Everything about Andrew Michael Ramsay totally explained
Andrew Michael Ramsay (
January 9,
1686 -
May 6,
1743), commonly called the
Chevalier Ramsay, was a
Scottish-born writer who lived most of his adult life in
France.
Baronet in the
Jacobite Peerage.
Ramsay was born in
Ayr,
Scotland, the son of a baker. He served with the English
auxiliaries in the Netherlands, and in 1710 visited
Francois Fenelon, who converted him to
Roman Catholicism. He remained in France until 1724 writing politico-theological treatises. One of these was dedicated to the
Jacobite claimant to the English and Scottish thrones,
James Francis Edward Stuart. In January 1724, Ramsay was sent to Rome as tutor to James' two sons,
Charles Edward and
Henry. But his appointment was short-lived; Ramsay was associated with the court party of John Erskine,
Duke of Mar, who fell from favour that year. By November 1724 Ramsay was back in Paris.
Ramsay was in England in 1730, and received an honorary degree from the
University of Oxford. The claim was nominally his discipleship to Fenelon, but in reality beyond doubt his connection with the Jacobite party. He died at
St Germain-en-Laye (
Seine-et-Oise) on
May 6, 1743.
He was a
Christian universalist, believing that all people would eventually be saved. He wrote "Almighty power, wisdom and love can't be eternally frustrated in his absolute and ultimate designs; therefore God will at last pardon and re-establish in happiness all lapsed beings."
A Second Glance
Albert Cherel (1917, 1926) and
G. D. Henderson (1952), from their readings of the archival sources in France, England and Scotland, have greatly contributed to the biography of Ramsay. There emerges a portrait of an intellectual witness of his times.
His life spans a fascinating period in the European history of ideas: -the cultural discoveries by the Jesuit missionaries, for instance, not only captured the imagination but were to have important philosophical consequences as in the
Chinese Rites controversy with the famous contributions by
Leibniz and
Malebranche; leading to a crisis that was eventually to end in the suppression of the
Society of Jesus (in France, 1764; Dominus ac Redemptor, 1773) -
The debate on Pure Love/Querelle sur le Quiétisme, became through the contribution by
Fénelon (his beautiful style of language) a lasting landmark in French cultural history.
Fénelon's
Dialogues des Morts (1700) written as a tutorial for
Louis, duc de Bourgogne contained a fictitious dialogue between
Socrates and
Confucius (Sur la prééminance tant vantée des Chinois);
Montesquieu's
Lettres persanes (1721) testifie from another angle to the same current fascination. (see also
François Bernier,
François Pétis de la Croix)
Where the emotions flared up to a passion (see:
Edict of Fontainebleau) there was also room for some remarkable occasions of religious tolerance; that's where the Chevalier Ramsay found his place.
As a youth he felt attracted to the mysticism of
quietism as practised in the circle of dr. George Garden at Rosehearthy, centered around the "teachings" of
Antoinette Bourignon in a community along the lines of a similar one in Rijnsburg led by
Pierre Poiret, where people from different religious persuasions and social casts lived together.
In 1710 Ramsay in effect travelled to Rijnsburg to meet
Pierre Poiret, a warm admirer of
Fénelon and
Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon known as Mme Guyon; from there he went on to stay with the elder Fénelon at
Cambrai (August 1710). He remained in his household for several years and became steady friends with the Marquis de Fénelon, a young relative of the archbishop and an ardent pupil of Mme Guyon. He wrote his
Vie de Fénelon in loyal testimony to that period.
From 1714 till 1716, Ramsay acted as secretary to Mme Guyon and he was present at
Blois on June 9th, 1717 when she died.
Although Ramsay himself was converted to
Catholicism by Fénelon, conversion wasn't deemed an option by Mme Guyon who strongly advised the community around her to stick to the principles of their proper faith while meditating on Pure Love. William, Lord Forbes, one of many guests staying with Mme Guyon recorded the practice of the
Protestants to kneel behind a curtain in order to participate when
Roman Mass was said in the house chapel. In his
Life of Fénelon(London, 1723) Ramsay stated his own insights of how Mme Guyon's system had affected him.
Association with
Fénelon, who as preceptor of the grandsons of
Louis XIV had retained huge influence at Court, caused Ramsay to be remarked by the nobility, in particular by the Comte de Sassenage, whose son he tutored from 1718 till 1722.
In 1722 Ramsay, whose circle of friends -English, Scottish and French- in Paris was considerable, became active in high level negotiations over a tax on assets of Jacobite exiles (see:
Jacobitism) proposed by the British government. The consultations involved a.o. the redoubtable English "Triumvirate" -
John Carteret; John Erskine the
Duke of Mar; General Arthur Dillon (father of
Arthur Richard Dillon); -the Duc the Charost, the Duchesse de Gramont and the Marquis de Fénelon. By then Ramsay was already well acqainted with the
Cardinal Fleury, who after the death of the Regent
Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (1723) was to be the power of state behind
Louis XV. Ramsay's zeal in the matter was favourably remarked by
James Francis Edward Stuart -in exile in Rome, under French protection- who invited him to tutor his son
Charles Edward Stuart.
In 1723 Ramsay was knighted into the Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem -in origin a Crusader Military Order for the protection of pilgrims- one of the oldest in France. In 1724 he entered the Jacobite household in Rome. Court intrigue -but also the unpracticality of his educational task,
Bonnie Prince Charlie was only 3,5 years old- caused him to return to Paris in the same year.
From 1725 till 1728 he stayed as an invited guest at the hotel de Sully under the patronage of Maximilien de Béthune, Duc de Sully, the husband of the widowed Comtesse de Vaux (daughter of Mme Guyon) and heir to a famous title (see:
Maximilien de Béthune) During this period he frequented the Parisian
Club de l'Entresol - a gentleman's literary club- in the company of
Rene-Louis Argenson,
Lord Bolingbroke and
Montesquieu. Against that background he wrote his
Travels of Cyrus (1727) that made him a famous best-selling author in his time, and for the revised edition of which he travelled to London (1729-30) where he was again in touch with
Montesquieu.
Both were elected Fellow of the
Royal Society (December 1729). In 1730 Ramsay became a member of the Gentleman's Club of Spalding (Lincolnshire) -a club in correspondence with the
Society of Antiquaries of London. Prominent members had included Sir
Isaac Newton; members contemporary with Ramsay,
John Gay and
Alexander Pope. Still another honour was conferred on Ramsay in 1730: the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Civil Law at
Oxford University.
Although Ramsay was much protected by the high nobility -both English and French, both
Protestant (such as the
Duke of Argyll) and
Catholic (such as the
Cardinal de Rohan)- this was never his claim to fame. Prior to the conferrence of the academical titles (and apart of his
Life of Fénelon and
Travels of Cyrus) he'd been remarked in the intellectual circles of his time. The influential
Mémoires de Trévoux published several of his tracts -in 1732 his introduction to the mathematical work of Edmund Stone- and remained favourable throughout to his philosophical contributions. In 1719 he'd published an
Essai de Politique, revised (1721) as
Essai philosophique sur le gouvernement, où l'on traite de la nécessité, de l'origine, des droits, des bornes et des differentes formes de souveraineté, selon les principes de feu M.François de Salignac de la Mothe Fénelon, archvèque-duc de Cambray -published in English translation in 1722.
Ramsay returned to France in 1730 and, following the death of the Duc de Sully (1729)- he passed into the service of the Comte d'Evreux (the original patron of the
Elysée Palace), a prominent member of the family of
la Tour d'Auvergne and
Bouillon which had ties of marriage with the Jacobite Court, through Charlotte, the elder sister of Queen Clementina (
Maria Klementyna Sobieska), and bonds of loyal friendship to the circle around Fénelon, through the
Cardinal de Bouillon (died 1715). It was the Cardinal de Bouillon who is said to have had the inspiration of having the family descend from
Godfrey of Bouillon, thus making the Crusader King of Jerusalem the
totem rather than the genetic precursor of the family.(Henderson,1952) An inspiration that was to hand golden opportunities to
pseudo-history as recorded in bestsellers such as
Holy Blood, Holy Grail and
The Da Vinci Code.
Ramsay's task in the Evreux household was to tutor a nephew, Godefroy Geraud, duc de Chateau-Thierry, son of the elder brother, Emanuel Theodose de la Tour d'Auvergne, Duc de Bouillon; shifting -upon the death of Geraud- to the tutorial of the Count's grand nephew, the Prince of Turenne, Godefroi Charles, son of Charles Godefroi, Duc de Bouillon, the head of the house.
It was for the Prince's education that Ramsay wrote the
Histoire du Vicomte de Turenne, maréchal général des armées du roy. (1735), using as documentary evidence -authorised by
James Francis Edward Stuart- the handwritten
Mémoires du Duc d'York (
James II). These were the
Memoirs of James II discovered by
David Hume -a young friend to Ramsay (he send him his
A Treatise of Human Nature in 1738)- in the Scotts College in Paris in 1763 in company of Michael Ramsay, the nephew of the Chevalier. (The manuscripts were lost in the
French Revolution).
In June 1735 Ramsay married Marie Nairne (1701-1761), the daughter of Sir David Nairne, undersecretary to James III. For the occasion the Chevalier Ramsay was created a Scottish Knight and Baronet (23 March 1735) with remainder to heirs male. He had issue, a son and a daughter. His son (1737-1740) however, died in infancy; his daughter (1739-1758) from small-pox at the age of 19.
Ramsay lived till 1743, under the benevolent protection of the house of Bouillon, in St. Germain-en Laye; writing and studying, but above all preparing his
magnum opus:
Philosophical Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion edited after his death (1748-49) by his wife and friends -Francis Kennedy,
Francis Hutcheson, John Stevenson M.D.,
Robert and
Andrew Foulis (Glasgow printers); a book somewhat remindful of
Ralph Cudworth's
True Intellectual System of the Universe, in Ramsay's words: "a history of the human mind in all ages, nations and religions concerning the most divine and important truths". Some "Chinese Letters" written by Ramsay remained unpublished.
Ramsay has been associated with
Freemasonry since its introduction in France (1725-26).
Charles Radclyffe, Earl of Derwentwater, who acted as Grand Master for France since 1736, was present at Ramsay's funeral. It is presumed that Ramsay's being a Mason facilitated his introduction into the Gentleman's Club of Spalding, of which the prominent Masonic propagator
John Theophilus Desaguliers was then also a member.
In 1737 Ramsay made his speech:
Discourse pronounced at the reception of Freemasons by Monsieur de Ramsay, Grand Orator of the Order, in which he connected
Freemasonry with the
Crusades. His own stature as a Knight of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem may have inspired him, or perhaps even his zeal to propagate an alleged tradition linked to the house of Bouillon. In any case Ramsay thought his speech worthy of note by the prevailing religious authority and he send the text to
Cardinal Fleury, asking for a Church blessing of the principles of Freemasonry as he'd stated them: "The obligations imposed upon you by the Order are to protect your brothers by your authority, to enlighten them by your knowledge, to edify them by your virtues, to succour them in their necessities, to sacrifice all personal resentment, and to strive after all that may contribute to peace and unity of society."
To a Church already in difficulty over the deviating principles of the
Society of Jesus, not perhaps the cited reference, but the concept of Masonic ritual was entirely preposterous. To Ramsay's letter of March 20th 1737 came
Cardinal Fleury's reply at the end of March interdicting all Masonic reunions.
Bibliography
Ramsay's works include:
- Les voyages de Cyrus (London, 1728; Paris, 1727): Engl. 'The travels of Cyrus to which is annex'd a discourse upon the theology & mythology of the pagans' - a book composed in avowed imitation of Fenelon's Les avantures de Télémaque.
- He also edited Télémaque itself (Paris, 2 volumes, 1717) with an introduction
- A Histoire de la vie et des ouvrages de Fenelon (The Hague, 1723).
- A partial biography of Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne (Paris, 1735)
- Poems in English (Edinburgh, 1728), and other miscellaneous works.
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