Francis de Salignac de la Motte, was of an ancient and illustrious family, and born at the castle of Fenelon in Perigord in 1651. In 1689, he was appointed tutor to the dukes of Burgundy and Anjou; and in 1655 was consecrated archbishop of Cambrai. After this preferment, a storm arose against him, that obliged him to leave the court for ever, occasioned by his performance entitled, An Explication of the Maxims of the Saints concerning the Interior Life; in which he was supposed to favour the extravagant notions of Madame Guyon, and the principles of Quietism. A controversy on this occasion was for some time carried on between him and M. Boffuet, bishop of Meaux: which terminated in an appeal to the pope; when his holiness condemned the archbishop's book, by a brief dated March 12, 1699. Some friends indeed pretend, that there was more of court policy than religious zeal in this affair: but be this as it may, the archbishop submitted patiently to this determination; and, retiring to his diocese of Cambrai, acquitted himself punctually in all the duties of his station, and led a most exemplary life. The work that gained him the greatest reputation, and which will render his memory immortal, is his Adventures of Telemachus; the style of which is natural, the fictions well contrived, the moral sublime, and the political maxims tending all to the happiness of mankind. Hence it is thought, as the printing of this work was stopped at Paris, that the prelate's heresy was in politics instead of religion; and though his disgrace was prior to this work, he had, while he was tutor to the young princes, taught them the same principles asserted and exemplified in Telemachus. Fenelon died in 1715; and a collection of all his religious works was afterwards printed at Rotterdam, under the care of the marquis de Fenelon his grand-nephew, when ambassador to the States-General.