Abbé Edgeworth in Vierville: refuge and escape in 1796

Abbé Edgeworth's flight in 1796

(Excerpts and adaptations of the Historical Notes on the Bessin)

(Summary note in 4 pages)

Abbé Edgeworth, confessor of Louis XVI

His stay in Vierville-sur-Mer in 1796 and his escape.

In England, shortly before the war, attention had again been drawn to Abbé Edgeworth of Firmont on the occasion of a book that Alice Violette Montagu had just dedicated to him (Abbé Edgeworth and his friends).

In France, Mr. Henri Welschinger, a member of the Institute, in a documented article (Abbé Edgeworth and Louis XVI, 1914) almost immediately returned to the history of Louis XVI's confessor and analyzed Miss Montagu's work.

In this regard, he reproduced a curious portrait of Abbé Edgeworth based on a lithograph published in London on November 23, 1797 and preserved at the Cabinet des Estampes of the National Library. The abbot is represented on his feet: tall, dry, wearing a wig, dressed in a haircloth with long basques and a high collar, the right hand extended, the left in the vest, the thin figure and the distinguished air.

Living in the small village that was the last residence of Abbé Edgeworth in France, near Bayeux where he made an extended stay, I had hoped, by undertaking this work, to be able to make a greater contribution to his history and give on his life in Bessin more details than those reported by himself or by his various historians. I intended to find in Bayeux itself or in the vicinity some trace of his passage, some document, at least some more or less precise tradition. Several people were kind enough to help me in my investigation, among which I owe a special thanks to Mr. Rémy, informed bibliophile and treasurer of the Société des Sciences, Arts et Belles Lettres de Bayeux. Their research, like mine, would have been in vain and would not have learned anything more than what has already been said on this subject, if one of the most qualified scholars of our region, Mr. Canon Le Mâle, archivist of the Chapter, had not had the great kindness to communicate to me a confidential document, kept in his personal papers. Unfortunately, this document mainly concerns the conditions of Abbot Edgeworth's escape and says nothing that we do not know about his stay in Bayeux itself.

This lack of testimony should not be too surprising, because a historical document is usually only the official or unofficial recording of an accomplished and notorious act. However, it is not a man sented in the anguish where the worthy ecclesiastic lived, who has the imprudence of mixing with anything, likely to be mentioned, even if only in a gazette or in an indifferent correspondence. And the people who protected him were well cared of giving the slightest publicity to his presence.

I therefore had to limit my study to the stay that Abbé Edgeworth made in Vierville-sur-Mer where he had gone with the sole purpose of reaching England and joining the royal family. The information we may have had about Abbé Edgeworth, after his departure from Bayeux and before his passage to England, comes from three sources:

1°) The memoirs of Abbé Edgeworth of Firm were published a few years after his death. (Memoirs of Mr. Abbé Edgeworth of Firmont, last confessor of Louis XVI, 1815.)

2°) The few publications that were made about him during the 19th century (PÉZET. - Bayeux at the end of the 18th century. -- Abbé Faucon. -- Abbé Edgeworth and the daughter of Louis XVI. -- Religious Week of the Diocese of Bayeux.)

3°) The traditions preserved in Vierville in the family that took him in. In his Memoirs is the story of the abbot's flight "out of France" by Mr. Gossier.

_____

.

The links between England, the royalist emigrants and the Norman chouannerie

The Saint-Marcouf Islands form a small archipelago composed of two islands: the Île de Terre and the Île du Large, the largest. To the SO of the island of Terre is a reef called the Bastin rock. They are located 10 kilometers from the eastern coast of Cotentin, opposite Saint-Marcouf (canton of Montebourg) at the height of Valognes and Montebourg. On the island of the Large there are some fortification works. In 1781, these islands were called St-Marcoul. The island of Terre was the Isle d'Aval; the Île du Large was the Isle d'Amont. About the same degree of longitude as Portsmouth, they are about 140 kilometers away from the great English port.

Their occupation by England and their geographical position designated them as one of the main bases of the "Correspondence". The "Correspondence" was the liaison between the Chouan leaders and England, from which all their hopes came, both from the king, or his agents and the British Government.

Also, when Mr. de Frotté was finally able to convince the king and the English ministry of the opportunity ofan insurrectional movement in Lower Normandy and he came in early 1795 to take his command, he took his most attentive care to ensure his "Correspondence". During his two campaigns of 1795-96 and from 1799 to 1800, he is constantly concerned with maintaining it. Correspondence was responsible for the service of letters, parcels, clothing, weapons and ammunition, the transport of finances and the passage of officers and emissaries. As on the western coast of the Cotentin, Avranches, Granville, Jobourg were the points of correspondence with Jersey and England; in the East, Meuvaines, the coast of Ver, Vierville, the Percée and the point of Grandcamp were the landing or embarkation points for the Saint-Marcouf Islands.

This service was very hard and very expensive. However, the royalist funds were very small and the subsidies of England distilled with a will as questionable as it was intermittent. The letters of the Count of Frotté are riddled with complaints about this. The maintenance of food and fodder of one of the correspondence houses staggered along the coast was estimated at 25 louis per month. The pilots and service people were quite poorly paid and the English agents complained about the damage caused to their boats and the loss of equipment.

A letter written by the Mauny brothers, agents of the Correspondence, to Mr. de Frotté, before his second campaign and that Mr. de la Sicotière (L. DE LA SICOTIÈRE. - Louis de Frotté et les insurrections normandes (1793-1832) found in the Archives de Madame de Frotté, offers a rather pungent picture of the situation.

Here is an excerpt:

At the Count of Frotté, St-Marcouf, March 24, 1798. .......

The weather is so bad that we could not land on the coast of France. The governor (an Englishman, Captain Price) says that the Correspondence is ignored by the government. . . . , that we have broken more than ten boats and compasses, burned more than twenty pounds of candle, broken all his lanterns and that the service is very hard for his sailors, that we do not pay them .... It is certain that we burned a few pounds of candlelight for the service of the coast, crippled some of his boats and compasses. Mr. de Mandat lost a compass to him, the last time he returned, that he was forced by bad weather to go to fail in Portsmouth. Perhaps he would not be so angry if many of these gentlemen had sent him many things they had promised him, such as 1°) a rifle with two shots; 2°) hares and partridges every time the boat would go to the coast; 3°) Champagne wine, etc., etc. Please do not tell Mr. Price (Mr. Price was the commander of the St-Marcouf post. We will find him more kind during the escape of the abbot) that it was we who wrote this; we eat at his place; maybe he would get angry ....

It could hardly be otherwise for people, who, most of the time, in the most favorable conditions, that is to say, on the darkest nights, left the sea of the Iougre that brought them, jumped in a boat, and, in order not to be stranded on the shore, landed at some distance from the strike in the water "up to the shoulders" and landed, as they could, loaded with a whole bulky or precious paraphernalia. Nevertheless, this was an enviable path for an outlaw looking for a way to get to England.

First attempt of the abbot

Abbé Edgeworth therefore came (from Bayeux where he was hiding) to Vierville, where, we will see, he was assured of a good welcome, and waited for a favorable opportunity. It didn't take long to happen.

Informed that a passage was going to be made, the abbot went to the place of boarding, but it was Mr. de Frotté himself who arrived with four of his officers. It should be noted that we are in 1796, towards the end of his first campaign, when he was preparing to return to England, the pacification of the Vendée allowing Hoche to carry the maximum of his forces against the Norman chouannerie. General Chouan must have been worried and in a hurry. Father Edgeworth was not known to Iui. Also, "he took the boat of his Correspondence and left to another time to pass Mr. Edgeworth". (Mem. Edgew P. 178)

Second attempt by Abbé Edgeworth

A few days later, a boat was sent from the island to take the abbot. Warned by agreed signals, he prepared to embark with his young servant, Louis Bousset and "three people from the Correspondence", but it was impossible for them, even by getting into the water, to approach the boat that was taking the tide. He was forced to return to the castle "from where they had left". (Mem. Edgew. p. 177.) As in their haste, they had dropped pistols, the Republican patrols found them on the shore and surveillance became more active. We doubled the patrols.

Third attempt

It was not to embarrass the Chouans a lot, who, a fortnight later, went back down for their "Correspondence". The abbot still wanted to take advantage of this opportunity, but, not being well valid, also having the "very low view", he gave in to the instances of his servant Bousset and gave up this project.

Fourth attempt

He left the castle where he had found asylum the next day and went three leagues from where he hoped "to embark the next evening with several people". Lying ten to twelve on the ground to see the boat we were waiting for, we discovered a man next to the shore to the place where they had carpeted. Soon we shout to him: "Who lives?" He is asked for his passport, which he refuses and we end up letting him pass.

This man whom one of them recognized as the marshal of the village (the farrier, blacksmith of Vierville), commander of the national guard, made us immediately retire two leagues away, to the house of a sister of a young man of the "Correspondance", who, the next day, under the pretext of making a cart work, sent for the marshal, who, after being well turned (perhaps we made him drink a little??), told his adventure and ended up saying: " They are emigrants, or chouans, they didn't hurt me, I prefer not to say anything, for fear that we will be guarded more often".

Fifth attempt

After spending three days in this house, Father Edgeworth returned to the castle "of Vienville". By a misprint, Vierville is written Vienville in the text of the Memoirs. But there can be no doubt: on this coast there is no locality, no castle with the name of Vienville, and it is also certain that Abbé Edgeworth stayed in Vierville that he left to escape.

Whenever the Memoirs speak of the castle where the abbot resided during the last weeks of his stay in France, no name is given to specify this castle. This is also a fairly common discretion in the memories of time. It is only about the escape attempt that precedes that Vierville's name appears. She failed again, because "the boat having made signals that had been seen by the Republicans, they are received by arriving with a cannon and a rifle and after this small commitment on both sides, the boat, withdraws".

Sorry, Abbé Edgeworth gives up using Mr. de Frotté's "Correspondence".

New attempt, the right one this time

He then gets along with the parish priest of Asnières, a village just a league away from Vierville. At that time, the parish priest of Asnières was Abbé Nicolas Guérin. During the Revolution, he first took the oath, but he publicly retracted eight days later. Having become a refractory priest, he moved to the royalist cause and was in charge of the "correspondence" between the bishop and the capitular vicars.

A little later, and during the entire Norman insurrection, he played an important role among the Chouans and was officially designated as "principal agent of the Correspondence". As such, he appears in the State of 1814, in the General Staff.

He died parish priest of Formigny, he had received under the Restoration the crosses of St-Louis and the Legion of Honor.

[This Abbé Guérin - in this country we pronounce Grin - was the subject of a mistake by Mr. Lenôtre in one of his most interesting books, Tournebut. (G. LENOTRE. - Tournebut. Paris. Perrin 1910. p. 316 and 317,) In the defense of the very distinguished author, it must be said that he spoke according to documents drawn from the National Archives; but these, with regard to "Abbé Nicolas, parish priest of Vierville" are not accurate. Indeed, there was never a parish priest named Nicolas in Vierville. The list of parish priests of this parish that we have complete, without gap, since the 17th century, does not bear any parish priest of this name. However, the account of the acts that Mr. G. Lenôtre attributes to the abbot "Nicolas, parish priest of Vierville", the character he gives to the character, his very qualities as a sailor, apply very exactly to Abbé Guérin, parish priest of Asnières, whom we will see at work.]

Through Abbé Guérin's brother, a boat was bought "for the sum of 1000 pounds tournaments" (Mém. Abbé Edgeworth). But here the memories of Abbé Edgeworth differ from the story of Abbé Guérin that we find in the document of the canon Le Mâle.

He says about this: "We managed to buy a boat that was paid 400 pounds by the royal box of correspondence on a mandate from Mr. de "Marguerye" (i.e. the castellan of Vierville or rather one of his cousins). During the talks, Abbé Edgeworth returned to Bayeux.

A few days later, Bousset, who had remained on the scene, was able to go "warn him that a boat is in Vierville ready to receive them".

They all embarked at eleven o'clock in the evening on August 20, 1796 and discover by leaving the shore, a building that they take for republican, but, soon their signals being answered, they have the satisfaction of seeing them repeated and a boat (English) from the island of Saint Marcouf came to pick them up; they arrived on the 21st in Saint Marcouf at about two o'clock in the afternoon.

The abbot made himself known to Captain Price, commander of this station, who received him with this cordiality that he "showed to all the French who had relations with him. After giving dinner to Mr. Edgeworth, the same evening, he made him embark for Portsmouth on a ten-cannon building" (Mém. Abbot Edgeworth).

We wanted to reproduce textually the relationship of this escape, according to the Memoirs of Abbé Edgeworth, because it differs significantly from that made by Abbé Faucon in 1868. In a very interesting memoir, which he devoted to Abbé Edgeworth's stay in Bayeux, Vierville and Guéron, Abbé Faucon followed line by line the narration written in 1857 by one of our best regional historians, President Pezet. He added various pieces of information that he had been able to collect around 1868 from Honorable Bayeusains who had preserved some family traditions. But it should be noted that Mr. Pezet, nor Mr. Abbé Faucon do not seem to have been aware of the Memoirs of Abbé Edgeworth: both only allude to the funeral oration delivered in London in 1807 by Abbé de Bouvens.

However, this eloquent speech shows only a biographical point of view of little documentation: there is no particular detail about the life of Abbot Edgeworth, which is not known on the other hand. Mr. Pezet and Abbé Faucon embark the outlaw in Ver and not in Vierville. The text of the Memoirs does not contradict it: it is limited to saying that Bousset will warn his master "that a boat is in Vierville ready to receive them". If he does not talk about the place of actual boarding, he specifies at least the time of departure from the coast (August 20, 1796 at 11 p.m.) and the time of arrival at Saint-Marcouf Island (August 21 at about two o'clock in the afternoon).

The crossing therefore lasted about fifteen hours. This time is better suited with the distance that separates Ver from the Saint-Marcouf Islands, than with the one, shorter by about twenty kilometers, which separates Vierville from these same islands.

We also have an irrefutable testimony that the boarding was made in Ver in the document that we owe to the kindness of Mr. Le Mâle. It contains the very satell of Abbé Nicolas Guérin, the main author of the escape. Here is an excerpt:

"Meanwhile, Abbé Edgeworth of Firmont, who had returned to his asylum in Bayeux, almost immediately sent Bousset to Ver to find out the result of this last attempt. This one, well guided, arrived when the contract had just been concluded (Purchase of the boat.).

"He returned to Bayeux and brought his master who found reunited at my brother's house, Mr. the Baron de Mandat, Adjutant-General of Mr. de Frotté and who was shot in Caen two years later as a leader of royalists, the knight (Henri)de Marguerye (a cousin of the Lord of Vierville), Jean-Anne and Pierre-Anne, my two nephews and one named Mauny de Maisy. These last three were to serve as sailors. Jean-Anne alone was a sailor; I myself, it is true, I was no stranger to navigation; as the son of a sailor, I even had some notions of it. "

"It was in this faithful house and with these devoted servants of the king that Abbé Edgeworth spent his last day and had his last meal in France. The following night, which was that of August 20, 1796, everyone embarked in Ver, protected by Mr. Henri de Marguerye at the head of a company of royalists, but God allowed this precaution to be useless".

In note:

"The house where Louis XVI's confessor slept still exists in Ver. It is at the end of the parish on the Crépon side. to the east of the large communication road that passes at the end of the garden of this house."

Another detail that corroborates our hypothesis that neither Mr. Pezet nor Mr. Faucon did not know the Memoirs of Abbé Edgeworth: both insist on describing Bousset as an old servant. However, Louis Bousset was, in 1807, when his master died, in Mittau, thirty years old. His age is indicated, without possible doubt, in the letter that the Marquis de Donnay, camp marshal of Louis XVIlI, wrote, on the order of the king, to the abbot's brother to settle the latter's succession. This letter is inserted in the Memoirs.

In addition, Mr. Pezet and Mr. Faucon say, like the Memoirs, that the boat of the outlaws met an English building on the way, but when they add that "Abbé Edgeworth had his boat approached, named himself and was greeted with demonstrations of respect and that Commander Price invited him to dinner on board" they make a confusion and give the being all of sweetness, humility and charity that was the abbot an air that changes his character.

The worthy abbot had at his side as spokesman, not only Captain Gondouin de Courseulles, the two nephews of Abbé Guérin, Jean-Anne the sailor and Pierre-Anne, the energetic Abbé Guérin himself and especially one of the general adjutants of Mr. de Frotté, the Baron de Mandat, one of the most intrepid and chivalrous Chouans who were. In addition, Captain Price did not command a ship and was not on board the ship. He was the commander of the Saint-Marcouf Islands post. He received the abbot who showed him his gratitude, but at home, on the ground, and not "on his board".

If we have noted with perhaps excessive meticulousness the inaccuracy of these details, it is because in the stories that occupy us, there has been a perpetual confusion of places and people, which confuses this whole story. This confusion mainly concerns the two castles of Vierville, which we will talk about later and which are confused into one and on the families who owned them, the de Marguerye (at the castle of Vierville) and those of Marguerit de Rochefort (at the mansion of Than), also confused although completely distinct until 1798 (marriage of the knight Henry de Marguerye with Miss de Marguerit de Rochefort).

It follows from the facts that Abbé Edgeworth spent about three months in Vierville, preparing his escape attempts.

During this time, where did he stay? A legend accredited by a fairly widespread illustrated postcard assigns him as a refuge a picturesque turret that can still be seen near the gate of the castle of Vierville (the roof of this turret disappeared on June 6, 1944). It is possible that on the occasion of some search, he had to seek shelter in this place for a while; but there are other memories that allow us to realize a more exact account of the life led by these outlaws.

Indeed, in the Family Archives of the Countess of Goussencourt, to whom we must here express all our gratitude for having put in our hands many precious papers, there are some documents relating to the stay of Abbé Edgeworth at the manoir de Thaon, qualified in the reports of the officials of the Republic "Château de Rochefort, Commune de Vierville-sur-Mer" ( The real castle of Rochefort is located in Rochefort, commune of St-Jean de Savigny (Manche). It was restored by its current owner, Mr. Le Prévost de la Moissonnière, who married Miss Berthe de Marguerit de Rochefort.)

The refugees lived without noise, had secret asylums where they hid at the slightest alert, but thanks to the benevolence of the royalist families - and they were numerous - it was possible for them to lead a less mysterious existence than it is generally portrayed.

They lived from the family life of their hosts, going out little, their personality being more or less guessed by the population of the villages composed for the most part of brave people who were sorry for the excesses of the time, suspected only of the few assigned spies who hung around in the country or of these rare bad boys, who, taking advantage of the troubled periods, imagine playing a role, spend themselves to flatter their mania for glory and. more often, to ensure impunity for the misdeeds they like to commit.

In 1796, there were two castles, whose parks were contiguous. They still exist. One is the Château de Vierville and currently belongs to Mr. and Mrs. Hausermann; the other is the mansion of Thaon and belongs to Mrs. the Countess of Goussencourt (around 1930), who holds it from her secularly established family in the region. These two castles are separated only by a long venelle, which limits them to about a quarter of the perimeter of the properties. Let's summarize their story. The mansion of Thaon, very close to the castle of Vierville, was raised in the 18th century (it was destroyed in 1944) and since 1727, it has remained in the family of Marguerit de Rochefort until Mrs. Marie-Noëmi de Marguerit de Rochefort, Countess of Goussencourt, who is the current owner (1930).

In 1796, at the castle of Vierville lived Gilles Edouard de Marguerie, an 87-year-old man, who spent his life between Vierville and Bayeux, where he died in 1802 and from where his body was brought back to be buried in the Vierville cemetery. His son Edouard Marie de Marguerie had been guillotined in 1793. He had left a wife and two children, whom the ancestor had most likely collected.

Meanwhile, at the Manoir de Thaon (alias château de Rochefort) remained Marie Félicité de la Roche de Normanville, aged 46, wife of Pierre Nicolas de Marguerit de Rochefort, who had emigrated. She had with her two children, Marie Félicité Constance Aimée, then 18 years old and Louis Henri Victor Frédéric, who was about ten years old. To safeguard her property, she had to ask for a divorce, which was pronounced on October 31, 1792 (Municipal Archives of Vierville. Register of Civil Status.).

Between the two neighboring families, the intimacy was great. It was to the mansion of Thaon that descended, during the intermittent and furtive stays that his state of emigrant (and chouan) allowed him a member of Marguerie's family, who played an important role in Abbé Edgeworth's escape preparations. It was Count Henry of Marguerie. Jacques Bertin Louis Henry, Count of Marguerie, was born on February 8, 1764 in Buscagny, near Vassy, of the marriage of Louis Henry de Marguerie d'Hérouville with Marie-Charlotte de Malfillastre (de Vassy).

Later, Count Henry de Marguerie married, on January 9, 1798, Marie Félicité Constance Aimée de Marguerit de Rochefort, daughter of the châtellan of Thaon. He died in Vierville on March 8, 1836. We have proof of the active role he played in Abbé Edgeworth's escapes in a letter, taken from the archives of Couterne, published by M. de la Sicotière and addressed to the Count of Frotté by the Count of Artois (brother of the king). Here is the excerpt relating to Henry de Marguerie.

To the Count of Frotté, Edinburgh on September 16, 1796.

I received your letter of 7 ........ Abbé Edgeworth, to whom your officers provided the means to leave France, brought me a letter from Count Henry de Marguerie who requests the cross of St. Louis. The services that Mr. de Marguerie was in the case of rendering to Mr. Abbé Edgeworth, make me want not to refuse this request. But before deciding anything on this object, I wanted to know your opinion on this grace. I will therefore await your response in this regard. Goodbye, Sir, you know all the feelings I have dedicated to you for life.

CHARLES-PHILIPPE

Among these royalist families, tested by the Revolution, including among their members officers in the King's armies, dignitaries of the Royal Orders, emigrants, or even guillotines, Abbot Edgeworth found a natural protection. In Vierville, he therefore arrived in an environment very willing to offer him shelter and facilitate his escape. It was at Thaon's mansion that he resided.

Opposite the mansion of Thaon, beyond the road on which the courtyard of honor gave, were small low houses, some of which still exist. One of these houses was inhabited by rigorist republicans who used their time to inspect everything that could happen abnormally in the castle.

This meant that many times, suspected and denounced, Mrs. de Marguerit de Rochefort was the subject of unpleasant searches. We suddenly surrounded the house, we searched everything, we found some object that could pass for a seditious emblem, we seized it and we left. Here is from a time newspaper (Gazette du Calvados, 25 pluviose an VL n* 256.) the story of one of these searches:

"The Central Administration of this department recently stopped that a home visit would be made in the above Château de Rochefort, located in the municipality of Vierville, canton of Trévières. She had been well instructed that he usually concealed emigrants; she also knew that he was the point of communication of the English with their agents in France and other enemies of the Republic and that there must be a weapons depot there.

Although this measure had been concentrated in the deepest secrecy and conducted with great intelligence, it did not produce as happy a result as expected.

However, several emblems of royalty were found in the Rochefort woman; among others, the figure of Capet in silhouette, a silver medal suspended from a black ribbon representing France fleurdelysée watering with tears a cinerary urn with this inscription: "Cry and avenge him"; at the top a cloud letting lightning escape in lightning; at the bottom is this inscription: January XVI MDCCXCIII. We see on the reverse the bust of the last king at the foot of which we read: "Louis XVI, King of France, immolated by the factions". We also discovered in this house an infinity of caches, practiced either in the paneling or parquet floors, or in the floors. A lot of papers and feudal titles are seized. A few days before this expedition, a wedding had been celebrated in the same castle. Several emigrants from the Saint-Marcouf Islands had attended; it would be desirable that Republicans had been sent there to sing the epitalam. "

It was the marriage of Count Henry de Marguerye and Constance Aimée de Marguerit de Rochefort to which he was thus alluded. It was celebrated on the 17th of January VI (January 9, 1798). Despite these repeated alerts, no memory was kept of any tragic end of these searches.

Let's even say that among the Republican guards required for these operations, some were not very fervent servants of the regime, because it is reported that during one of them, an outlaw having fled hastily and awkwardly in a tree, the guard posted at the foot warned him charitablely that he was seen too much and that he took care to hide better in the foliage. This explains that in our campaigns the outlaws were able to live without too high alarms and take the necessary steps to escape.

Escaped on August 20, 1796, arrived at St-Marcouf Island on the 21st, Father Edgeworth, by the care of Captain Douglas Price, was able to win Portsmouth on August 25. He went to London the next day, then was led by Baron de Roll to Edinburgh, where Mr. (the Count of Artois, brother of the king) was. Louis XVIII was then in Blankenburg, Harz. Shortly after, the abbot returned to London where he had the joy of seeing Miss de Lézardière arrive. She went secretly to England, in charge of passing to Louis XVIII "certain counter-revolution projects".

Abbé Edgeworth then left to communicate to the king the dispatches brought by Miss de Lézardière. In Blankenburg, the king expressed the desire for the abbot to spend Lent with him and made him do his Easter. Louis XVIII then named him his chaplain.