The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-16

That Jules (Giulio) Mazarin was ana
bic. %insinuat ing and a charming compan-
ion was admitted even by his enemies
That he should have pleased Anne Of Aus
tria was natural enough. But was he
NmDlv her lover, or her husband? This
oft mOoted QUESTION has recently given
rise to a great deal Of research. That the
Queen and the Cardinal we're secretly mar
ried was undoubtedly a tradition preserved
at the Palais Royal. a. the letters Of the
Duchesse d'OrIcans, mother of the Regent
Philippe dor leans, prove. As the same
charge IL found in many OF the pamphlets
published during the wars OF the Fronde,
IL has been accepted by more than one
historian OF weight. who argue that a woman
of Anne's e~xtravagant piety would have
recoiled with horror from any connection
unsanctioned by Holy Church. Those
historians who have held this view concur,
of course, with many OF the Cardinals con-
temporaries in assuming that Mazarin was
only in minor orders and consequently
was free to marry II he wished. Such
authorities as Auvery, Victor Cousin and
Ch4ruel agree in pronouncing the assump-
tion we'll founded. On the other hand
Amed6e Renee and jules Loiseleur main
tain that Mazarin had taken full orders.
The latter writer's arguments are deemed
especially worthy " consideration. he
points out hat the minutes of the proceed
inrs of the Consistory OF December 10, l04l
preserved in the Vatican archives, when
recording the preConization OF Mazarin "a
Cardinal, describe him as an ordinary
canon of st. Jean de Lateran. The title
Of canon p~resuppOses that the eccleslastlc
bearing il is a priest, unless indeed the
dignity il purely honorary, in which event
the fact is noted. Moreover, st. Jean de
Iateran Is a Roman church, and only per-
aons in holy orders we're admitted to tho
~cnnonicates of the kind OF b~asilicas to which
Il belongs. NJ. Loiselcur goes on to con-
tend that, whether MazaTin was a lay Cardi-
nal or a cardinal priest, he would have
been unable to contract a marriage without
a special desperation from the Pope, and
that such a dispensation haS never Teen
granted except on the condition Of the in
tending benedict resigning his member
shin of the Sacred College. The one eX'
ample here cited il that Of Cardinal JeaT
Casimir, elected King Of Poland in i04o
who was relieved Of his vows by the Pops
and married his brothers widow, Marie
de Gonzaxue. Before he married, however
Casimir V. laid aside the purple; he did no
remain a Cardinal. NJ. Loiseleur defef
any one to name a single Cardinal, lay OIL
not, whom Rome has permitted to marry
and still to remain a prince Of the Church
That Mazarin died a Cardinal there IL NJ
doubt, for in his last moments the Nunci'
Piccolomini administered the indulgence IN
articWLo Htoriis. which tbs Pops are in thu
habit OF rescrvins foc me n)ers OF tn
Sacred College.
NJ. Loisslsur invites attention to tn
additional fact that Il the Holy See, in def
a...,a OF all ecclesiastical usage, had &C
cordsd Mazarin permission to marry an
still to retain the external apparel OF tn
C~ardinalatc the dispensation must hav
beer granted either by Urban VIII, VIII
died July -, I644, or by Innocent K, VIII
succeeded him and lived till 1855. II coult
hardly have Teen Urban, for il is know
that toward the end OF October, i643. thre
nuns who we're intimate friends Of tn
Queen took upon themselves TO rend he
Majesty a vigorously worded remonstranc
on the subject Of her relations with IN
Cardinal, a remonstranCe which woul
teen purposeless II at the time these rela