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Father Joseph Biography

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JOSEPH, FATHER. A popular name for François Leclerc du Tremblay (1577-1638), the private secretary and confidant of Cardinal Richelieu. He was born in Paris of a distinguished family and was originally a soldier, but left the army in 1599 and became a Capuchin friar. After some time Father Joseph, as he was called, attracted the attention of Richelieu and in 1611 became his secretary. He was intrusted by Richelieu with the management of his secret diplomacy and was frequently sent on important missions abroad. So great was his influence with the Cardinal and so well recognized his power that he was known by the sobriquet of His Gray Eminence, in contradistinction to the title of Cardinal Richelieu. (See EMINENCE GRISE; EMINENCE ROUGE.) Religious zeal actuated his entire official life, and the conversion and dissemination of the principles of the Church were the objects most dear to him. In pursuance of these objects he lent his aid to the forcible conversion of French Protestants and also sent missionaries to India and Canada, while he earnestly advocated a crusade against the Turks. A priest of ascetic habits, but of fiery enthusiasm, he was also a statesman of broad views and comprehensive knowledge, and one of the shrewdest and most able diplomats of his time. His death took place at Ruel, Dec. 18, 1638. A series of memoirs of his time of which he is the author is deposited in the Bibliothéque Nationale in Paris, but the volumes have never been published, though supposed to contain important matter for the history of Louis XIII's reign. He was also the author of Le Turciad, a Latin poem, and of several political and religious tracts. Consult: Richard, Vie du père Joseph (Paris, 1702); Fagniez, Le père Joseph et Richelieu, 1597-1638 (ib., 1894); R. F. O'Connor, His Grey Eminence, the True Friar Joseph of Bolwer Lytton's "Richelieu": An Historical Study (Philadelphia, 1912).