Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Grey Eminence

Rate this book
LCCC591213
s/t: A Biographical Account of Religion & Politics in Cardinal Richelieu's France
Aldous Huxley
On the Road to Rome
Childhood & Youth
The Religious Background
The Evangelist
The Approach to Politics
The Two Collaborators
La Rochelle
The Diet of Ratisbon
Nothing Fails Like Success
Politics & Religion
The Final Scene
Appendix
Index
Meridian Books

297 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1941

Loading interface...
Loading interface...

About the author

Aldous Huxley

1,042 books13k followers
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems.
Born into the prominent Huxley family, he graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, with a degree in English literature. Early in his career, he published short stories and poetry and edited the literary magazine Oxford Poetry, before going on to publish travel writing, satire, and screenplays. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death. By the end of his life, Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the foremost intellectuals of his time. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times, and was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1962.
Huxley was a pacifist. He grew interested in philosophical mysticism, as well as universalism, addressing these subjects in his works such as The Perennial Philosophy (1945), which illustrates commonalities between Western and Eastern mysticism, and The Doors of Perception (1954), which interprets his own psychedelic experience with mescaline. In his most famous novel Brave New World (1932) and his final novel Island (1962), he presented his visions of dystopia and utopia, respectively.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
147 (39%)
4 stars
142 (38%)
3 stars
58 (15%)
2 stars
16 (4%)
1 star
5 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
Profile Image for Erik Graff.
5,112 reviews1,327 followers
August 16, 2012
Reading Aldous Huxley reminds one of how beautiful modern English prose can be. His biography of Father Joseph, effective French foreign minister during the Thirty Years War, is a perfect mix of novelistic description, history, biography and philosophical essay. The balance is just right so one does not get bored with his excurses into the major theme of the book, namely the relationship between politics, religion and ethics.

Father Joseph, François Leclerc du Tremblay, interested the author because, in the Catholic tradition, he appears to represent two extremes. On the one hand, he was a religious politician. A Capuchin himself, he founded an order, performed missionary work, served as a secular priest, wrote extensively on theology and was about to be awarded a cardinal's hat when he died. Most importantly, he was an authentic mystic--a matter of considerable concern to Huxley, writer of several books on the subject and holder of some strong opinions. On the other hand, he was one of the two most politically powerful men, the other being Richelieu, in the French government under Louis XIII. As such, he ran an international spy organization, negotiated treaties and fomented wars against other Catholic states, often in alliance with Protestant heretics. His actions led to the death of uncounted thousands, if not millions through the externalities of war. How, Huxley wonders, could an authentic mystic doe this?

One does not have to be an expert on seventeenth century European politics to read this book. Huxley gives all the background needed. Readers of his Devils of Loudon will be interested to note Father Joseph's involvement in that affair.
Profile Image for Loren.
26 reviews
September 17, 2010
The earliest literary reference to "holy indifference" occurs in the Bhagavad-Gita, where Krishna assures Arjuna that it is right for him to slaughter his enemies, provided that he does so in a spirit of non-attachment. When the same doctrine was used by the Illumines of Picardy to justify unlimited sexual promiscuity, all right-thinking men, including Father Joseph, were properly horrified. But for some strange reason murder has always seemed more respectable than fornication. Few people are shocked when they hear God described as the God of Battles; but what an outcry there would be if anyone spoke of him as the God of Brothels! Father Joseph conducted a small crusade against the Illumines, who asserted that they could go to bed with one another in a spirit of holy indifference; but there seemed to him nothing in the least improper in his own claim to be a non-attached intriguer, spy and maker of wars.

"What we readers really like is to disapprove of other people’s bad behavior. In other words, the denunciation of crimes we haven’t committed is even more gratifying than the celebration of virtues we don’t have." --Walter Benn Michaels
Profile Image for Devin.
22 reviews
September 26, 2012
Nothing short of a masterpiece. Huxley tells the story of the enigmatic Father Joseph who, along with his co-instigator Cardinal Richelieu, put all their effort into continuing the horrific 30 years war which contributed immensely to Europe's see-saw power struggles and eventually gave rise to Nazi Germany. Through the pursuit of policy blasphemously contradictory to his vows as a Catholic Capuchin monk and 'contemplative' mystic, Father Joseph allowed for the slaughter, starvation and cannibalism of millions of Europeans--most of them German. In addition to the political intrigue of Father Joseph's life and brief historical accounts, there are many passages on mysticism, morality, and the role of religious/contemplative people vs. governments in offering a prosperous, good society. Huxley's gloomy conclusions--considered during the height of the Nazi's domination--towards where the future was heading still aren't too far off from what the present political/military climate is- in other words, we still haven't heeded history's lessons.
Profile Image for Rick.
388 reviews8 followers
December 4, 2021
In the 17th century, the French statesman Cardinal Richelieu had enormous influence in both the Catholic Church and the French government. His powerful "behind the scenes" adviser was François Leclerc du Tremblay, or simply Father Joseph. Together they played power politics during the reign of Louis XIII. Father Joseph—often referred to as the Grey Eminence or éminence grise—was from a secession of the Franciscans. Huxley's book is a biography of the Grey Eminence.

I liked the book, and I very much liked Huxley's writing. The tale weaves through Fr. Joseph's life and provides a fascinating peek inside 17th century politics. The only place I thought the book was a bit weak was in Huxley's drift into discussing mysticism. I wasn't convinced nor persuaded that Fr. Joseph had experienced direct knowledge of God. But absent this one quibble, I thought the book was enlightening (pun intended).
Profile Image for Stewart Lindstrom.
324 reviews19 followers
Read
June 16, 2020
A fascinating portrait of a 17th-century mystic, the right-hand man to Cardinal Richelieu. I haven't yet acquired a head for reading long expository paragraphs on the minute details of political maneuvers and such, so while reading some of the passages detailing the horrific events of the Thirty Years' War my attention waxed and waned. However, the way Huxley uses Father Joseph's practiced "holy indifference" to illuminate the travesties of the first half of the twentieth century is truly insightful. Huxley's own mystical philosophy is antithetical to my own (Christian, dogmatic) beliefs, but I found myself agreeing with Huxley on a great number of things, especially with regards to his distrust of the union of politics - indeed any absolutist activism - and religion.
58 reviews1 follower
March 15, 2014
Well it's Huxley, erudite and philosophical and you feel like a more intelligent human being for the experience.
Profile Image for J Onwuka.
Author 3 books
March 25, 2014
Getting something other than what you expected is not always a pleasant experience. The substitute has to be better than the expectation. That’s certainly what I felt when I read Grey Eminence, Aldous Huxley’s biography of Father Joseph, an obscure but pivotal figure in the Thirty Years’ War in Europe. Histories on some periods are more difficult to find than biographies. Given that I knew very little about the Thirty Years’ War, the idea that Aldous Huxley had written something about the period immediately drew me. What I found was very little in the way of a history of the war but a great deal more of interest.

Father Joseph was born a French nobleman but, from early in his life, devoted himself to the ascetic life of a monk. Huxley is keen for us to know that Father Joseph fully embraced his lifestyle. Indeed, he had to turn away from a life of great luxury in order to wallow in meanness of all sorts simultaneously. His fervor and discipline brought him great repute and soon he was not merely a monk but a teacher of other monks and nuns. As Huxley notes, if war had not been a few steps away, Father Joseph may have been remembered as a notable, perhaps even legendary Christian thinker.

His childhood acquaintance with the man who would become Cardinal Richelieu, the Red Eminence, as well as his own incredible talents for negotiation brought him into the power politics of the crowns of Europe. The brilliant, enthralling faith in God that made Father Joseph such an awe-inspiring preacher and mystic also led to his ultimately destructive war policy. He had the fatal flaw of equating God’s will with that of the French crown. Thus, Father Joseph engineered the prolonging of the war for no reason other than dividing and weakening France’s enemies to her benefit.

The conflict between these two halves of his life — the fervent Christian ascetic and the unscrupulous royal minister — is what drives Huxley throughout this book. The question isn’t answered, and Huxley instead allows himself to be fascinated at the dichotomy. The ascetic-mystic ability of “annihilation” — complete separation from the “self” from the body or the actions — is how Father Joseph attempts to deal with this, and though Huxley (being sympathetic to mysticism) feels this is a powerful tool, both he and Father Joseph appear to have their doubts in this regard. The picture that Huxley paints features this tension eventually, fatally, splitting the monk’s heart.

In terms of prose, Grey Eminence did not disappoint. While not being the breeziest of texts it earns the heft that it has. Huxley knows how to write a work of non-fiction; that is, without using all the tools of evidence in order to write every detail of a scenario, but rather giving most of the text over to his analysis. His details on mysticism were also fairly plainly laid out and engrossing. The only thing I stumbled on were the songs and poetry from French or Latin or German, as Huxley would rarely translate or even paraphrase them. They weren’t vital but it is always frustrating to not get a bit of a work.

Aldous Huxley was right to be fascinated with Father Joseph. His life is a reminder that those with radiant places in history were not the only ones, or even the most important ones, who made it. It also reminds us that the devil has no prophesied form.
Profile Image for Khalid Mahbub.
24 reviews10 followers
February 28, 2021
While this book read like a mildly apologetic criticism of religious men in politics - I felt the author while playing the devil's advocate posits a stronger argument in favor of the politically active spiritual man. The protagonist (Father Joseph) is an angel - of death - but none-the-less -- an angel. Huxley proves his competence in describing snippets of the spiritual ascent (albeit imperfect) of Father Joseph by his understanding of the mystical traditions of both East and West, anecdotals of which he peppers the novel with. An inspiring book for those who wish to stretch their branches high up to the heavens while sinking their roots deep down into the earth.
Profile Image for Juan Escobar.
171 reviews13 followers
January 10, 2021
Todo acontecimiento dado que ocurre en cualquier parte del universo tiene por condiciones determinantes la suma de acontecimientos previos y contemporáneos de todas las partes del universo.


Un libro que me sorprendió tremendamente. Creí que eran las aventuras de un capuchino de hace tres (o cuatro?) siglos que desde su monasterio conspiraba con Dios para ayudarle a los políticos. Y sí, pero es más que eso.

"Este hombre penetra en mis más secretos pensamientos; sabe cosas que sólo he comunicado a unas pocas personas de probada discreción, y va a Tours y regresa, a pie, bajo la lluvia, en medio de la nieve y del hielo. Juro que ese fraile debe llevar el diablo en el cuerpo".
Duque Bouillon


Es sobre todo un ensayo sobre la mística religiosa, profunda, real, mezclada con el intríngulis de la política de la guerra entre monarcas. El ser que detrás de la capucha de religioso tiene el poder suficiente, por su educación privilegiada y por sus dones mentales, de hacer que los mas poderosos se muevan exactamente al sitio deseado.

Pocos políticos idealistas han hablado tan francamente de las conductas de su idealismo. Será tal vez porque son pocos los políticos idealistas que han pasado la mitad de sus vidas meditando sobre las torturas y la muerte de un hombre-dios, en comparación con cuyos sufrimientos los de los seres humanos comunes son tan ínfimos que llegan a ser despreciables.


No se pierdan la lectura sobre la vida del padre José de Tremblay, consejero y mano derecha (¿y negra?) del cardenal Richelieu hace unos siglos atrás. Este texto es monumental. Te dejará con la cabeza en mil pedazos.

Una y otra vez, eclesiásticos y laicos piadosos se han hecho estadistas en el deseo de elevar la política a su propio nivel moral, y una y otra vez la política los ha hecho descender al bajo nivel moral en el cual los estadistas, en su condición de políticos, se ven obligados a vivir.


La primera parte del ensayo es sobre el misticismo religioso. Cosa que es compleja de entender si no has comenzado a caminar ese camino. Es como si te hablarán en chino. Pero en serio dice cosas muy lindas e increíbles de ese intento de los hombres por la iluminación.

Muchos, y en este caso todos, son llamados, pero sólo unos pocos son elegidos, por la sencilla razón de que pocos se eligen así mismos.


La parte del medio del ensayo es sobre cómo un padre que ha decidido perder todo su abolengo se ve envuelto, por la patria, en ser la eminencia gris.

"Un hombre honesto enviado a mentir en el exterior por el bien de su país". Henry Wotton.


La última parte, que es devastadora, es como en la guerra de los Treinta Años, la miseria humana se apodera de Europa en nombre de Dios(es) y los Reyes.

El pueblo común podía estar muriéndose de hambre o viviendo obscenamente de carroña humana, pero en las salas de banquetes imperiales, electorales y episcopales, la gran y vieja costumbre alemana de hartarse y de emborracharse no se abrogó nunca. Llenos de carne y vino, los príncipes podían considerar las aflicciones de sus súbditos con la mayor fortaleza.


Y el paseo termina, como comenzó: explicando cómo los actos de un puro, de un nacido para ser santo, con ayuda de sus amigotes de infancia y de los orfanatos y seminarios, terminan ocasionando los dolores exactos que luego provocarán más guerras y desangre y matanzas.

(Con la guerra de Treinta Años) Se había preparado el terreno para la revolución, y de la revolución iba a surgir, junto con el "progreso por medio de la catástrofe" del cual gustan hablar los políticos, el imperialismo napoleónico y, por reacción, el nacionalismo alemán, el imperio prusiano y los desastres del siglo xx.


Claro, terminás entendiendo, pero no dejándolo de odiar, al padrecito. Y te queda claro, a pesar de eso, que la única manera de cambiar el mundo, es siendo un animal político pero primero eligiendo personalmente el cambio interior. Y que la balanza no se incline para ninguno de los dos lados.

No puede esperarse que las reformas políticas produzcan mucho mejoramiento general a menos que un gran número de individuos emprendan la transformación de su personalidad por el único método conocido realmente eficaz: el de los contemplativos.

Profile Image for Juan A. Ramirez.
119 reviews17 followers
February 11, 2025
the middle section was a rough 3/5, but Huxley's project is fascinating and ambitious. he was years from his mescaline era, but already he'd reached a galaxy brain cognitive space of "in order to understand anything, we must understand everything." so an extended chapter outlining every Catholic strain and mutation which led to Father Joseph's own understanding of the spirit is more than warranted, as are descriptions of the world around him. what loses me are the uneven geopolitical explanations, some of which are minutely detailed, others feel like they might have been more readily understood by an Oxford man back then.

but is there anything Huxley can't write? the opening scene is one of the most thrilling I've ever read, and the book SHINES when he allows himself to craft scenes. he might have perfected the form in The Devils of Loudun but, with a single paragraph like the one below, who's complaining?

"Few men will anything very strongly, and out of these few, only a tiny minority are capable of combining strength of will with unwavering continuity. Most human beings are spasmodic and intermittent creatures, who like above everything the pleasures of mental indolence. 'It is for this reason,' says Bryce, 'that a strenuous and unwearying will sometimes becomes so tremendous a power, almost a hypnotic force.' Lucifer is the highest mythological incarnation of this intense personal will, and the great men who have embodied it upon the stage of history participate, to some extent, in his satanic strength and magnificence. It is because of this strength and magnificence, so very different from our own weakness and mental squalor, that we continue to hark back nostalgically to the biographies of such men as Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, and that, as each new imitator of Lucifer arises, we prostrate ourselves before him, begging him to save us. And, of course, many of these Great Men would genuinely like to save their fellows. But since they are what they are, not saints, but petty Lucifers, their well-meant efforts can lead only to the perpetuation, in some temporary less or more unpleasant form, of those conditions from which humanity is perpetually praying to be saved. Great Men have invariably failed to 'deliver the goods'; but because we admire their qualities and envy their success, we continue to believe in them and to submit to their power. At the same time, we know quite well, with a part of our being, that Lucifers cannot possibly do us any good; so we turn for a moment from such incarnations of the personal will to those very different human beings, who incarnate the will of God. The Saints are even more willing to help than the Great Men; but the advice they give is apt to seem depressing to men and women who want to enjoy the pleasures of indolence. 'God,' say the Saints, 'helps those who help themselves'; and they go on to prescribe the methods by which it is possible to help oneself. But we don't want to have to help ourselves; we want to be helped, to have somebody who will do the work on our behalf. So we turn back again to the incarnations of the personal will. These Great Men have not the smallest doubt of their ability to give us exactly what we want - a political system that will make everybody happy and good, a state religion that guarantees God's favours here on earth and a blissful eternity in paradise. We accept their offer; and immediately the other part of our being reverts to the saints, from whom once again we turn to our disastrous Great Men. And so it goes on, century after century. The pathetic shilly-shallying has left its accumulated traces in our libraries, where the records of Great Men and their activities in history fill about as much shelf-room as the records of the Saints and their dealings with God." -Grey Eminence, pp. 148-150, Aldous Huxley
Profile Image for Bryn Collier.
2 reviews
April 4, 2022
“Grey Eminence” is a biography of Père Joseph, a Capuchin friar who served as spymaster, advisor, ambassador, and confidant to the (in)famous French “Prime Minister”, Cardinal Richelieu. Along with his boss, Père Joseph was a prominent “hawk” during the 30 Years War, a conflict which pitted the Habsburg Empire against its principal religious (ie Lutheran and Calvinist) and geopolitical (France) rivals. Huxley goes through great lengths to explain Père Joseph’s motives for encouraging a devastating war against his fellow Christians (and indeed even Catholics) - PJ saw the French monarchy as the main instrument of God’s will on earth, therefore to strengthen both the King’s power relative to the nobility and France’s power relative to her competitors (chiefly Austria) was to increase the capacity for a consecrated State to enforce said divine will.

Rather than affirm Père Joseph’s logic, Huxley demonstrates why his subjects’ attempts to reconcile religion (the religious component of PJ’s personality is described as “Ezechiely” after the prophet) with power politics (the political compenent is called “Tenebroso-Cavernoso”, or the “dark and deep one”) were bound to fail. PJ operated under the premise that “the end justifies the means” and that it is permissible to kill and deceive for the sake of France. Furthermore, even though such actions were essentially sinful, PJ thought he could absolve himself by “annihilating” his self as the beneficiary and acting solely in union with Christ, his schemes as his own cross to carry. Huxley, however, points out that this is an active mindset, even though it poses as contemplative, and as such, is wrapped up in ethical and dogmatic considerations, which inherently involve relating the internal self (as processing the “revealed Word” of the gospels) with the external world, in contrast with the self-annihilation (or “sublimation”) into the divine (“unrevealed”, unknowable Word) found the Mystical traditions, then out of favor with the church. To be precise, external actions which present themselves as religiously motivated can only be evaluated with respect to their dogmatic fidelity and because personal or mystical associations with the divine are compelling only to the individual who experiences them, such associations cannot logically be presented to justify dogma. Therefore self-annihilation, only realized in the context of Mysticism, (when the self is related to a divine ideal, rather than the material world) is impossible when the subject is engaged in religiously-motivated external action which requires dogmatic justification. As such, Père Joseph could not separate his self, his soul, from the sins committed in the name of France and in the name of Christ.

What makes Père Joseph all the more compelling is that on the surface he was so morally scrupulous - never prideful (like Richelieu) nor venal (like Talleyrand, another churchman-turned-statesman), but the “perfect Capuchin”. He was no moral imbecile nor cynical power seeker, quite the contrary - he was a man with immense willpower who disdained politics as such but became a politician because he felt it was the only path to Jerusalem. This only holds on the surface, however. This is because although PJ scorned material pleasures, he reveled in self-sacrifice and suffering - the very fact that politics was unholy and distasteful made it all the more appealing. Père Joseph could rejoice through fasting and self-flagellation with a perseverance which astonished his contemporaries; he did all this because it was for the glory of God and the burying of the self. Just so, he could bear the mighty yoke of immorality, politics, and war because it was all for the glory of the true faith.

Père Joseph could bear such pain because no suffering, could ever compare to that of Christ on Calvary Hill. No sacrifice could ever compete with Christ’s passion and languishing. There is no torture that man could concoct which would bring him to equal the Son of God. Not only was PJ’s suffering minute in comparison, but so was the suffering of his Catholic brethren (heathens are typically excluded from a zealot’s equation) and isn’t it the duty of all to serve the will of the Lord? Such is the humility, and the cruelty of the Saint who, in the pursuit of self-annihilation, sees others only as Christians whose Christianity is a function of their emiaciation.

I’ll end this ramble with a minor criticism which, in the grand scheme of things, is more a nitpick than anything else. Huxley frequently draws parallels between Père Joseph and Arjuna from the Bhagavad Gita, specifically in the attitudes of both towards inflicting suffering. I take issue with this because while I agree that the content of a religious parable doesn’t matter in that it can be interpreted and applied in whichever manner the manipulator sees fit, Huxley’s insistence on mapping Hindu and Buddhist philosophy onto Christianity has the effect of negating the very real inter-faith distinctions that either make or break a given analogy. For instance, Huxley likens Krishna’s insistence that Arjuna give up his own desires for the sake of right-action with PJ’s attempts at “self-annihilation”. I don’t think this holds because Krishna argues that acting out of step with duty is acting selfishly towards an unobtained ideal and would lead to worse consequences in a world where the individualization of parts is illusionary in a positive sense. This runs contrary to the notion of “ends justifying the means” in that if Arjuna acts contrary to his duty on the basis that he will suffer, what follows will be worse for everyone (and indeed if he did lay down his bow, his brothers would be killed - its not as though Krishna is urging Arjuna to massacre unarmed civilians), rather “the end ideal” is not seen as something to strive for because the act of egoistically striving would contradict one’s duty. By contrast, Père Joseph advocates war against Austria because doing so would empower France, thereby enabling it to launch a Crusade against the Ottoman Empire. For PJ, a subsequent Crusade (the holy mission of the King of France; despite starting off as a baronial endeavor) is the “end ideal” justifying the war against Austria. There is no sense that if PJ acts otherwise, a worse result would manifest, or that it is his duty within an interconnected, undifferentiated world - indeed the subversion of his duty is a “burden” on the path towards Crusade. Again, this doesn’t really have much impact on the book as concerned with Père Joseph, it’s just that when western excessively map unfamiliar “eastern” ideas onto familiar western ones, what results is that such eastern notions are unintentionally westernized. But I myself am western (and dumb) so maybe I’m wrong. Great book 5/5 stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Elina.
189 reviews8 followers
February 3, 2021
An interesting biography, and Huxley makes a couple of good points about how we perceive history. Otherwise I wished the style would have been more consistent. Huxley also fails to include any quotes into why he claims Marie de Medici was "stupid, lazy and stubborn". His views seem rather archaic in the 21st century. Other than that I quite enjoyed a book that's more of an opinionated essay than a standard historical nonfiction.
Profile Image for Scriptor Ignotus.
576 reviews232 followers
December 11, 2014
A truly remarkable book, which combines stimulating insights in the realms of theology (and the psychology behind it), history and politics with a genuinely engrossing biography of a fascinating subject. Huxley saw religious devotion as something inherently harmless, and even sometimes genuinely beneficial, that could be turned to unbelievably destructive ends when men, having convinced themselves that they are instruments of God's will, attempt to use the low and barbarous means of war and political intrigue to usher in a reign of higher spiritual or metaphysical ideals in the mundane world. Published in 1941, this study was especially meaningful at a time when Hitler, attempting to impose his own metaphysical vision on the world, prepared to launch the largest invasion in history against the Soviet Union, ushering in a theatre of war that surpassed even the horrific Thirty Years' War in its infliction of human destruction and misery.
Profile Image for Mark.
42 reviews
October 6, 2012
This is why we have separation of church and state. Read about the The Thirty Years of War in Europe in the 17th Century. Educate yourself as the schools are not interested in doing so.
Profile Image for Kiki023.
32 reviews1 follower
March 2, 2022
Never has Marguerite Yourcenar's warning that biographies reflect their authors more than their subjects been more apt. Huxley wants us to accept the necessity of dividing religion and politics via a study of Francois Leclerc du Tremblay, a French Capuchin who miraculously found himself elevated to the pinnacle of political power by his association with Cardinal Richelieu. This is very much Huxley striving to be a historian and allowing his pet mysticism to cloud his judgment. He positions himself early on as a universal causal determinist of the early stoic variety, allowing that all events are dependent upon all others, through mechanisms both large and epsilonically small, and uses this to frame Father Joseph and Richelieu as proto-totalitarians who, because they lost their connection to the self-annihilating purification of theosophical mysticism, were able to embark upon centralizing, repressive and violent policies with a fervor that could only be granted by eschatological sanction. And from these efforts to prolong the Thirty Years' War and the carnage that accompanied it, we arrive, ultimately, inevitably, at the Third Reich.

Is this compelling? Not really. One should recall that this was published in 1941. Huxley is interested in pinning the blame on all that proceeds the Friar and Cardinal's machinations on the two of them, but neither Richelieu nor Father Joseph started the Thirty Years' War, many other actors and processes share a large brunt of the blame for the savagery with which that war was fought. If universal causal determinism is meant to undergird historical explanation, how could we pin it all on individual actions? There is, however, an interesting suggestion in all of this, echoed by other historians, that although France never succumbed fully to the totalitarian temptations that its neighbors did, its ideological outsourcing proved formative to those movements that did embark upon that path.

We get more of a hint at what he's up to when he laments the rise of anthropomorphic revisionism in the mystical tradition and the efforts of individual men like Pierre Berulle and Benet Fitch to quash the asceticism of the Quietists. Huxley recognizes the imperfection of politics and seeks a religious solution as being the only one that can transmogrify the human spirit, through the annihilation of the self and the all-encompassing loving bliss that accompanies the cultivation of the unitive life. His "politics of goodness" in practice appears to be a federated and decentralized state, with education in the hands of private (monastic?) eleemosynary institutions that will cultivate the virtues in individuals and in which politicians, insofar as they exist, refrain from pursuing policies that would hinder the practice of mysticism. Of course, this makes the separation he desires for the sake of Father Joseph's "victims" impossible, as one does not achieve this goodness without channeling private investment in religious theosophy for the sake of the public good. One wishes that he would have studied the history of the early American republic.

So why 3 stars? This book, as far as it goes, appears to be an indictment. But we see what we want to see. It is just as revealing of the mindset of Aldous Huxley as it is of Father Joseph. The dearth of biographical materials available for the study of the titular figure makes this work almost a necessity for those interested in his éminence grise. That is all well and good, but do tread lightly.
Profile Image for Roberta Allen.
Author 11 books3 followers
June 3, 2019
This is a strange book, published in the midst of World War II, which Huxley saw as in part the outcome of the policies of the Grey Eminence, Father Joseph, Richelieu's right-hand man and a Capuchin to boot. The story of Father Joseph is fascinating. He aspired to the mystic life and lived spartanly, barefoot and in near rags, wearing a hair shirt, etc. but somehow in his Francophobia managed to reconcile this with a policy of encouraging the 30 Years' War, resulting in the death of millions of Germans, some of whom were reduced to cannibalism. But Huxley does not give a straight forward biography. He himself was a great believe in mysticism and lays his own views about art, politics and many other topics pretty heavily on the reader. At times this got quite annoying as he could be rather pompous.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
3 reviews
September 11, 2017
A fascinating story of Cardinal Richelieu's right hand.
A man who as a French Foreign minister was taking direct actions to prolong the atrocities of the thirty years' war in hope of consolidating French Monarchy and who at the same time as Capuchin Monk was taking meticulous care of his order and passed nights in deep meditations.
The language Huxley uses is absolutely beautiful. The realities of the 17th century Europe on the background are both fascinating and terrifying.
The book strengthened my belief that not much is changed in the way power-politics is done and that I am infinitely grateful for living in an age and place where past atrocities are not commonplace.
166 reviews3 followers
November 13, 2024
Is this it? 360 ratings? Millions of ratings on vampires and self-serving biographies...and 360 ratings on what is to me the greatest history written? How does such a book from a well known author escape the esteem it deserves?

It is difficult. It by its own nature is meant for the deeper, contemplative reader. And yet...unlike so many elitist philosophical systems and writings from Heidegger to many so called mystics, Huxley is not obtuse. He offers startling clarity into a deeper understanding, beyond morals and systems. And this clarity is perfectly told in the paradoxical figure of Father Joseph.

Truly one of the great books I've ever read. I reread it every few years.
Profile Image for Wilson Hawk.
39 reviews1 follower
March 6, 2023
An essential dissection of 'transcendence' and its lack of meaning in the face of politics, dragged down significantly by Huxley's personal obsession with theology and meditation.
Profile Image for dr_set.
264 reviews1 follower
April 27, 2023
This book doubles as a biography on Francois Leclerc du Tremblay, right hand of Cardinal Richelieu as well as a primer on mysticism.
The Autor strays from the main subject repeatedly to the point that it’s easy to forget that this is a biography and not a treaty on mysticism. Regardless of its shortcomings, the book is a very interesting read on a fascinating character and his time, the Europe of on the thirty years wars in the XVII century.
Francois Leclerc du Tremblay, known in religion as Father Joseph of Paris and to anecdotal history as The Grey Eminence, was a master of the game of power politics. A diplomat, a spy master, top-level advisor and military strategist were some of the many facets of this complex character. His influence in the Thirty Years War and, by consequence, in the future of the entire continent of Europe cannot be overstated.
Profile Image for Mark.
177 reviews12 followers
November 2, 2007
First of all, it's Aldous Huxley. Secondly, it's the story of the religio-political maneuvering that ushered in some of Europe's darkest days. A portrait of a deeply devout monk who's decisions reduced Europe to the point of cannibalism. A great historical biography and one of the strongest cases for the separation of Church and State.
Profile Image for Ainsley.
180 reviews9 followers
April 28, 2008
A marvelous political biography of Father Joseph, Cardinal Richelieu's aide, Diplomatic genius, and one of the most remarkable protagonists of the Thirty Years War. A mystic who longed for isolation, he preserved the political and cultural unity of France at a time when it was under almost constant siege, at terrible cost.
Profile Image for Rob Carr.
194 reviews1 follower
July 28, 2014
I hadn't really realised what this was when I bought it. Found myself hating it at the start but enjoying it the more I read of it. It is certainly an interesting account except for its long passages about mysticism.
Profile Image for Luis Miguel.
35 reviews
August 16, 2015
El Fraile Capuchino, Padre José de París, asesor del Cardenal Rechelieu, justificó sus acciones en la pasión de Cristo. Si uno se había sacrificado por todos, algunos podían sacrificarse por Francia. Con este motivo alargó la guerra de los 30 años para debilitar a España y a los Habsburgo.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.