[5] He was ordained a priest at Sens by Cardinal Paul d'Albert de Luynes in 1767, having been granted a dispensation because he was below the canonical minimum age.

[8] Fénelon's grand-nephew, Leo François Ferdinand Salignac de La Mothe-Fénelon, who was bishop of Lombez (1771–1788), was so impressed by Maury's laudation of his relative that he granted him a canonry in his cathedral and named him a Vicar General.

[9] The real foundation of his fortunes was the success of a panegyric on Saint Louis, delivered in the chapel of the Louvre on 25 August 1772, before the Académie française, who caused him to be recommended to Cardinal De La Roche-Aymon, the prelate responsible for the dispensation of royal benefices.

[10] In 1777 he published under the title of Discours choisis his panegyrics on Saint Louis, Saint Augustine and Fénelon, his remarks on Bossuet and his Essai sur l'éloquence de la chaire,[11] a volume which contains much good criticism, and remained a French classic through the nineteenth century, as long as elegant rhetoric was valued in the pulpit.

It is said that he attempted to emigrate both in July and in October 1789, having been placed on a list of proscriptions by the Orléanist faction,[15] but after that time, deserted by nearly all his friends, he decided to remain in France.

In the National Constituent Assembly he took an active part in every important debate, combating with especial vigour the alienation of the property of the clergy.

[16]Maury's eloquence could not exactly be described as studied; yet it was the outcome of a well-stored mind, long trained in oratory; and hence, his speeches read far better than his rival's, whose rugged genius poured forth its torrents regardless of the rules of rhetoric.

On 12 July 1790 the Civil Constitution of the Clergy became law, provoking a schism between France and the Catholic Church, and the breaking off of diplomatic relations between Rome and Paris.

[20] On 17 April 1792 Pope Pius VI appointed Maury to be his Nuncio in Frankfort, where the imperial diet intended to elect Francis II of Austria as Holy Roman Emperor.

He was consecrated in Rome in the Vatican Basilica at the altar of the Chair of Saint Peter on 1 May 1792 by Cardinal Francesco Saverio de Zelada.

[22] On 21 February 1794, Maury was named a cardinal by Pope Pius VI, and on 12 September was assigned the titular church of Santissima Trinità dei Monti in Rome.

[24] There he settled down, conducted a thorough diocesan visitation, and wrote a detailed report of the status of the diocese for the Sacred Congregation of the Council in Rome (15 November 1796).

There were no cardinals left in Rome or the Papal States, and those who had fled to Naples were driven out when a popular uprising created the Parthenopean Republic.

[33] They preferred Cardinal Alessandro Mattei of Florence (a native Roman), who had signed the Treaty of Tolentino with Napoleon on behalf of Pope Pius VI, since it acknowledged Austria's possession of the three Italian legations of the Papal States.

Finally, after three months and fourteen days, and with some hard work by Maury and others behind the scenes, the cardinals chose the Benedictine Bishop of Imola, Gregorio Barnaba Chiaramonti, an accommodating person with no strong positions.

[36] Thereafter Maury made regular trips to Rome, on behalf of the affairs of Louis XVIII, but also to report to Pius about his correspondence and information gathering about the French bishops who had refused the oath to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and gone into exile.

[41] On 5 November 1810, he was ordered by the pope to cease his activities in the diocese of Paris, and threatened him with ecclesiastical censures if he persisted, but Maury refused, claiming that the papal letter was a forgery.

[43] On 3 May 1814, therefore, in the motu proprio "Gravissimis de Causis", Pope Pius VII suspended him from all episcopal functions in the dioceses of Montefiascone and Corneto.

On the news of Napoleon's escape from Elba, Pius VII fled from the city, leaving the pro-Secretary of State, Cardinal Bartolomeo Pacca in charge.

On 28 March 1816, he issued a royal ordonnance, restoring the pre-revolutionary titles and structure of France's academies, and adding lists of members.