Artus de Lionne (1655–1713) in 1686 (detail).The 1686 Siamese embassy ofKosa Pan, accompanied by their translator, Artus de Lionne (right). Painted byJacques Vigouroux Duplessis (c.1680–1732).[1]
Artus de Lionne was born inRome in 1655. He first left forSiam as a missionary[5] in 1681.[4]
He returned to France in 1686, serving as translator to the embassy of the SiameseKosa Pan to the court ofLouis XIV.[1][6] Artus de Lionne then returned to Siam with the Siamese embassy in 1687 on board the ships of the French ambassadorSimon de la Loubère. He played a role in the negotiation between the French and Siamese sides during the1688 Siamese Revolution,[7] which resulted in the expulsion of the French forces. Artus de Lionne left Siam withGeneral Desfarges following the French defeat in theSiege of Bangkok,[6] leaving MgrLouis Laneau a prisoner of the Siamese for several years.
Artus de Lionne then went to China as a missionary in 1689, where he worked with Bishop Maigrot inFukien province. He was for a time the archbishop ofSichuan (seeCatholic Church in Sichuan), although he never went there.[8] He was an opponent of theJesuits and took the opposite side in theChinese Rites controversy.[9]
Artus de Lionne, as Bishop of Rosalie.
Artus de Lionne returned to Europe on 17 February 1702, accompanying the Chinese ChristianArcadio Huang.[10][11] Artus de Lionne and Arcadio Huang embarked on a ship of the EnglishEast India Company in order to reachLondon. By September or October 1702, they left England forFrance, in order to travel toRome. On the verge of being ordained a priest in Rome and being presented to the pope to demonstrate the reality of Chinese Christianity, Arcadio Huang apparently renounced and declinedordination. Artus de Lionne preferred to return to Paris to further his education, and wait for a better answer.
Artus de Lionne significantly influenced the editing of the 1707 treatise against Chinese philosophy ofNicolas Malebranche[13] (Entretien d'un philosophe Chrétien et d'un philosophe chinois sur l'existence et la nature de Dieu).[14] He died in Paris in 1713.
Chinese Manual: Sse Tse Ouen Tsien Tchou Four Words Literature (with) Commentary (or) Explication. ("Recueil de Phrases Chinoises, Composées de Quatre Caractères Et Dont Les Explications Sont Rangées Dans L'ordre Alphabétique Français")
Lionne, Artus de: Le journal de voyage au Siam de l'abbé de Lionne; suivi de Mémoire sur l'affaire. Paris: "Églises d'Asie", 2001.ISBN2-914402-33-3
^French Speakers at the Cape in the First Hundred Years of Dutch East India ... – Page 316 by Maurice Boucher
^Saint-Simon and the Court of Louis XIV By Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie p.215[1]
^abRituals of majesty: France, Siam, and court spectacle in royal image-building at Versailles in 1685 and 1686 Canadian Journal of History, Aug 1996 by Love, Ronald S[2]
