Author Topic: Louis XIV (Read 2264 times)

s2srea · « **on:** August 17, 2012, 05:37:28 PM »

I was wondering if anyone here had particular thoughts on Louis XIV? I know he led a depraved lifestyle, but he also stood up for the church.

Telesphorus · « **Reply #1 on:** August 17, 2012, 05:48:43 PM »

I don't know much about him, but I think he probably became more devout after his marriage to Madame de Maintenon.

Hobbledehoy · « **Reply #2 on:** August 17, 2012, 06:58:12 PM »

Quote from: s2srea

I was wondering if anyone here had particular thoughts on Louis XIV? I know he led a depraved lifestyle, but he also stood up for the church.

I do not remember what I was told of him in the history courses, other than that he was called the "Sun King."

This brings to mind something whereupon I have oftentimes pondered: the question of praying for Catholics who have been historical figures in ages past, either publicly by having the Holy Sacrifice of the Sacred Altar offered for the suffrage of their souls, or privately by means of the recitation of the Holy Rosary and other prayers.

I think this is a salutary practice, if the person in question died professing the Catholic faith.

A Catholic who is noteworthy in the annals compiled by historians and lived a millennium or so ago may still be in Purgatory right now if he died in the state of grace but had one mortal sin or more duly absolved but for which he could not atone or make reparation.

Remember that Our Lady of the Rosary at Fatima told the shepherd children that a departed peer of theirs was to burn in Purgatory until Doomsday: what could a young girl in the rural countryside of one of the most Catholic countries in Europe (at that time) have done to deserve such a severe sentence?

One mortal sin alone, though duly absolved, according to St. Gertrude the Great and other Saints, can lead to a soul's imprisonment amidst the flames of Purgatory until Doomsday, for the malice of one mortal sin is infinite as it is an affront to the infinite sanctity and majesty of Our Lord, and the infinite graces He won for us during His Sacred Passion and distributed by the pure hands of the great Mother of God, the Mediatress of All Graces.

The just soul itself, separated from the body and immediately apprehending all things in the light of God's wisdom, would plunge itself in the flames of Purgatory as long as it takes before it is pure and worthy enough to appear before the Lord God whom it loves and for whom it yearns with all its energies. This same love and yearning serve to intensify the pains and purification of Purgatory all the more, because the soul at once loves God and yearns for His beatific embrace, and yet detests the stains of sin and longs to be thoroughly cleansed therefrom, making Purgatory a willing debt to be paid but with great pain and love.

However, such a soul does not merit thereby, because at death the soul cannot merit or demerit anymore. Purgatory is to be avoided by cultivating the interior life unto the ever-persevering progression through the purifying trials that are the threshold of the illuminative and unitive ways of the spiritual life: it is the life of mystical prayer which is the presage of heavenly beatitude and the state of the Saints' souls at death, who immediately transverse from this sublunary prison unto the celestial eternities of the beatific vision. This is the normal development of the life of prayer and grace, according to the teaching of Sts. Thomas Aquinas and John of the Cross, amongst others, as explained by such eminent theologians as Rev. Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.

Kephapaulos · « **Reply #3 on:** August 17, 2012, 11:18:38 PM »

In the case of Louis XIV, he disobeyed our Lord's request to consecrate France to His Sacred Heart and putting the image of the Sacred Heart on the royal banners and regalia. It is too bad his grandson Philip V of Spain did not also inherit the throne of France which was his by right. Philip V was a devout king and consecrated Spain to the Sacred Heart. He probably would have done the same for France and obeyed our Lord's request.

We do not know where Louis XIV is now, but I know that he expressed regret on his deathbed concerning the example he gave. It was something of the opposite of St. Louis IX's advice to his heir before he died.

Caraffa · « **Reply #4 on:** August 18, 2012, 12:02:34 AM »

Quote from: s2srea

I was wondering if anyone here had particular thoughts on Louis XIV? I know he led a depraved lifestyle, but he also stood up for the church.

Like Tele said, he became more fervent and devout once he married his second wife. He also did not always stand up for the Church; he did draw up the 1682 Gallican Articles and the Pope almost did excommunicate him. On a side note, there does seem to be a connection with Kings who want to subordinate the Church to the Crown/State and those that live continually self-indulgent lifestyles.

brotherfrancis75 · « **Reply #5 on:** August 18, 2012, 04:19:46 PM »

In Praise of the Roman Catholic Apollo

The Sun King, le roi soleil, ensured that the sun never set on the glory of Christendom. An Apollonian gloire settled over our Roman Catholic world, a grand inspiration to our Roman civilization that persists to this day. He gave us our incomparable public manners and customs that only grew to ever greater perfection until recently. He broke the Protestant power forever, reducing the Protestants and the Far North of Europe to utter and complete dependence on the Catholic Powers of Central and Southern Europe. He reduced Britain and Prussia, in their international relations, to little more than obedient valets of the Papacy.

Morally he successfully countered the dangerous opportunism of the first Jesuit Order, before their general suppression by Louis XIV's grandson Louis XV. Bourbon France upheld the traditional Catholic doctrine of Predestination against its dilution by the Spanish Habsburgs. The moral excellence of Christendom thereby rose to unprecedented new heights and the Sun King prepared for the world-wide and permanent defeat of Islam by the armies of Christ achieved through the eventual long-awaited grandiose universal triumph of the Catholics over Islam in the later 18th Century.

The exalted ideals and policies of Le roi soleil were the foundation for the incomparable triumphs of Napoleon Bonaparte that built the architecture of our modern (and until very recently still Christian) world and enabled us to defeat the Russian Revolution through the greater endurance that Louis XIV and Napoleon first created for us in our Catholic temporal order.

In short, Louis XIV lived up to his name. He was truly the Sun King, our Catholic Apollo, who brought the true French Enlightenment to Christendom and the entire world.

He was most assuredly never "depraved," (never for one moment) or an unworthy Son of Christ, but a most admirable example of Roman and Catholic piety, virility and martial glory.

VIVE LE ROI!

Spork · « **Reply #6 on:** August 19, 2012, 07:32:29 PM »

Weird

poche · « **Reply #7 on:** August 21, 2012, 05:30:47 AM »

If I'm not mistaken, it was when the jesuit who heard his confession told him that he would not give him absolution until he broke up with his mistress that he decided to work for the supression of the jesuits. He was an autocrat who worked for the glory and interests of France snd also tried to control the church in his realm. He was a good Catholic when it suited his interests.

brotherfrancis75 · « **Reply #8 on:** August 21, 2012, 05:18:12 PM »

Quote from: poche

If I'm not mistaken, it was when the jesuit who heard his confession told him that he would not give him absolution until he broke up with his mistress that he decided to work for the supression of the jesuits. He was an autocrat who worked for the glory and interests of France snd also tried to control the church in his realm. He was a good Catholic when it suited his interests.

The Sun King wasn't just another merchant or selfish commoner. He was one of the great heroes of our Catholic history who lived and acted very much on a supernatural Catholic stage of epic grandeur and achievement. Belittling him as a man of low ideals seems to indicate a not so Christian envy and ingratitude by we who cannot hope to rise to anything like the Catholic greatness and elevation of a Louis XIV. Look at Versailles with humble and grateful eyes and we will see the Roman Catholic idealism that motivated so great a Brother-in-Christ as this incomparable monarch.

He is a man for the Ages. Therefore to appreciate him even a little is to view things from the point of view of Eternity, something that is more than a little ghostly and, in its way, profoundly "weird," if we can take that word in its more positive meanings. The interventions of the Divine in this world are always uncanny and strange and it seems this must always disturb the many who cannot appreciate our greatest heroes.

Among whom few are so truly glorious and divine as our much loved King Louis XIV, who shone like a veritable Sun God above us.

poche · « **Reply #9 on:** August 28, 2012, 05:45:17 AM »

Quote from: brotherfrancis75

Quote from: poche
If I'm not mistaken, it was when the jesuit who heard his confession told him that he would not give him absolution until he broke up with his mistress that he decided to work for the supression of the jesuits. He was an autocrat who worked for the glory and interests of France snd also tried to control the church in his realm. He was a good Catholic when it suited his interests.

The Sun King wasn't just another merchant or selfish commoner. He was one of the great heroes of our Catholic history who lived and acted very much on a supernatural Catholic stage of epic grandeur and achievement. Belittling him as a man of low ideals seems to indicate a not so Christian envy and ingratitude by we who cannot hope to rise to anything like the Catholic greatness and elevation of a Louis XIV. Look at Versailles with humble and grateful eyes and we will see the Roman Catholic idealism that motivated so great a Brother-in-Christ as this incomparable monarch.

He is a man for the Ages. Therefore to appreciate him even a little is to view things from the point of view of Eternity, something that is more than a little ghostly and, in its way, profoundly "weird," if we can take that word in its more positive meanings. The interventions of the Divine in this world are always uncanny and strange and it seems this must always disturb the many who cannot appreciate our greatest heroes.

Among whom few are so truly glorious and divine as our much loved King Louis XIV, who shone like a veritable Sun God above us.

He was still a man who cheated on his wife and was not just unrepentant but when his confessor pointed out to him the error of his ways, used his secular power to initiate the suppression of the Jesuits. This man deserves our prayers.

Jack in the Box · « **Reply #10 on:** September 05, 2012, 06:26:00 PM »

Louis XIV did not live a depraved life. It is Louis XV, his successor, who lived the life of a "play-boy king".

Louis XIV a.k.a the Sun King played a crucial role in emasculating the French aristocracy. He created Versaille in order to lure the nobility into becoming pitiful courtisans, who later were unable to repress the French Revolution.

Something important must be said about the "four Louis" kings of France. It is about the CONSECRATION OF FRANCE TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS. The predecessor of Louis XIV, Louis XIII, with his prime ministers Cardinals de Richelieu and Mazarini did not seem in a position to do the Consecration at that time, because the French aristocracy, where some were Protestant incline, was difficult to control. Louis XIV seemed to have been given his splendor and power by God for the "Consecration". The Sun-King should have done it without contest, but alas Louis XIV ignored the Consecration, and instead fought many foreign wars.

On his deathbed, Louis XIV was bitter. He exclaimed minutes before dying "I did so much for You!"

God did not abandon France after Louis XIV. The successor of Louis XIV, Louis XV was named "the well-liked" (le bien aimé) at the begining of his reign. He took little interest in the affair of the Kingdom, and naturally did not think of the "Consecration". One man however should bear the responsibility for the non-Consecration of France, and it is the prime minister Cardinal André Hercule de Fleury, Bishop of Fréjus. This man ran the kingdom with an iron hand for about four decades, he started several wars, and also prevented many. As a man of the clothe standing at the highest post he could have done the Consecration while the play-boy-king Louis XV was busy living his depraved life (he had party every nights). Cardinal de Fleury seemed to have been the last chance given by God to Consecrate France to the Sacred Heart, but Fleury did not do it.

Finally Louis XVI came, and attempted to Consecrate the kingdom, but by then, it was too late. The Revolution took over.

Louis XIV was not depraved, but his ego made him in his mind to be the "equal" to God. He truly had the mission to Consecrate the kingdom, and he had the possibility. He failed to the will of God. This was his fault.

Yes Louis XIV had a colourful life in the court. He had mistresses. He danced well (Ballet owe him the fame it currently enjoys), but this did not make him depraved.