Word: richelieu
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...French high cultural circles, mere excellence is not considered the whole guarantee of immortality. The distinguished men who at any one time occupy the 40 chairs of the famed Académie Française enjoy a specific patent of immortality that dates back to Cardinal Richelieu. But many of France's greatest writers have been barred from the academy for reasons that had little to do with their greatness. The academy's mythical "41st chair," reserved by legend for those who never made the grade, has been occupied by such greats as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whose loose...
...life of an Immortal is less taxing. It consists largely in collecting an annual stipend of 60,000 francs ($171) and showing up every Thursday in the Académie chamber beneath the great dome of the Institut de France, there to pursue in quiet deliberation tasks ordained by Richelieu 320 years ago. Chief of these tasks is that of "keeping the French language elegant" by constant revision of an official dictionary. It is slow work. The Immortals, though their average age is 73, are in no hurry. The last revised edition of their dictionary was finished...
...that will underlie the year's work. Parallel Lives. In anthropology, students may concentrate on underdeveloped areas. In law, they may study the unification of legal systems and the transition from national to supranational law. In history, they study what Brugmans calls "parallel lives"-e.g., the careers of Richelieu, Bismarck, Cavour. "A Frenchman," says Brugmans, "reacts favorably to Richelieu and unfavorably to Bismarck. Yet these men accomplished the same task in roughly the same way." In five years the college has had only one failure. A young Frenchman whose father was killed by the Nazis found that he just...
...adult Lone Ranger, but how much can you do with four guys with swords?" Lerner is investigating the comic possibilities and has not hesitated to seek advice in other fields. After a Manhattan conference with "someone in Cardinal Spellman's office," he decided not to use Cardinal de Richelieu as his main villain. The leading lady is British Actress Dawn Addams, who will be downgraded to duchess from her real-life position of Princess Massimo. Aramis has been changed from an ex-seminarian to a scholarly type; Porthos has become only a fat man interested in food, and Athos...
...Joshua, Sir Francis Walsinghamand Cardinal Richelieu ran organizations similar...