An utterly pious quadruple abbot if there ever was one: the chevalier de Lorraine himself!
Since the infamous story of chev and his abbeys never fails to crack me up, I wanted to make a little illustration for it. More info below the cut, as well as some more details about the relationship of both Philippe's with religion!
For those who don't know, good old Chev ended up abbot of no less than FOUR abbeys: Tiron, Saint-Pierre-sur-Chartres, Saint-Jean-des-Vignes de Soissons, and Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire.
The main reason behind this, besides his absolute devotion to God (LOL) was of course: money. All jokes aside, as a chevalier, despite not actually being in the orders, he technically couldn't marry and was deprived from a bunch of positions that could have turned into a source of income---however, he could claim to the management of abbeys, regardless of the fact that he was actually a blasphemous atheist in practice. (I'm simplifying a bit: he did have to request a derogation from the church to be allowed to become an abbot etc, but in theory it was okay)
Philippe de France, his protector, knew that as well, and both campaigned relentlessly to get him abbeys, first in the late 60's. The two of them borderline harassing Louis XIV over it is one of the main reasons that lead to Chev's first exile, as Louis hated being pressured into anything.
In the end, however, he did manage to land not only these first two abbeys, but two more later on. While not being the actual owner of the places, as the abbot, he was the manager of sorts, renting out the land, managing the personnel, and collecting a portion of the revenues from these abbeys. Contrary to what could have been expected, he was rather decent at it and treated his personnel fairly, although he was described by their neighbors as an "extremely annoying neighbor" because of how anal he was about boundaries and rules. Given that the 80s and 90s are what I now like to call chev's "janitor era", it isn't surprising.
Needless to say that many people found quite scandalous that this guy, of all people, was functionally a man of God. Nevertheless, none of the people who ended up doing business with him had any complains (aside from one guy he feuded with, but what's new), and his only reason for ultimately reselling his rights was to pay off his debts at the very end of his life.
As for Philippe de France, represented as sort of a heavenly figure here because, well, he was chev's benefactor during his entire life, I wanted to add a little note about his relationship to religion, since I just discussed it a little with Zennie.
While we all know Phil was a confirmed and practicing catholic, and that he was very enthusiastic about rituals and ceremonies, Elisabetta Lurgo has recently published a couple of papers about his relationship to religion that happens to be far more nuanced and interesting than what we're typically told.
He was also described as praying silently, as opposed to his brother who was always praying out loud. It's reported that when he was told to pray out loud as well, Philippe replied that "God was more receptive to the voice of the heart than that of the mouth", which may hint at a very personal relationship to religion and God.
Overall, while again being very diligent in the ceremonial department, in a very Spanish catholic fashion inherited from Anne of Austria, it seems that when it came to spirituality itself and other day-to-day practices, he seemed far looser in his approach, as is attested by his recurring tendencies to skip Lent, his lifestyle in general, or a couple of interesting interactions such as these:
Nicolas Feuillet, Saint-Cloud's jansenist canon, reported that Philippe, whom he was rather close to (yet was always chastising), once came up to him showing off his gorgeous new bracelet. When Feuillet scolded him on how one shouldn't flaunt wealth and be so ostentacious, Philippe's response was: "then why did God create diamonds, if not for us to wear them?"
I love this anecdote, as it depicts an independent logic and spirit, of Philippe according God to his own understanding of the world, which likely extended to his lifestyle and preferences as well.
The next one is much more grim and sad, but also very interesting in how it highlights the irony that Philippe could perceive in religion, and how he expressed that:
One day, not too long after Philippe's outstanding victory in Cassel, Feuillet scolded him about all of his and Louis' successes and prosperity, expressing his concern, as God typically isn't charitable with those he loves, instead rewarding them with suffering; quite bluntly, he told Philippe that God must not love them. Philippe didn't seem too phazed, only musing "prosperity, prosperity..." out loud a couple of times, not saying much more. A couple of months later, though, his and Liselotte's son unfortunately passed away, and when Feuillet came to see him, Philippe said, "See? God does love me, after all."
It isn't surprising to see that he can have this outlook, express that irony, when he's always been an outcast from the perspective of his religious upbringing, de facto likely forcing him to question religion and dogma rather than blindly follow it--it seems to me like his mechanism to overcome this potential feeling of alienation was to simply re-appropriate his own faith and religiosity for it to make sense to himself. On top of that, while making a point of teaching him religion, his first preceptor was also a skeptic and libertine thinker, who may have transmitted some of that to him from an early age.
Finally, while he wasn't really prone to donate to church charity, he was much more encline to regularly donate to other groups and organizations, to fund enterprizes or simply donate to individual inhabitants of Saint-Cloud (not counting his favorites ofc) etc.; hereby also showing his lack of affiliation to the church outside of his princely responsibilities as a religious figure.
All of this, I find, makes for a very interesting and nuanced portrait of his religious side, and I vastly recommend reading Lurgo's papers about it if you can (available on her academia.edu page for free). It also gives more sense to the over-representation of atheists around him, or rather him being so at ease with him, outside the fact that of course, the reputation and practices of his house made it a much safer haven for atheists than Louis' court was.
and hey, his life-long boyfriend was a quadruple abbot, so...
finished this small comic in honor of Mazarin's birthday today
i thought this segment was very funny when reading Twenty Years After š i'm almost finished.. almosttt...
So when the Comte de Monte-Cristo goes on a manipulation and murder rampage, heās just āle spectre dāun malheureux que vous avez enseveli dans les cachots du chĆ¢teau dāIfā and also a ābabygirlā. But when I, Milady de Winter ā
happy pride! remember that being a transgender is everything but fiction. there are so many real historical figures from every century about whose transgenderism we aren't even aware of
on this picture i drew Alexandr Andreevich Alexandrov - cavalry officer of the russian imperial army that participated in napoleonic wars. people persistently keep on misgendering mispronounsing deadnaming and calling him a crossdresser although alexandrov clearly stated that he didn't want to be called by his deadname and being treated like anything but a man. that's an interesting historical figure and i wanted to draw attention to his person. i can't tell everything about him in only one post so i recomend you to read about alexandrov by yourself
also be proud of yourself and remember that you're valid! š³ļøāšš³ļøāā§ļø
I think The Three Musketeers has its status in pop-culture thanks to its sequels. otherwise, it would be closer to novels by Walter Scott or R.L. Stevenson.
sequels make the musketeers into truly great characters. like, og Athos? red flags all around. sequels Athos is an amazing example of character growth and infinitely lovable. og Porthos? neat. sequels Porthos is to die for. og Aramis? cute. sequels Aramis is hauntingly complex and self-centered. og D'Artagnan? a typical shonen protagonist. sequels D'Artagnan is smart, loyal, cunning, aware of his strengths and weaknesses.
the trouble is that people stopped reading the sequels.
am i the first one to have made a three musketeers oc. ya okay. HSHDHASDHAHA
did his ref cuz i wanna put him on artfight.
slides AF profile: https://artfight.net/~weirdsters
origamiaround
dailybridgerton
turnnoffyourmind
snowghoul
yousharknotpass
