Lucien leaves the bishopric of Brittany vacant

Lucien de Chrétien’s refusal to nominate a bishop for Brittany turns a court appointment into a question of who will control the province’s resources. Although a new bishop could provide religious direction, the revenues of the office would flow in part to Rome; leaving it vacant would instead preserve money for the Crown and food for parishioners facing a poor harvest. Lucien gives the King a blunt public reason for his choice, but declines to explain its charitable consequences, making the decision both a fiscal intervention and a study in pride, discretion, and courtly credit.

The vacant see

During a discussion with Louis XIV, the King notes that Brittany lacks a bishop and explains that a nominee could be invested alongside other bishops once the treaty is signed. He asks Lucien whom he wishes to have appointed. Lucien answers, “To Nemo, Sire.” The King understands this as a refusal to nominate anyone and asks whether Lucien means no one. The exchange makes the vacancy an active choice rather than an oversight: the appointment is available, and Lucien deliberately declines to fill it.

François de la Chaise intervenes with an alternative. If Lucien has no nominee, he suggests, the position and its revenue might be given elsewhere. He objects that Brittany needs religious direction, argues that Lucien’s family is already sufficiently wealthy, and invokes the province’s reputation. Lucien cuts him off, insisting that he was asked for a suggestion and has given one; the King will decide what to do. Louis XIV does not immediately settle the matter. His answer preserves the distinction between Lucien’s recommendation and royal authority over the appointment.

Revenue, harvest, and motive

The practical stakes are not confined to ecclesiastical administration. A new bishop would send much of the revenue from his lands to Rome. Without a bishop’s household and its associated responsibilities, parishioners would pay their taxes to Louis XIV and retain more of what they produced. With a poor harvest threatened, that difference could leave them with something to eat. Lucien’s refusal therefore protects local material resources, even as François de la Chaise frames the vacancy as a failure to provide spiritual leadership.

Lucien’s stated explanation is that leaving the post open suits his family. That answer does not disclose the food-security consequence, and his private thoughts supply a reason for the omission: he considers himself too proud to explain, because he expects the Marquise de Maintenon might take credit for the decision and believe she had shamed him into an unfamiliar act of charity. The narrative thus places practical generosity beside a refusal to be seen as having been persuaded into it. Lucien acts for parishioners’ material benefit, but guards the authorship of that choice as carefully as he guards his independence.

Gifts and obligations at court

Other exchanges involving Lucien give the decision a broader context of money, loyalty, and royal favor. After the King’s encounter with a galleon’s captain, Lucien hands the captain a small, heavy leather sack and then follows Louis XIV’s conveyance. The captain finds a double handful of louis d’or commemorating the King—a fortune for someone of his station—and calls after the departing King with thanks, including an irreverent reference to him as a royal jester. The court’s surprise, and the amusement of the chevalier de Lorraine and Monsieur, show that the gift becomes a public moment as well as a transfer of money.

Later, Lucien offers Yves de la Croix a leather sack twice the size of the purse given to the captain, presenting it as a mark of Louis XIV’s regard. Yves refuses. He explains that, since taking religious orders, he has wanted nothing beyond the King’s past help: Louis XIV saved his sister from the war in Martinique and gave him the means to advance his work. Marie-Josèphe de la Croix steps between the men and accepts the purse herself. Lucien places its weight of gold in her palm; their gloved and roughened fingertips brush before he withdraws his hand without acknowledging the contact. The exchange contrasts Yves’s refusal of further patronage with Lucien’s role as a distributor of royal money, and shows that a royal gift can be received, declined, or redirected rather than simply accepted as an obligation.

Discretion and continued service

Lucien’s later dealings at court continue to position him as a mediator. When Louis XIV hands him Marie-Josèphe’s letter concerning Sherzad’s proposed ransom, Lucien opens it knowing what it says: he had recommended that the letter be simple. Its message offers a great treasure ship as ransom. The episode does not revisit the vacant bishopric, but it echoes Lucien’s preference for controlled presentation: in the earlier council he withholds an explanation of his motives; here he has helped shape how another person’s offer reaches the King.

The bishopric remains a recommendation awaiting Louis XIV’s decision, not an appointment Lucien can settle unilaterally. Its significance lies in the consequences he identifies by refusing to nominate: the choice over whether revenue goes toward Rome or remains available to the Crown and its subjects. Against that material calculation, the other exchanges reveal a court where gold carries the King’s favor, where gratitude can take the form of refusal, and where credit for an act may matter almost as much as the act itself.