Editing François Fénelon (section)

==Later years==

[[File:Bust of François Fénelon.jpg|thumb|right|[[Bust (sculpture)|Bust]] of François Fénelon in [[Carennac]], [[France]]]]

As Archbishop of [[Cambrai]], Fénelon spent most of his time in the archiepiscopal palace, but also spent several months of each year [[Canonical Visitation|visiting]] churches and other institutions within his archdiocese. He preached in his cathedral on festival days, and took an especial interest in seminary training and in examining candidates for the priesthood prior to their ordination.

During the [[War of the Spanish Succession]], Spanish troops encamped in his archdiocese (an area France had only recently captured from Spain), but they never interfered with  the exercise of his archiepiscopal duties. Warfare, however, produced refugees, and  Fénelon opened his palace to refugees fleeing the ongoing conflict.

{{Quote|For Fénelon all wars were civil wars. Humanity was a single society and all wars within it the greatest evil, for he argued that one's obligation to mankind as a whole was always greater than what was owed to one's particular country.<ref>[[Sylvana Windsor, Countess of St Andrews|Sylvana Tomaselli]], "The spirit of nations," in [[Mark Goldie]] and [[Robert Wokler]], eds., ''The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-Century Political Thought'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp.&nbsp;9–39. Quote on p.&nbsp;11.</ref>}}

During these latter years, Fénelon wrote a series of anti-[[Jansenist]] works.  The impetus was the publication of the ''Cas de Conscience'', which revived the old Jansenist distinction between questions of law and questions of fact, and argued that though the church had the right to condemn certain opinions as heretical, it did not have the right to oblige one to believe that these opinions were actually contained in [[Cornelius Jansen]]'s ''[[Augustinus (Jansenist book)|Augustinus]]''. The treatises, sermons, and pastoral letters Fénelon wrote in response occupy seven volumes in his collected works. Fénelon particularly condemned [[Pasquier Quesnel]]'s ''Réflexions morales sur le Nouveau Testament''. His writings contributed to the tide of scholarly opinion which led to [[Pope Clement XI]]'s 1713 bull ''[[Unigenitus]]'', condemning Quesnel's opinions.

Although confined to the Cambrai archdiocese in his later years, Fénelon continued to act as a spiritual director for Mme de Maintenon, as well as the ducs de Chevreuse and de Beauvilliers, the duke of Burgundy, and other prominent individuals.

Fénelon's later years were blighted by the deaths of many of his close friends.  Shortly before his death, he asked Louis XIV to replace him with a man opposed to Jansenism and loyal to the Sulpician order.  He died on 7 January 1715.