page, l'Amphitheatre sanglant (1630) is by I. P. C., Evesqve de Belley; Petronille, (1632) and Varietez historiqves (1641) are by Monseigneur l'Evesque de Belley; and les Evenemens singvliers (1643) are attributed to Mr de Belley.
100 Several of these works are found also in libraries not here indicated. The author of this article would be grateful for information on any additional titles which are available.