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LETTER VI.: To Abbé Venuti at Clerac. - Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, Complete Works, vol. 4 Familiar Letters; Miscellaneous Pieces; The Temple of Gnidus; A Defence of the Spirit of Laws [1777]

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The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (London: T. Evans, 1777), 4 vols. Vol. 4.

Part of: Complete Works of Montesquieu, 4 vols.

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LETTER VI.

To Abbé Venuti at Clerac.

I HAVE but just time, Sir, to write to you a world or two. Some of your friends have applied to me to speak to Madame de Tencin about certain letters that have been written against you* . But as I am altogether in the dark concerning this affair, and am absolutely ignorant whether they mean the first letters, or any new ones: be so good then as to clear up this matter. Communicate to me what you desire I should say to the cardinal, whose arrival here is expected soon; for you may believe me to be, without any reserve, your openly avowed and very respectful friend.

[* ]Abbe Venuti had scarce been invested with the administration of the abby of Clerac, when a party in Rome was formed against him, and by the very chapter that had sent him, in order to work his being recalled. And the interfering of Cardinal de Tencin was procured, to effectually injure him. The chief complaint urged against Venuti, was, that the remittances out of the revenue of the abbey were not sufficient, which default was laid to his account; although the complained of deficiency was caused by the considerable tenths, or tythes with which the abbey was taxed, besides the occasional disbursements for repairing, and other processes; in the defraying of which, a part of the revenue was unavoidably employed. He was not moreover looked upon with a favourable eye by the missionary Jesuits, appointed since the reign of Henry the Fourth, to preach on all festivals, and on Sundays in the abbey-church in this town, which, in despite of such political precaution of the fathers, has continued ever since to be entirely inbabited by Protestants, without there being one instance to be quoted of a single Huguenot’s being made a convert to the Romish persuasion.