Louis-André de Grimaldi

Louis-André Grimaldi d'Antibes (17 December 1736 – 28 December 1804)[1][2] was a French nobleman and bishop. He was one of the Princes of Monaco, Bishop of Le Mans, then a Peer of France as Count-Bishop of Noyon from 1777 and bishop emeritus after he resigned from the post of bishop.[2][3] He spent his later years in London. He was described as "a Voltairean prelate".[4]

Louis-André de Grimaldi

Biography

Grimaldi was born on 17 December 1736 into the noble House of Grimaldi of Monaco as lord of Cagnes and Antibes, in the château of Cagnes,[5] in southeastern France. He was the son of Honoré IV Grimaldi, Marquis de Cagnes and Hélène-de-Orcel Plaisians, and belonged to the ancient nobility of France, descended from the House of Bourbon.[1]

Grimaldi became Vicar General of the Archbishop of Rouen. He was appointed bishop of Le Mans on 5 July 1767, after which he began a series of unpopular 'improvements', such as sweeping away the high altar and selling the Medieval and Renaissance silver without making an inventory of it.[6] A portrait painted by Charles-Étienne Gaucher[7] was hung in the vestry when he left Le Mans in 1777.[3]

On 16 October 1777, Pope Pius VI appointed Grimaldi as Bishop of Noyon;[8] he was also Count of Noyon.[2] Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord was ordained to the priesthood by Grimaldi.[9] Years later, when Talleyrand was Bishop of Autun in Burgundy from November 1788, he was sworn in by Grimaldi under a papal order on 4 January 1789 as the Bishop of Noyon in the chapel of Saint-Sauveur de la Solitude, a retreat attached to the Seminary of St. Sulpice in Issy.[5][10] The diocese of Noyon was abolished 12 July 1790.[11]

In 1791, Louis Grimaldi refused the oath to the civil constitution of the clergy, and emigrated to England. He lived in London and the British government gave him a small pension until his death in London, 28 December 1804.[2][12]

References
  1. The Scots Magazine, and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany. LXVII. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable. January 1805. p. 77. Retrieved 10 May 2013.
  2. White, William (1907). Notes and Queries. Oxford University Press. p. 88. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  3. Gimpel 1983, p. 23.
  4. McCabe, Joseph (1907). Talleyrand: A Biographical Study. New York: D. Appleton & Co. p. 56. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  5. Voiriot, Guillaume. Würz, François (ed.). "His Highness Louis André de Grimaldi" (oil painting) (online catalog, antique dealer). Seagoing. 823. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  6. Dunlop, Ian (1982). The Cathedrals' Crusade: The Rise of the Gothic Style in France. New York: Taplinger. p. 122. ISBN 9780800813161.
  7. de Courcelles, Jean Baptiste Pierre Jullien (1826). Histoire généalogique et héraldique des pairs de France: des grands dignitaires de la couronne, des principales familles nobles du royaume, et des maisons princières de l'Europe, précédée de la généalogie de la maison de France [Genealogical & Heraldic History of the Peers of France: Great Dignitaries of the Crown, Principal Noble Families of the Kingdom, and Princely Houses of Europe, Preceded by the Genealogy of the House of France] (in French). p. 2. Retrieved 10 May 2013.
  8. "The Ancien Régime Peerage (4 August 1789)". Miscellaneous (research). Napoleon series. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
  9. Harris, Robin (2007). Talleyrand: Betrayer and Saviour of France. John Murray. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-7195-6486-4.
  10. Maestracci, P; Bonnet, Charles. "4 janvier 1789, Talleyrand est consacré évêque à Issy" [4 January 1789, Talleyrand consecrated bishop at Issy]. Histoire et Recherche (in French). Issy-les-Moulineaux, FR: Historim. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
  11. "Les évêques du diocèse de saint Lucien (an 230) à aujourd'hui" [The bishops of the diocese from Saint Lucian (year 230) to today]. Diocese de Beauvois, Noyon & Senlis (in French). FR: Église Catholique d’Oise. Les évêques de Noyon de l'an 531 à la Révolution française. Archived from the original on 8 December 2013. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
  12. Cheney, David M. (11 May 2013). "Bishop Louis-André de Grimaldi". Catholic Hierarchy. Retrieved 12 May 2013.

Bibliography
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