UESnEUB
200
LE TELUEB
Lesneur, Franpoib ikTSTxcHE, Jesuit missionary
and philologist, of the Abnaki mission in Canada;
b. (according to notes given by Thwaites, apparently
from official sources) near Coutances, Normand>r, 22
July, 1685 or 1686, though Maurault gives his birth-
place as Lunel, in Languedoc; d. at Montreal, 28 or
26 April, 1760, or (according to Maurault) at Quebec,
in 1755. Although the principal facts of his work ana
writings are well known, there is remarkable uncer-
tainty as to dates^ places, and even his proper name.
This imcertainty is probably largely due to the burn-
ing of the St. Francis mission, with all its records, by
the English in 1759. He entered the Jesuit novitiate
in 1704 or 1705, arrived in Canada in 1715 or 1716^
studied the language for some months at the Abnaki
mission of Sillery, and then began work at St. Francis,
the principal Abnaki mission, remaining there until
1727 or later. He was at Montreal in 1730 and dur-
ing 1749-54. According to Maurault, he arrived in
Canada in June, 1715, and after a short stay at Sillery
was sent to B^cancour, another Abnaki mission, on
the St. Lawrence, where, with the exception of occa-
sional parochial service, he remained until 1753, when
he retired to Quebec. The name is variously given
as Francois Eustache (Maurault), Jacques I^ran^ois
(Thwaites), and Jacques (Calumet Dance MS.). In
connexion with his study of Indian things, he wrote,
besides prayers, sermons, etc., in the Abnaki lan-
Siage, a valuable account of the celebrated Calumet ance, which gave so much trouble to the early missionaries. The original French manuscript is pre- served at St. Francis mission, PierreviUe, Canada, and was published in the "Soir^ Canadiennes" of 1864. Bfanuscript copies are in St. Mary's College, Montreal, and with the Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison. According to Maurault, he compiled also a Dictionary of Abnaki, of 900 pages, still in existence, but we are not told where the manuscript is preserved.
Thwaites (ed.), The Jesuit Retationa and Allied Documenia, LXIX (Cleveland, 1900); Madrault. Histoire de» AbenakU (Sorel, 1866); Pilling, Bibliography of the Algonquian Lan- guagea iWaxAangbon, 1891).
James Mooney.
Lete, a titular see of Macedonia, know^n by its coins and inscriptions, mentioned in Ptolemy (Ilf, xiii), the
S hunger Pliny, IV, x, 17, Harpocration, Stephanus ycantius, and Suidas, and in the Middle Ages in Nicephorus Brj'eimius (IV, xix). The spelling *' Lite" is incorrect ana comes from iotaoism. Lete appears in some "NotitiaB episcopatuum " of a late perioa as suf- fragan of Thessaionica, later imited to the See of Ren- tina. Lete and Rentina even had Greek bishops until the eighteenth century. Lete is to-day the small vil- lage ofATvati (1000 inhabitants) situated a little north of Salonica.
DucHESNC in Revue archiologi^ (1875); Ideu, Archives dea Mission* scientifiques^ 3rd series. III. 276 sq.; Deiotsas, 'Apyeua vcwypo^ia ri}c McuccSoWac (Athens, 1870), 250-52; Idem, •H Moiteioi'ta, I (Athens, 1896), 666-74.
S. P^UDES.
Le Tellier, Cuarle»-Maurick, Archbishop of Reims, b. at Turin, 1642; d. at Reims, 1710. The son of Michel Le Tellier and brother of Ix)uvois (both ministers of I^ouis XIV), he studied for the Church, won the doctorate of theology at the Sorbonne, and was ordained priest in 1G66. Provided, even before his ordination, with several royal abl>evs, he nipidly rose to the coadjutorship of Langres, then to that of Reims, and became titular of that sec at the age of twenty-nine. His administration was marked by zeal and success along the lines of popular education, training of clerics, parochial organization, restoration of ecclesiastical discipline, extirpation of Protestant- ism from the Sedan diKtrict, etc. The importance of his see together with the roval favour brought him to the front in the alTairs of the Church in France. As secretary of the PeiUe AsaemWe of 1681, he re-
ported for the king and against th^ pope on all dis*
puted points: the extension of the royal claim called
rigale^ the forcible placing of a Cistercian abbess over
the Augustinian nuns of Charonne, and the expulsion
of the canonically elected vicars capitular of Pamiers.
The famous Galhcan Assembly of 1682 was convened
at his suggestion. Elected president with Harlay, he
caused the bishops to endorse the royal policy of en-
croachment upon church affairs, and even memori-
alized the pope with a view to noake him accept the
regale. His comparative moderation in the matter of
the four Gallican propositions was due to Boesuet, who
remarked that " the ^lory of the regale would only be
obscured by those odious propositions." As presiaent
of the Assembly (1700) wnicn undertook to deal with
Jansen^m and Laxism already judged by the pope.
Le Tellier was imduly lenient with the Jansenists Anirj
severe with theologians of repute. The same holds
true of the various controversies in which he took
part: the "Version de Mons", the theory of philo-
sophical sin, Molinism, etc. In spits of grave emn
due less to lack of loyalty to the Holy See than to
e&Tly education, royal fascination, and dislike for the
Jesuits, Le Tellier is remembered as a successful ad-
ministrator, an orator of some merit, a promoter of
letters, a protector of Saint John Baptist de la SaUe,
Mabillon, Kuinart, etc., and a bosom friend of Bossuet,
whom he consecrated, and visited on his deathbed,
and whom he induced to write the "Oraison fun^brs
de Michel Le Tellier". His manuscripts, in sixty v<rf-
umcs, are at the Biblioth^ue Nationale of Paris, and
his library of 50, OCX) volumes at the Bibliotheque
Sainte-Genevidve.
GiLLET, Charles - Maurice Le TeUier^ with an exhausthrtt bibliography (Paris, 1881), p. xii and pa«im; Str-Bsuyb, Port-Royal (ed. 1900), index.
J. F. SOLLIBR.
Le Tellier, Michel, b. 16 October, 1643, of a peas- ant family, not at Vire as has so often been said, but at Vast near Cherbourg; d. at La F16che, 2 Sep- tember, 1719. He was educated at the Jesuit College in Caen, and at 18 entered the order, and became
grofessor, then rector of the College of Louis le Irand. He was one of the founders of the " Journal de Tr6voux", and opposed Jansenism in three works: "Observations sur la nouvello ^ition de la version fran^oise du Nouveau Testament" (1672); "Histoire des cinq Propositions de Jansenius " (1699); " Le p^re Quesnel s^klitieux et h^r^tique" (1705). In 1687 he took part in the discussion then going on about Chi- nese ceremonies, publishing a book entitled: "De- fense des nouveaux chr6tieus et des missionaires de la Chine, du Japon, et des Indcs". The tone of this work was displeasing to Rome, but the General of the Jesuits defended it before the Congregation of the Holy Office. Greatly esteemed by the Jesuits, no matter what Saint-Simon may say about him, Le Tellier, after the death of Father Pdtau, was en- trusted with the task of finishing his work, "De theologicis dogmatibus. From August 1709 he be- longed to the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles- Let tres. Le Tellier was provincial of his order in Paris when Father La Chaise, the confessor of Louis XIV, died, 20 January, 1709. Godet des Marais, Bishop oc Chartres, and La Ch^tardie, rector of Saint-Sulpice, had a determining part in Louis's choice of Le Tellier as his new confessor. Saint-Simon, giving credence to a story told b^ a surgeon, Mardchal, attributed this choice to the king's fear of displeasing the Jesuits. For two centuries the greater number of historians have followed Saint-Simon's estimate of Le Tellier and denounced that " dark, false, and dread-inspiring countenance, which would have struck terror if met in a lonely forest", that "coarse, insolent, impudent confessor, knowing neither the world nor moderation, neither rank nor consiclerations, making no allowance for anything, covering up his purposes uy ^ thousand
