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BOSSUET, JAQUES BENIGNE (1627-1704)

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 289 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BOSSUET, JAQUES BENIGNE (1627-1704) , See also:French divine, orator and writer, was See also:born at See also:Dijon on the 27th of See also:September 1627. He came of a See also:family of prosperous Burgundian lawyers; his See also:father was a See also:judge of the See also:parliament (a provincial high See also:court) at Dijon, afterwards at See also:Metz. The boy was sent to school with the See also:Jesuits of Dijon till 1642, when he went up to the See also:college of See also:Navarre in See also:Paris to begin the study of See also:theology; for a pious See also:mother had brought him up to look on the priesthood as his natural vocation. At Navarre he gained a See also:great reputation for hard See also:work; See also:fellow-students nicknamed him See also:Bos suetus aratroan ox broken in to the plough. But his abilities became known beyond the college walls. He was taken up by the Hotel de See also:Rambouillet, a great centre of aristocratic culture and the See also:original See also:home of the Precieuses. Here he became the subject of a celebrated experiment. A dispute having arisen about extempore See also:preaching, the boy of sixteen was put up, See also:late one See also:night, to deliver an See also:impromptu discourse. He acquitted himself as well as in more conventional See also:examinations. In 1652 he took a brilliant degree in divinity, and was ordained See also:priest. The next seven years he spent at Metz, where his father's See also:influence had got him a canonry at the See also:early See also:age of thirteen; to this was now added the more important See also:office of See also:archdeacon. He was plunged at once into the thick of controversy; for nearly See also:half Metz was See also:Protestant, and Bossuet's first See also:appearance in See also:print was a refutation of the Huguenot pastor See also:Paul See also:Ferry (1655).

To reconcile the Protestants with the See also:

Roman See also:Church became the great See also:object of his dreams; and for this purpose he began to See also:train himself carefully for the See also:pulpit, an all-important centre of influence in a See also:land where See also:political assemblies were unknown, and novels and See also:newspapers scarcely born. Not that he reached perfection at a See also:bound. His youthful See also:imagination was unbridled, and his ideas ran easily into a See also:kind of paradoxical subtlety, redolent of the divinity school. But these blemishes vanished when he settled in Paris (1659), and three years later mounted the pulpit of the See also:Chapel Royal. In Paris the congregations had no See also:mercy on purely clerical See also:logic or clerical See also:taste; if a preacher wished to catch their See also:ear, he must See also:manage to address them in terms they would agree to consider sensible and well-bred. Not that Bossuet thought too much of their See also:good See also:opinion. Having very stern ideas of the dignity of a priest, he refused to descend to the usual devices for arousing popular See also:interest. The narrative See also:element in his sermons grows shorter with each See also:year. He never See also:drew satirical pictures, like his great See also:rival See also:Bourdaloue. He would not write out his discourses in full, much less learn them off by See also:heart: of the two See also:hundred printed in his See also:Works all but a fraction are rough drafts. No wonder ladies like Mme de See also:Sevigne forsook him, when Bourdaloue dawned on the Paris See also:horizon in 1669; though See also:Fenelon and La Bruyere, two much sounder critics, refused to follow their example. Bossuet possessed the full equipment of the orator, See also:voice, See also:language, flexibility and strength.

He never needed to See also:

strain for effect; his See also:genius struck out at a single See also:blow the thought, the feeling and the word. What he said of See also:Martin See also:Luther applies peculiarly to himself: he could "fling his fury into theses," and thus unite the dry See also:light of See also:argument with the See also:fire and See also:heat of See also:passion. These qualities reach their highest point in the Oraisons funebres. Bossuet was always best when at work on a large See also:canvas; besides, here no conscientious scruples intervened to prevent him giving much See also:time and thought to the See also:artistic See also:side of his subject. For the Oraison, as its name betokened, stood midway between the See also:sermon proper and what would nowadays be called a See also:biographical See also:sketch. At least, that was what Bossuet made it; for on this See also:field he stood not merely first, but alone. His three great masterpieces were delivered at the funerals of Henrietta Maria, widow of See also:Charles I. (1669), her daughter, Henrietta, duchess of See also:Orleans (167o), and the great soldier See also:Conde (1687). Apart from these See also:state occasions, Bossuet seldom appeared in a Paris pulpit after 1669. In that year he was gazetted See also:bishop of See also:Condom in See also:Gascony, though he resigned the See also:charge on being appointed See also:tutor to the dauphin, only See also:child of See also:Louis XIV., and now a boy of nine (1670). The choice was scarcely fortunate. Bossuet unbent as far as he could, but his genius was by no means fitted to enter into the feelings of a child; and the dauphin was a See also:cross, ungainly, sullen lad, who See also:grew up to be a merely genealogical incident at his father's court.

Probably no one was happier than the tutor, when his charge's sixteenth birthday came See also:

round, and he was promptly married off to a Bavarian princess. Still the nine years at court were by no means wasted. Hitherto Bossuet had published nothing, except his See also:answer to Ferry. Now he sat down to write for his See also:pupil's instruction—or rather, to See also:fit himself to give that instruc-tion—a remarkable trilogy. First came the Traite de la connaissance de Dieu et de soi-meme, then the Discours sur l'histoire universelle, lastly the Politique tiree de l'Ecriture Sainte. The three books fit into each other. The Traite is a See also:general sketch of the nature of See also:God and the nature of See also:man. The Discours is a See also:history of God's dealings with humanity in the past. The Politique is a See also:code of rights and duties See also:drawn up in the light thrown by those dealings. Not that Bossuet literally supposed that the last word of political See also:wisdom had been said by the Old Testament. His conclusions are only " drawn from See also:Holy Scripture," because he wished to gain the highest possible See also:sanction for the institutions of his country—to hallow the See also:France of Louis XIV. by proving its astonishing likeness to the See also:Israel of See also:Solomon. Then, too, the See also:veil of Holy Scripture enabled him to speak out more boldly than court-See also:etiquette would have other-See also:wise allowed, to remind the son of Louis XIV. that See also:kings have duties as well as rights.

Louis had often forgotten these duties, but Louis' son would See also:

bear them in mind. The tutor's imagination looked forward to a time when France would blossom into See also:Utopia, with a See also:Christian philosopher on the See also:throne. That is what made him so stalwart a See also:champion of authority in all its forms: " le roi, Jesus-See also:Christ et l'Eglise, Dieu en See also:ces trois noms," he says in a characteristic See also:letter. And the object of his books is to provide authority with a rational basis. For Bossuet's See also:worship of authority by no means killed his confidence in See also:reason; what it did was to make him doubt the honesty of those who reasoned otherwise than himself. The whole See also:chain of argument seemed to him so clear and See also:simple. See also:Philosophy proved that a God exists, and that He shapes and governs the course of human affairs. History showed that this governance is, for the most See also:part, indirect, exercised through certain See also:venerable corporations, as well See also:civil as ecclesiastical, all of which demand implicit obedience as the immediate representatives of God. Thus all revolt, whether civil or religious, is a See also:direct See also:defiance of the Almighty. See also:Cromwell becomes a moral See also:monster, and the revocation of the See also:edict of See also:Nantes is " the greatest achievement of the second See also:Constantine." Not that Bossuet glorified the status quo simply as a clerical See also:bigot. The France of his youth had known the misery of divided counsels and civil See also:war; the France of his manhood, brought together under an See also:absolute See also:sovereign, had suddenly shot up into a splendour only comparable with See also:ancient See also:Rome. Why not, then, strain every See also:nerve to hold innovation at See also:bay and prolong that splendour for all time ?

Phoenix-squares

Bossuet's own Discours sur l'histoire universelle might have furnished an answer, for there the fall of many empires is detailed. But then the Discours was composed under a single preoccupation. To Bossuet the See also:

establishment of See also:Christianity was the one point of real importance in the whole history of the See also:world. Over See also:Mahomet and the See also:East he passed without a word; on See also:Greece and Rome he only touched in so far as they formed part of the Praeparatio Evangelica. And yet his Discours is far more than a theological pamphlet. See also:Pascal, in utter scorn for See also:science, might refer the rise and fall of empires to See also:Providence or chance—the See also:nose of See also:Cleopatra, or " a little See also:grain of See also:sand " in the See also:English See also:lord See also:protector's See also:veins. Bossuet held fast to his principle that God works through secondary causes. " It is His will that every great See also:change should have its roots in the ages that went before it." Bossuet, accordingly, made a heroic See also:attempt to grapple with origins and causes, and in this way his See also:book deserves its See also:place as one of the very first of philosophic histories. From See also:writing history he turned to history in the making. In 1681 he was gazetted bishop of See also:Meaux; but before he could take See also:possession of his see, he was drawn into a violent See also:quarrel between Louis XIV. and the See also:pope (see See also:GALLICANISM). Here he found himself between two fires. To support the pope meant supporting the Jesuits; and he hated their casuists and devotion aisee almost as much as Pascal himself.

To oppose the pope• was to See also:

play into the hands of Louis, who was frankly anxious to humble the Church before the State. So Bossuet steered a See also:middle course. Before the general See also:assembly of the French See also:clergy he preached a great sermon on the unity of the Church, and made it a magnificent plea for See also:compromise. As Louis insisted on his clergy making an See also:anti-papal See also:declaration, Bossuet got leave to draw it up, and made it as moderate as he could. And when the pope declared it null and void, he set to work on a gigantic Defensio Cleri Gallicani, only published of ter his See also:death. The Gallican See also:storm a little See also:abated, he turned back to a project very near his heart. Ever since the early days at Metz he had been busy with schemes for uniting the See also:Huguenots to the Roman Church. In 1668 he converted See also:Turenne; in 1670 he published an Exposition de la foi catholique, so moderate in See also:tone that adversaries were driven to accuse him of having fraudulently watered down the Roman dogmas to suit a Protestant taste. Finally in 1688 appeared his great Histoire See also:des See also:variations des eglises protestantes, perhaps the most brilliant of all his works. Few writers could have made the See also:Justification controversy interesting or even intelligible. His argument is simple enough. Without rules an organized society cannot hold together, and rules require an authorized interpreter.

The Protestant churches had thrown over this interpreter; and Bossuet had small trouble in showing that, the longer they lived, the more they varied on increasingly important points. For the moment the Protestants were pulverized; but before See also:

long they began to ask whether variation was necessarily so great an evil. Between 1691 and 1701 Bossuet corresponded with See also:Leibnitz with a view to See also:reunion, but negotiations See also:broke down precisely at this point. Individual Roman doctrines Leibnitz thought his countrymen might accept, but he flatly refused to See also:guarantee that they would necessarily believe to-morrow what they believe to-See also:day. " We prefer," he said, " a church eternally variable and for ever moving forwards." Next, Protestant writers began to accumulate some startling proofs of Rome's own variations; and here they were backed up by See also:Richard See also:Simon, a priest of the Paris See also:Oratory, and the father of Biblical See also:criticism in France. He accused St See also:Augustine, Bossuet's own See also:special See also:master, of having corrupted the See also:primitive See also:doctrine of See also:Grace. Bossuet set to work on a Defense de la tradition, but Simon calmly went on to raise issues graver still. Under a veil of politely ironical circumlocutions, such as did not deceive the bishop of Meaux, he claimed his right to interpret the See also:Bible like any other book. Bossuet denounced him again and again; Simon told his See also:friends he would wait until " the old fellow " was no more. Another Oratorian proved more dangerous still. Simon had endangered miracles by applying to them See also:lay rules of See also:evidence, but See also:Malebranche abrogated miracles altogether. It was blasphemous, he argued, to suppose that the Author of nature would break through a reign of See also:law He had Himself established.

Bossuet might scribble nova, mira, falsa, in the margins of his book and urge on Fenelon to attack- them; Malebranche politely met his threats by saying that to be refuted by such a See also:

pen would do him too much See also:honour. These repeated checks soured Bossuet's See also:temper. In his earlier controversies he had See also:borne himself with great magnanimity, and the Huguenot ministers he refuted found him a kindly See also:advocate at court. Even his approval of the revocation of the edict of Nantes stopped far See also:short of approving dragonades within his See also:diocese of Meaux. But now his See also:patience was wearing out. A dissertation by one Father Caffaro, an obscure See also:Italian See also:monk, became his excuse for writing certain violent Maximes sur la comedie (1694) wherein he made an outrageous attack on the memory of See also:Moliere, dead more than twenty years. Three years later he was battling with Fenelon over the love of God, and employing methods of controversy at least as odious as Fenelon's own (1697-1699). All that can be said in his See also:defence is that Fenelon, four-andtwenty years his junior, was an old pupil, who had suddenly grown into a rival; and that on the See also:matter of principle most authorities thought him right. Amid these gloomy occupations Bossuet's See also:life came slowly to an end. Till he was over seventy he had scarcely known what illness was; but in 1702 he was attacked by the See also:stone. Two years later he was a hopeless invalid, and on the 12th of See also:April 1704 he passed quietly away. Of his private life there is little to See also:record.

Meaux found him an excellent and devoted bishop, much more attentive to diocesan concerns than his more stirring occupations would seem to allow. In general society he was IV. IOkindly and affable enough, though somewhat See also:

ill at ease. Until he was over See also:forty, he had lived among purely ecclesiastical surroundings; and it was probably want of self-confidence, more than want of moral courage, that made him shut his eyes a little too closely to the disorders of Louis XIV.'s private life. After all, he was not the See also:king's See also:confessor; and to " reform " Louis, before age and Mme de See also:Maintenon had sobered him down, would have taxed the See also:powers of See also:Daniel or See also:Ezekiel. But in his books Bossuet was anything but timid. All of them, even the attacks on Simon, breathe an See also:air of masculine belief in reason, rare enough among the apologists of any age. Bossuet would willingly have undertaken, as Malebranche actually undertook, to make an intelligent Chinaman accept all his ideas, if only he could be induced to lend them his See also:attention. But his best praise is to have brought all the powers of language to paint an undying picture of a vanished world, where See also:religion and letters, See also:laws and science, were conceived of as fixed unalterable See also:planets, circling for ever round one central See also:Sun.

End of Article: BOSSUET, JAQUES BENIGNE (1627-1704)

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