Richelieu as Minister

Abstract

Time was to show that Richelieu possessed mental and psychological attributes essential to his tenure of office, not least of which was a philosophical turn of mind. This had been cultivated in him by his studies at the Collège de Navarre and his intellectual formation in theology; his experiences as a bishop further developed in him a reflective approach to public affairs. In his diocese he had learned how to organise his pastoral and administrative programmes around well-thought-out principles deriving from two main and interlocking sources: the reforms emanating from the Council of Trent and the strategies of mission and conversion developed by Bérulle and Père Joseph. Richelieu brought the same mental attitude to government: domestic and foreign policies must correspond to logically consistent principles which, in turn, arose from bodies of theological and philosophical thought. This was not to deny that principles must be adapted to circumstance, or that much political business would be reactive to the actions of others; but Richelieu was consistent in his conviction that government must have strategic purposes which were explicable in philosophical and theological terms. The alternative was the kind of aimless government which, in his view, France had suffered since the death of Henri IV.