it with impatience, having no wish but to obey, no fear
but to be in the wrong, no object but peace. I hope that it will be seen
from my silence, my unreserved submission, my constant horror of
illusion, my isolation from any book and any person of a suspicious sort,
that the evil you would fain have caused to be apprehended is as
chimerical as the scandal has been real, and that violent measures taken
against imaginary evils turn to poison."

Fenelon was condemned on the 12th of March, 1699; the sentence of Rome
was mild, and hinted no suspicion of heresy; it had been wrested from the
pope by the urgency of Louis XIV. "It would be painful to his Majesty,"
wrote the Bishop of Meaux in the king's name, "to see a new schism
growing up amongst his subjects at the very time that he is applying
himself with all his might to the task of extirpating that of Calvin, and
if he saw the prolongation, by manoeuvres which are incomprehensible, of
a matter which appeared to be at an end. He will know what he has to do,
and will take suitable resolutions, still hoping, nevertheless, that his
Holiness will not be pleased to reduce him to such disagreeable
extremities." When the threat reached Rome, Innocent XII. had already
yielded.

Fenelon submitted to the pope's decision completely and unreservedly.
"God gives me grace to be at peace amidst bitterness and sorrow," he
wrote to the Duke of Beauvilliers on the 29th of March, 1699. "Amongst
so many troubles I have one consolation little fitted to be known in the
world, but solid enough for those who seek God in good faith, and that
is, that my conduct is quite decided upon, and that I have no longer to
deliberate. It only remains for me to submit and hold my peace; that is
what I have always desired. I have now but to choose the terms of my
submission; the shortest, the simplest, the most absolute, the most
devoid of any restriction, are those that I rather prefer. My conscience
is disburdened in that of my superior. In all this, far from having an
eye to my advantage, I have no eye to any man; I see but God, and I am
content with what He does."

Bossuet had triumphed: his vaster mind, his more sagacious insight, his
stronger judgment had unravelled the dangerous errors in which Fenelon
had allowed himself to be entangled. The Archbishop of Cambrai, however,
had grown in the estimation of good men on account of his moderation, his
gentle and high-spirited independence during