Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
Encyclopedia
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (September 27, 1627 – April 12, 1704) was a French
bishop
and theologian
, renowned for his sermon
s and other addresses. He has been considered by many to be one of the most brilliant orators of all time and a masterly French
stylist.
Court preacher to Louis XIV of France
, Bossuet was a strong advocate of political absolutism and the divine right of kings
. He argued that government was divine and that kings received their power from God. He was also an important courtier and politician.
The works best known to English speakers are three great orations delivered at the funerals of Queen Henrietta Maria
, widow of Charles I of England
(1669), her daughter, Henriette, Duchess of Orléans
(1670), and the outstanding soldier le Grand Condé (1687).
. He came from a family of prosperous Burgundian lawyers - on both his paternal and maternal side, his ancestors had held legal posts for at least a century. He was the fifth son born to Beneigne Bossuet, a judge of the parlement
(a provincial high court) at Dijon, and Marguerite Mouchet. His parents decided on a career in the church
for their fifth son, so he was tonsure
d at age 10.
The boy was sent to school at the Collège des Godrans, a classical school
run by the Jesuits of Dijon. When his father was appointed to the parlement at Metz
, Bossuet was left in Dijon under the care of his uncle Claude Bossuet d'Aiseray, a renowned scholar. At the Collège des Godrans, he gained a reputation for hard work: fellow students nicknamed him Bos suetus aratro, an "ox broken in to the plough". His father's influence at Metz allowed him to obtain for the young Bossuet a canonicate in the cathedral of Metz
when the boy was just 13 years old.
In 1642, Bossuet enrolled in the Collège de Navarre
in Paris
to finish his classical studies and to begin the study of philosophy and theology. His mentor at Navarre was the college's president, Nicolas Cornet
, the theologian whose denunciation of Antoine Arnauld
at the Sorbonne
in 1649 was a major episode in the Jansenist controversy.
For the time being, however, Cornet and Arnaud were still on good terms. In 1643, Arnaud introduced Bossuet to the Hôtel de Rambouillet
, a great centre of aristocratic culture and the original home of the Précieuses
. Bossuet was already showing signs of the oratorical brilliance which served him so well throughout his life. On one celebrated occasion at the Hôtel de Rambouillet, during a dispute about extempore preaching, the 16-year-old Bossuet was called on to deliver an impromptu sermon at 11 pm. Voiture
famously quipped: "I never heard anybody preach so early nor so late."
in 1643. He held his first thesis (tentativa) in theology on January 25, 1648, in the presence of the Prince de Condé
. Later in 1648, he became a sub-deacon at Metz. He became a full deacon
in 1649. During this period, he preached his first sermons.
He held his second thesis (sorbonica) on November 9, 1650. Then, in preparation for the priest
hood, he spent the next two years in retirement under the spiritual direction of Vincent de Paul
.
of Sarrebourg
. He was ordained
a priest
on March 18, 1652. A few weeks later, he defended his brilliant doctoral work and became a Doctor of Divinity
.
He spent the next seven years at Metz, where his father's influence had got him a canonry at age 13 and where he now also had the office of archdeacon. He was plunged at once into the thick of controversy; for nearly half of Metz was Protestant, and Bossuet's first appearance in print was a refutation of the Huguenot
pastor Paul Ferry (1655), and he frequently engaged in religious controversies with Protestants (and, less regularly, with Jews
) during his time at Metz. To reconcile the Protestants with the Roman Catholic Church
became the great object of his dreams; and for this purpose, he began to train himself carefully for the pulpit, an all-important centre of influence in a land where political assemblies were unknown and novels and newspapers scarcely born. His youthful imagination was unbridled, and his ideas ran easily into a kind of paradoxical subtlety, redolent of the divinity school. Nevertheless, his time at Metz was an important time for developing his pulpit oratory and for allowing him to continue his studies of Scripture and the Fathers
. He also gained political experience through his participation in the local Assembly of the Three Orders.
In 1657, in Metz, Bossuet preached before Anne of Austria
, mother of Louis XIV. As a result, he received the honorific title of "Counselor and Preacher to the King".
Bossuet quickly gained a reputation as a great preacher, and by 1660, he was preaching regularly before the court in the Chapel Royal. In 1662, he preached his famous sermon "On the Duties of Kings" to Louis XIV at the Louvre
.
In Paris, the congregations had no mercy on purely clerical logic or clerical taste; if a preacher wished to catch their ear, he had to manage to address them in terms they would agree to consider sensible and well bred. Having very stern ideas of the dignity of a priest, Bossuet refused to descend to the usual devices for arousing popular interest. The narrative element in his sermons grew shorter with each year. He never drew satirical pictures like his great rival Bourdaloue. He would not write out his discourses in full, much less learn them off by heart: of the two hundred printed in his works, all but a fraction are rough drafts. Ladies such as Mme de Sévigné
forsook him when Bourdaloue
dawned on the Paris horizon in 1669, though Fénelon
and La Bruyère
, two much sounder critics, refused to follow their example. Bossuet possessed the full equipment of the orator, voice, language, flexibility and strength. He never needed to strain for effect; his genius struck out at a single blow the thought, the feeling and the word. What he said of Martin Luther
applies peculiarly to himself: he could fling his fury into theses and thus unite the dry light of argument with the fire and heat of passion. These qualities reached their highest point in the Oraisons funèbres (Funeral Orations). Bossuet was always best when at work on a large canvas; besides, here no conscientious scruples intervened to prevent him giving much time and thought to the artistic side of his subject. The Oraison, as its name betokened, stood midway between the sermon proper and what would nowadays be called a biographical sketch. At least that was what Bossuet made it; for on this field, he stood not merely first, but alone.
One hundred and thirty-seven of Bossuet's sermons preached in the period from 1659 to 1669 are extant, and it is estimated that he preached more than a hundred more that have since been lost. Apart from state occasions, Bossuet seldom appeared in a Paris pulpit after 1669.
in Gascony
, without being obliged to reside there. He was consecrated on September 21, 1670, but he resigned the bishopric when he was elected to the Académie française
in 1671.
On September 13, 1670, he was appointed tutor to the nine-year-old Dauphin
, oldest child of Louis XIV
. 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 cross, ungainly, sullen lad. Probably no one was happier than the tutor when his charge turned sixteen and was married off to a Bavarian princess. Still, the nine years at court were by no means wasted.
Bossuet's tutorial functions involved composing all the necessary books of instruction, including not just handwriting samples, but also manuals of philosophy, history, and religion fit for a future king of France. Among the books written by Bossuet during this period are three classics. First came the Traité de la connaissance de Dieu et de soi-même (1677), then the Discours sur l'histoire universelle (1679, published 1682), and lastly the Politique tirée de l'Ecriture Sainte (1679, published 1709). The three books fit into each other. The Traité is a general sketch of the nature of God and the nature of man. The Discours is a history of God's dealings with humanity in the past. The Politique is a code of rights and duties drawn up in the light thrown by those dealings. Bossuet's conclusions are only drawn from Holy Scripture because he wished to gain the highest possible sanction for the institutions of his country and to hallow the France of Louis XIV by proving its astonishing likeness to the Solomon of Israel. Then, too, the veil of Holy Scripture enabled him to speak out more boldly than court etiquette would have otherwise allowed, to remind the son of Louis XIV that kings have duties as well as rights.
The Grand Dauphin had often forgotten these duties, but his own, the Petite Dauphin, would bear them in mind. The tutor's imagination looked forward to a time when France would blossom into Utopia
, with a Christian philosopher on the throne. That is what made him so stalwart a champion of authority in all its forms: "le roi, Jesus-Christ et l'Eglise, Dieu en ces trois noms", he says in a characteristic letter. The object of his books is to provide authority with a rational basis. Bossuet's worship of authority by no means killed his confidence in reason; what it did was make him doubt the honesty of those who reasoned otherwise than himself. The whole chain of argument seemed to him so clear and simple. Philosophy proves that God exists and that He shapes and governs the course of human affairs. History shows that this governance is, for the most part, indirect, exercised through certain venerable corporations, as well civil and ecclesiastical, all of which demand implicit obedience as the immediate representatives of God. Thus all revolt, whether civil or religious, is a direct defiance of the Almighty. Oliver Cromwell
becomes a moral monster, and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes
was the greatest achievement of the second Constantine. The France of his youth had known the misery of divided counsels and civil war; the France of his manhood, brought together under an absolute sovereign, had suddenly shot up into a splendour only comparable with ancient Rome. Why not, then, strain every nerve to hold innovation at bay and prolong that splendour for all time? 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 establishment of Christianity was the one point of real importance in the whole history of the world. He totally ignores the history of Islam
and Asia
; on Greece
and Rome
, he only touched insofar as they formed part of the Praeparatio Evangelica. Yet his Discours is far more than a theological pamphlet. While Pascal
might refer the rise and fall of empires to Providence or chance or a little grain of sand in the English lord protectors' veins, Bossuet held fast to his principle that God works through secondary causes. It is His will that every great change should have its roots in the ages that went before it. Bossuet, accordingly, made a heroic attempt to grapple with origins and causes, and in this way, his book deserves its place as one of the very first of philosophic histories.
. Here he found himself between two fires. To support the pope meant supporting the Jesuits; and he hated their casuistry
and dévotion aisée almost as much as Pascal
himself. To oppose the pope was to play into the hands of Louis, who was frankly anxious to humble the Church before the state. So Bossuet steered a middle course. In 1682, before the general Assembly of the French Clergy, he preached a great sermon on the unity of the Church and made it a magnificent plea for compromise. As Louis insisted on his clergy making an anti-papal 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 after his death. Throughout this controversy, unlike the court bishops, Bossuet constantly resided in his diocese and took an active interest in its administration.
; in 1670, he published an Exposition de la foi catholique, so moderate in tone that adversaries were driven to accuse him of having fraudulently watered down the Roman dogmas to suit a Protestant taste. Finally, in 1688, his great Histoire des variations des Églises protestantes, perhaps the most brilliant of all his works, appeared. Few writers could have made the 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 long, they began to ask whether variation was necessarily so great an evil. Between 1691 and 1701, Bossuet corresponded with Leibniz
with a view to reunion, but negotiations broke down precisely at this point. Leibniz thought his countrymen might accept individual Roman doctrines, but he flatly refused to guarantee that they would necessarily believe tomorrow what they believe today. 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 Richard Simon
, a priest of the Paris Oratory and the father of Biblical criticism in France. He accused St Augustine
, Bossuet's own special master, of having corrupted the primitive doctrine of 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 ironic circumlocutions, such as did not deceive the bishop of Meaux, he claimed his right to interpret the Bible like any other book. Bossuet denounced him again and again; Simon told his 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 lay rules of evidence, but Malebranche
abrogated miracles altogether. It was blasphemous, he argued, to suppose that the Author of nature would break through a reign of law He had Himself established. Bossuet might scribble nova, mira, falsa in the margins of his book and urge on Fénelon to attack them; Malebranche politely met his threats by saying that to be refuted by such a pen would do him too much honor. These repeated checks soured Bossuet's temper. In his earlier controversies, he had borne himself with great magnanimity
, and the Huguenot ministers he refuted had found him a kindly advocate at court. His approval of the revocation of the edict of Nantes stopped far short of approving dragonnade
s within his diocese of Meaux, but now his patience was wearing out. A dissertation by one Father Caffaro, an obscure Italian monk, became his excuse for writing certain violent Maximes sur la comédie (1694), wherein he made an outrageous attack on the memory of Molière
, dead more than twenty years.
Three years later, he was battling with Fénelon over the love of God. Fénelon, 24 years his junior, was an old pupil who had suddenly grown into a rival; like Bossuet, Fénelon was a bishop who served as a royal tutor.
The controversy concerned their different reactions to the opinions of Mme Guyon
: her ideas were similar to the Quietism
of Molinos
, which was condemned by Innocent XI in 1687. When Mme de Maintenon
began questioning the orthodoxy of Mme Guyon's opinions, an ecclesiastical commission of three members, including Bossuet, was appointed to report on the matter. The commission issued thirty-four articles known as the Articles d'Issy, which condemned Mme Guyon's ideas very briefly and provided a short treatise on the orthodox Catholic idea of prayer. Fénelon, who had been attracted to Mme Guyon's ideas, signed off on the Articles, and Mme Guyon submitted to the judgment.
Bossuet now composed Instructions sur les états d'oraison, a work that explained the Articles d'Issy in greater depth. Fénelon refused to endorse this treatise, however, and instead composed his own explanation as to the meaning of the Articles d'Issy, Explication des Maximes des Saints. He explained his view that the goal of human life should be to have love of God as its perfect object, with neither fear of punishment nor desire for the reward of eternal life having anything to do with this love of God. The king reproached Bossuet for failing to warn him that his grandsons' tutor had such unorthodox opinions and instructed Bossuet and other bishops to respond to the Maximes des Saints.
Bossuet and Fénelon thus spent the years 1697-99 battling each other in pamphlets and letters until the Inquisition finally condemned the Maximes des Saints on March 12, 1699. Innocent XII selected 23 specific passages for condemnation. Bossuet had triumphed in the controversy, and Fénelon submitted to Rome's determination of the matter.
. He was buried at Meaux Cathedral.
of all time. He is one of the preachers, along with John Tillotson
and Louis Bourdaloue
, who began the transition from Baroque
to Neoclassical
preaching. He preached with a simple eloquence that eschewed the grandiose extravagances of earlier preaching. He focused on ethical rather than doctrinal messages, often drawing from the lives of saints or saintly contemporaries as examples. He preached, for example, on Francis de Sales
, as well as funeral orations on Henrietta Maria of France
and Henrietta Anne of England. Bossuet's funeral orations in particular had lasting importance and were translated early into a variety of languages, including English. Such was their power that even Voltaire, normally so antagonistic toward the clergy, praised the giftedness of Bossuet as an orator.
The work consists of several books which are divided into articles and propositions which lay out the nature, characteristics, duties, and resources of royalty. To justify his propositions, Bossuet quotes liberally from the Bible and various psalms.
Throughout his essay, Bossuet emphasizes the fact that royal authority comes directly from God and that the person of the king is sacred. In the third book, Bossuet asserts that "God establishes kings as his ministers, and reigns through them over the people." He also states that "the prince must be obeyed on principle, as a matter of religion and of conscience." While he declares the absolute authority of rulers, he emphasizes the fact that kings must use their power only for the public good and that the king is not above the law "for if he sins, he destroys the laws by his example."
In books six and seven, Bossuet describes the duties of the subjects to the prince and the special duties of royalty. For Bossuet, the prince was synonymous with the state, which is why, according to him, the subjects of the prince owe the prince the same duties that they owe their country. He also states that "only public enemies make a separation between the interest of the prince and the interest of the state." As far as the duties of royalty, the primary goal is the preservation of the state. Bossuet describes three ways that this can be achieved: by maintaining a good constitution, making good use of the state's resources, and protecting the state from the dangers and difficulties that threaten it.
In books nine and ten, Bossuet outlines the various resources of royalty (arms, wealth, and counsel) and how they should be used. In regards to arms, Bossuet explains that there are just and unjust grounds for war. Unjust causes include ambitious conquest, pillage, and jealousy. As far as wealth is concerned, he then lays out the types of expenditures that a king has and the various sources of wealth for the kingdom. He emphasizes that the true wealth of a kingdom is its men and says that it is important to improve the people's lot and eliminate the poor and the beggars.
and Chrysostom.
The exterior of Harvard's Sanders Theater
includes busts of the eight greatest orators of all time - they include a bust of Bossuet alongside such giants of oratory as Demosthenes
, Cicero
, and Chrysostom.
A character in Les Misérables
, being from Meaux and an orator, is nicknamed Bossuet by his friends.
Bossuet was one of several co-editors on the Delphin Classics
collection.
Bossuet was the uncle of Louis Bossuet
.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
and theologian
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
, renowned for his sermon
Sermon
A sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy. Sermons address a Biblical, theological, religious, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law or behavior within both past and present contexts...
s and other addresses. He has been considered by many to be one of the most brilliant orators of all time and a masterly French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
stylist.
Court preacher to Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
, Bossuet was a strong advocate of political absolutism and the divine right of kings
Divine Right of Kings
The divine right of kings or divine-right theory of kingship is a political and religious doctrine of royal and political legitimacy. It asserts that a monarch is subject to no earthly authority, deriving his right to rule directly from the will of God...
. He argued that government was divine and that kings received their power from God. He was also an important courtier and politician.
The works best known to English speakers are three great orations delivered at the funerals of Queen Henrietta Maria
Henrietta Maria of France
Henrietta Maria of France ; was the Queen consort of England, Scotland and Ireland as the wife of King Charles I...
, widow of Charles I of England
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
(1669), her daughter, Henriette, Duchess of Orléans
Princess Henrietta of England
Henrietta Anne of England & Scots was born a Princess of England and Scotland as the youngest daughter of King Charles I of England and his consort Henrietta Maria of France. Fleeing England with her governess at the age of three, she moved to the court of her first cousin Louis XIV of France,...
(1670), and the outstanding soldier le Grand Condé (1687).
Early life and education, 1627-48
Bossuet was born at DijonDijon
Dijon is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or département and of the Burgundy region.Dijon is the historical capital of the region of Burgundy. Population : 151,576 within the city limits; 250,516 for the greater Dijon area....
. He came from a family of prosperous Burgundian lawyers - on both his paternal and maternal side, his ancestors had held legal posts for at least a century. He was the fifth son born to Beneigne Bossuet, a judge of the parlement
Parlement
Parlements were regional legislative bodies in Ancien Régime France.The political institutions of the Parlement in Ancien Régime France developed out of the previous council of the king, the Conseil du roi or curia regis, and consequently had ancient and customary rights of consultation and...
(a provincial high court) at Dijon, and Marguerite Mouchet. His parents decided on a career in the church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
for their fifth son, so he was tonsure
Tonsure
Tonsure is the traditional practice of Christian churches of cutting or shaving the hair from the scalp of clerics, monastics, and, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, all baptized members...
d at age 10.
The boy was sent to school at the Collège des Godrans, a classical school
Classical Christian education
Classical Christian education is an approach to learning which emphasizes biblical teachings and incorporates a teaching model known as the Trivium, consisting of three parts: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. According to Douglas Wilson, this method of instruction was developed by early Christians as...
run by the Jesuits of Dijon. When his father was appointed to the parlement at Metz
Metz
Metz is a city in the northeast of France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers.Metz is the capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, Metz forms a central place...
, Bossuet was left in Dijon under the care of his uncle Claude Bossuet d'Aiseray, a renowned scholar. At the Collège des Godrans, he gained a reputation for hard work: fellow students nicknamed him Bos suetus aratro, an "ox broken in to the plough". His father's influence at Metz allowed him to obtain for the young Bossuet a canonicate in the cathedral of Metz
Metz Cathedral
Saint Étienne de Metz , also known as Metz Cathedral) is a Gothic, Catholic cathedral in the city of Metz, capital of Lorraine, France...
when the boy was just 13 years old.
Collège de Navarre
The College of Navarre was one of the colleges of the historic University of Paris, rivaling the Sorbonne and renowned for its library. It was founded by Queen Joan I of Navarre in 1305, who provided for three departments, the arts with 20 students, philosophy with 30 and theology with 20...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to finish his classical studies and to begin the study of philosophy and theology. His mentor at Navarre was the college's president, Nicolas Cornet
Nicolas Cornet
Nicolas Cornet was a French Catholic theologian.-Life:He studied at the Jesuit college of Amiens, took the doctorate of theology at the University of Paris, 1626, and soon became president of the Collège de Navarre and syndic of the Sorbonne...
, the theologian whose denunciation of Antoine Arnauld
Antoine Arnauld
Antoine Arnauld — le Grand as contemporaries called him, to distinguish him from his father — was a French Roman Catholic theologian, philosopher, and mathematician...
at the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
in 1649 was a major episode in the Jansenist controversy.
For the time being, however, Cornet and Arnaud were still on good terms. In 1643, Arnaud introduced Bossuet to the Hôtel de Rambouillet
Hôtel de Rambouillet
The Hôtel de Rambouillet was the Paris residence of Madame de Rambouillet, who ran a renowned literary salon there from about 1607 until her death in 1665...
, a great centre of aristocratic culture and the original home of the Précieuses
Précieuses
The French literary style called préciosité arose in the 17th century from the lively conversations and playful word games of les précieuses , the witty and educated intellectual ladies who frequented the salon of Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet; her Chambre bleue offered a...
. Bossuet was already showing signs of the oratorical brilliance which served him so well throughout his life. On one celebrated occasion at the Hôtel de Rambouillet, during a dispute about extempore preaching, the 16-year-old Bossuet was called on to deliver an impromptu sermon at 11 pm. Voiture
Vincent Voiture
Vincent Voiture , French poet, was the son of a rich merchant of Amiens. He was introduced by a schoolfellow, the count Claude d'Avaux, to Gaston, Duke of Orléans, and accompanied him to Brussels and Lorraine on diplomatic missions.Although a follower of Gaston, he won the favour of Cardinal...
famously quipped: "I never heard anybody preach so early nor so late."
Early clerical career, 1648-52
Bossuet became a Master of ArtsMaster of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
in 1643. He held his first thesis (tentativa) in theology on January 25, 1648, in the presence of the Prince de Condé
Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé
Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Condé was a French general and the most famous representative of the Condé branch of the House of Bourbon. Prior to his father's death in 1646, he was styled the Duc d'Enghien...
. Later in 1648, he became a sub-deacon at Metz. He became a full deacon
Deacon
Deacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...
in 1649. During this period, he preached his first sermons.
He held his second thesis (sorbonica) on November 9, 1650. Then, in preparation for the priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
hood, he spent the next two years in retirement under the spiritual direction of Vincent de Paul
Vincent de Paul
Vincent de Paul was a priest of the Catholic Church who became dedicated to serving the poor. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. He was canonized in 1737....
.
Priest at Metz, 1652-57
In January 1652, Bossuet re-entered public life, being named ArchdeaconArchdeacon
An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in Anglicanism, Syrian Malabar Nasrani, Chaldean Catholic, and some other Christian denominations, above that of most clergy and below a bishop. In the High Middle Ages it was the most senior diocesan position below a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church...
of Sarrebourg
Sarrebourg
Sarrebourg is a commune in the Moselle department in Lorraine in north-eastern France. It lies in on the upper course of the river Sarre.It should not be confused with Saarburg in Germany....
. He was ordained
Holy Orders
The term Holy Orders is used by many Christian churches to refer to ordination or to those individuals ordained for a special role or ministry....
a priest
Priesthood (Catholic Church)
The ministerial orders of the Catholic Church include the orders of bishops, deacons and presbyters, which in Latin is sacerdos. The ordained priesthood and common priesthood are different in function and essence....
on March 18, 1652. A few weeks later, he defended his brilliant doctoral work and became a Doctor of Divinity
Doctor of Divinity
Doctor of Divinity is an advanced academic degree in divinity. Historically, it identified one who had been licensed by a university to teach Christian theology or related religious subjects....
.
He spent the next seven years at Metz, where his father's influence had got him a canonry at age 13 and where he now also had the office of archdeacon. He was plunged at once into the thick of controversy; for nearly half of Metz was Protestant, and Bossuet's first appearance in print was a refutation of the Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
pastor Paul Ferry (1655), and he frequently engaged in religious controversies with Protestants (and, less regularly, with Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
) during his time at Metz. To reconcile the Protestants with the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
became the great object of his dreams; and for this purpose, he began to train himself carefully for the pulpit, an all-important centre of influence in a land where political assemblies were unknown and novels and newspapers scarcely born. His youthful imagination was unbridled, and his ideas ran easily into a kind of paradoxical subtlety, redolent of the divinity school. Nevertheless, his time at Metz was an important time for developing his pulpit oratory and for allowing him to continue his studies of Scripture and the Fathers
Church Fathers
The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were early and influential theologians, eminent Christian teachers and great bishops. Their scholarly works were used as a precedent for centuries to come...
. He also gained political experience through his participation in the local Assembly of the Three Orders.
In 1657, in Metz, Bossuet preached before Anne of Austria
Anne of Austria
Anne of Austria was Queen consort of France and Navarre, regent for her son, Louis XIV of France, and a Spanish Infanta by birth...
, mother of Louis XIV. As a result, he received the honorific title of "Counselor and Preacher to the King".
Early career in Paris, 1657-69
In 1657, St. Vincent de Paul convinced Bossuet to move to Paris and give himself entirely to preaching. (He did not entirely sever his connections with the cathedral of Metz, though: he continued to hold his benefice, and in 1664, when his widower father was ordained as a priest and became a canon at the cathedral at Metz, Bossuet was named the dean of the cathedral.)Bossuet quickly gained a reputation as a great preacher, and by 1660, he was preaching regularly before the court in the Chapel Royal. In 1662, he preached his famous sermon "On the Duties of Kings" to Louis XIV at the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
.
In Paris, the congregations had no mercy on purely clerical logic or clerical taste; if a preacher wished to catch their ear, he had to manage to address them in terms they would agree to consider sensible and well bred. Having very stern ideas of the dignity of a priest, Bossuet refused to descend to the usual devices for arousing popular interest. The narrative element in his sermons grew shorter with each year. He never drew satirical pictures like his great rival Bourdaloue. He would not write out his discourses in full, much less learn them off by heart: of the two hundred printed in his works, all but a fraction are rough drafts. Ladies such as Mme de Sévigné
Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné
Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné was a French aristocrat, remembered for her letter-writing. Most of her letters, celebrated for their wit and vividness, were addressed to her daughter.-Life:...
forsook him when Bourdaloue
Louis Bourdaloue
Louis Bourdaloue was a French Jesuit and preacher.He was born in Bourges. At the age of sixteen he entered the Society of Jesus, and was appointed successively professor of rhetoric, philosophy and moral theology, in various Jesuit colleges...
dawned on the Paris horizon in 1669, though Fénelon
François Fénelon
François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, more commonly known as François Fénelon , was a French Roman Catholic archbishop, theologian, poet and writer...
and La Bruyère
Jean de La Bruyère
Jean de La Bruyère was a French essayist and moralist.-Ancestry:He was born in Paris, not, as was once thought, at Dourdan in 1645...
, two much sounder critics, refused to follow their example. Bossuet possessed the full equipment of the orator, voice, language, flexibility and strength. He never needed to strain for effect; his genius struck out at a single blow the thought, the feeling and the word. What he said of Martin Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
applies peculiarly to himself: he could fling his fury into theses and thus unite the dry light of argument with the fire and heat of passion. These qualities reached their highest point in the Oraisons funèbres (Funeral Orations). Bossuet was always best when at work on a large canvas; besides, here no conscientious scruples intervened to prevent him giving much time and thought to the artistic side of his subject. The Oraison, as its name betokened, stood midway between the sermon proper and what would nowadays be called a biographical sketch. At least that was what Bossuet made it; for on this field, he stood not merely first, but alone.
One hundred and thirty-seven of Bossuet's sermons preached in the period from 1659 to 1669 are extant, and it is estimated that he preached more than a hundred more that have since been lost. Apart from state occasions, Bossuet seldom appeared in a Paris pulpit after 1669.
Tutor to the Dauphin, 1670-81
A favourite of the court, in 1669, Bossuet was gazetted bishop of CondomBishop of Condom
The city of Condom, France was a bishopric from 1317 to 1792.-List of bishops of Condom:*1317–1340 : Raymond de Galard*1340–1369 : Pierre de Galard*1369–1401 : Bernard Alaman*1401–1405 : Hugues Raimbaud*1405–1408 : name not known*1408–1418 : Aymeric Noël...
in Gascony
Gascony
Gascony is an area of southwest France that was part of the "Province of Guyenne and Gascony" prior to the French Revolution. The region is vaguely defined and the distinction between Guyenne and Gascony is unclear; sometimes they are considered to overlap, and sometimes Gascony is considered a...
, without being obliged to reside there. He was consecrated on September 21, 1670, but he resigned the bishopric when he was elected to the Académie française
Académie française
L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...
in 1671.
Louis, Grand Dauphin
Louis of France was the eldest son and heir of Louis XIV, King of France, and his spouse, Maria Theresa of Spain. As the heir apparent to the French throne, he was styled Dauphin...
, oldest child of Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
. 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 cross, ungainly, sullen lad. Probably no one was happier than the tutor when his charge turned sixteen and was married off to a Bavarian princess. Still, the nine years at court were by no means wasted.
Bossuet's tutorial functions involved composing all the necessary books of instruction, including not just handwriting samples, but also manuals of philosophy, history, and religion fit for a future king of France. Among the books written by Bossuet during this period are three classics. First came the Traité de la connaissance de Dieu et de soi-même (1677), then the Discours sur l'histoire universelle (1679, published 1682), and lastly the Politique tirée de l'Ecriture Sainte (1679, published 1709). The three books fit into each other. The Traité is a general sketch of the nature of God and the nature of man. The Discours is a history of God's dealings with humanity in the past. The Politique is a code of rights and duties drawn up in the light thrown by those dealings. Bossuet's conclusions are only drawn from Holy Scripture because he wished to gain the highest possible sanction for the institutions of his country and to hallow the France of Louis XIV by proving its astonishing likeness to the Solomon of Israel. Then, too, the veil of Holy Scripture enabled him to speak out more boldly than court etiquette would have otherwise allowed, to remind the son of Louis XIV that kings have duties as well as rights.
The Grand Dauphin had often forgotten these duties, but his own, the Petite Dauphin, would bear them in mind. The tutor's imagination looked forward to a time when France would blossom into Utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
, with a Christian philosopher on the throne. That is what made him so stalwart a champion of authority in all its forms: "le roi, Jesus-Christ et l'Eglise, Dieu en ces trois noms", he says in a characteristic letter. The object of his books is to provide authority with a rational basis. Bossuet's worship of authority by no means killed his confidence in reason; what it did was make him doubt the honesty of those who reasoned otherwise than himself. The whole chain of argument seemed to him so clear and simple. Philosophy proves that God exists and that He shapes and governs the course of human affairs. History shows that this governance is, for the most part, indirect, exercised through certain venerable corporations, as well civil and ecclesiastical, all of which demand implicit obedience as the immediate representatives of God. Thus all revolt, whether civil or religious, is a direct defiance of the Almighty. Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
becomes a moral monster, and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes
Edict of Fontainebleau
The Edict of Fontainebleau was an edict issued by Louis XIV of France, also known as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The Edict of Nantes of 1598, had granted the Huguenots the right to practice their religion without persecution from the state...
was the greatest achievement of the second Constantine. The France of his youth had known the misery of divided counsels and civil war; the France of his manhood, brought together under an absolute sovereign, had suddenly shot up into a splendour only comparable with ancient Rome. Why not, then, strain every nerve to hold innovation at bay and prolong that splendour for all time? 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 establishment of Christianity was the one point of real importance in the whole history of the world. He totally ignores the history of Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
; on Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
and Rome
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
, he only touched insofar as they formed part of the Praeparatio Evangelica. Yet his Discours is far more than a theological pamphlet. While Pascal
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal , was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen...
might refer the rise and fall of empires to Providence or chance or a little grain of sand in the English lord protectors' veins, Bossuet held fast to his principle that God works through secondary causes. It is His will that every great change should have its roots in the ages that went before it. Bossuet, accordingly, made a heroic attempt to grapple with origins and causes, and in this way, his book deserves its place as one of the very first of philosophic histories.
Bishop of Meaux, 1681-1704
With the period of the Dauphin's formal education ending in 1681, Bossuet was gazetted Bishop of Meaux; but before he could take possession of his see, he was drawn into a violent quarrel between Louis XIV and the popePope Innocent XI
Blessed Pope Innocent XI , born Benedetto Odescalchi, was Pope from 1676 to 1689.-Early life:Benedetto Odescalchi was born at Como in 1611 , the son of a Como nobleman, Livio Odescalchi, and Paola Castelli Giovanelli from Gandino...
. Here he found himself between two fires. To support the pope meant supporting the Jesuits; and he hated their casuistry
Casuistry
In applied ethics, casuistry is case-based reasoning. Casuistry is used in juridical and ethical discussions of law and ethics, and often is a critique of principle- or rule-based reasoning...
and dévotion aisée almost as much as Pascal
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal , was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen...
himself. To oppose the pope was to play into the hands of Louis, who was frankly anxious to humble the Church before the state. So Bossuet steered a middle course. In 1682, before the general Assembly of the French Clergy, he preached a great sermon on the unity of the Church and made it a magnificent plea for compromise. As Louis insisted on his clergy making an anti-papal declaration
Declaration of the Clergy of France
Under the Declaration of the Clergy of France of 1682, the following privileges were claimed by France in relation to the Holy See. They are the framework of Gallicanism, and have never been accepted by the Pope....
, 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 after his death. Throughout this controversy, unlike the court bishops, Bossuet constantly resided in his diocese and took an active interest in its administration.
Controversy with Protestants
The Gallican storm a little 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 Huguenots to the Roman Church. In 1668, he converted TurenneHenri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne
Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne,often called simply Turenne was the most illustrious member of the La Tour d'Auvergne family. He achieved military fame and became a Marshal of France...
; in 1670, he published an Exposition de la foi catholique, so moderate in tone that adversaries were driven to accuse him of having fraudulently watered down the Roman dogmas to suit a Protestant taste. Finally, in 1688, his great Histoire des variations des Églises protestantes, perhaps the most brilliant of all his works, appeared. Few writers could have made the Justification
Justification (theology)
Rising out of the Protestant Reformation, Justification is the chief article of faith describing God's act of declaring or making a sinner righteous through Christ's atoning sacrifice....
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 long, they began to ask whether variation was necessarily so great an evil. Between 1691 and 1701, Bossuet corresponded with Leibniz
Gottfried Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a German philosopher and mathematician. He wrote in different languages, primarily in Latin , French and German ....
with a view to reunion, but negotiations broke down precisely at this point. Leibniz thought his countrymen might accept individual Roman doctrines, but he flatly refused to guarantee that they would necessarily believe tomorrow what they believe today. 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 Richard Simon
Richard Simon
Richard Simon was a French Oratorian, influential advanced biblical critic, orientalist, and controversialist.-Early years:...
, a priest of the Paris Oratory and the father of Biblical criticism in France. He accused St Augustine
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
, Bossuet's own special master, of having corrupted the primitive doctrine of 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 ironic circumlocutions, such as did not deceive the bishop of Meaux, he claimed his right to interpret the Bible like any other book. Bossuet denounced him again and again; Simon told his 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 lay rules of evidence, but Malebranche
Nicolas Malebranche
Nicolas Malebranche ; was a French Oratorian and rationalist philosopher. In his works, he sought to synthesize the thought of St. Augustine and Descartes, in order to demonstrate the active role of God in every aspect of the world...
abrogated miracles altogether. It was blasphemous, he argued, to suppose that the Author of nature would break through a reign of law He had Himself established. Bossuet might scribble nova, mira, falsa in the margins of his book and urge on Fénelon to attack them; Malebranche politely met his threats by saying that to be refuted by such a pen would do him too much honor. These repeated checks soured Bossuet's temper. In his earlier controversies, he had borne himself with great magnanimity
Magnanimity
Magnanimity is the virtue of being great of mind and heart. It encompasses, usually, a refusal to be petty, a willingness to face danger, and actions for noble purposes. Its antithesis is pusillanimity...
, and the Huguenot ministers he refuted had found him a kindly advocate at court. His approval of the revocation of the edict of Nantes stopped far short of approving dragonnade
Dragonnade
"Dragonnades" was a French policy instituted by Louis XIV in 1681 to intimidate Huguenot families into either leaving France or re-converting to Catholicism.- History :This policy involved billeting ill-disciplined dragoons in Protestant households...
s within his diocese of Meaux, but now his patience was wearing out. A dissertation by one Father Caffaro, an obscure Italian monk, became his excuse for writing certain violent Maximes sur la comédie (1694), wherein he made an outrageous attack on the memory of Molière
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
, dead more than twenty years.
Controversy with Fénelon
The controversy concerned their different reactions to the opinions of Mme Guyon
Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon
Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon was a French mystic and one of the key advocates of Quietism...
: her ideas were similar to the Quietism
Quietism (Christian philosophy)
Quietism is a Christian philosophy that swept through France, Italy and Spain during the 17th century, but it had much earlier origins. The mystics known as Quietists insist, with more or less emphasis, on intellectual stillness and interior passivity as essential conditions of perfection...
of Molinos
Miguel de Molinos
Miguel de Molinos , Spanish divine, the chief apostle of the religious revival known as Quietism, was born about 1628 near Muniesa ....
, which was condemned by Innocent XI in 1687. When Mme de Maintenon
Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon
Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon was the second wife of King Louis XIV of France. She was known during her first marriage as Madame Scarron, and subsequently as Madame de Maintenon...
began questioning the orthodoxy of Mme Guyon's opinions, an ecclesiastical commission of three members, including Bossuet, was appointed to report on the matter. The commission issued thirty-four articles known as the Articles d'Issy, which condemned Mme Guyon's ideas very briefly and provided a short treatise on the orthodox Catholic idea of prayer. Fénelon, who had been attracted to Mme Guyon's ideas, signed off on the Articles, and Mme Guyon submitted to the judgment.
Bossuet now composed Instructions sur les états d'oraison, a work that explained the Articles d'Issy in greater depth. Fénelon refused to endorse this treatise, however, and instead composed his own explanation as to the meaning of the Articles d'Issy, Explication des Maximes des Saints. He explained his view that the goal of human life should be to have love of God as its perfect object, with neither fear of punishment nor desire for the reward of eternal life having anything to do with this love of God. The king reproached Bossuet for failing to warn him that his grandsons' tutor had such unorthodox opinions and instructed Bossuet and other bishops to respond to the Maximes des Saints.
Bossuet and Fénelon thus spent the years 1697-99 battling each other in pamphlets and letters until the Inquisition finally condemned the Maximes des Saints on March 12, 1699. Innocent XII selected 23 specific passages for condemnation. Bossuet had triumphed in the controversy, and Fénelon submitted to Rome's determination of the matter.
Death
Until he was over seventy, he enjoyed good health; but in 1702, he developed chronic kidney stones. Two years later, he was a hopeless invalid, and on 12 April 1704, he died quietly. His funeral oration was given by the Jesuit Charles de la RueCharles de La Rue
Charles de La Rue , known in Latin as Carolus Ruaeus, was one of the great orators of the Society of Jesus in France in the seventeenth century...
. He was buried at Meaux Cathedral.
Preaching
Bossuet is widely considered to be one of the most influential homiliticiansHomiletics
Homiletics , in theology the application of the general principles of rhetoric to the specific department of public preaching. The one who practices or studies homiletics is called a homilist....
of all time. He is one of the preachers, along with John Tillotson
John Tillotson
John Tillotson was an Archbishop of Canterbury .-Curate and rector:Tillotson was the son of a Puritan clothier at Haughend, Sowerby, Yorkshire. He entered as a pensioner of Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1647, graduated in 1650 and was made fellow of his college in 1651...
and Louis Bourdaloue
Louis Bourdaloue
Louis Bourdaloue was a French Jesuit and preacher.He was born in Bourges. At the age of sixteen he entered the Society of Jesus, and was appointed successively professor of rhetoric, philosophy and moral theology, in various Jesuit colleges...
, who began the transition from Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
to Neoclassical
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
preaching. He preached with a simple eloquence that eschewed the grandiose extravagances of earlier preaching. He focused on ethical rather than doctrinal messages, often drawing from the lives of saints or saintly contemporaries as examples. He preached, for example, on Francis de Sales
Francis de Sales
Francis de Sales was Bishop of Geneva and is a Roman Catholic saint. He worked to convert Protestants back to Catholicism, and was an accomplished preacher...
, as well as funeral orations on Henrietta Maria of France
Henrietta Maria of France
Henrietta Maria of France ; was the Queen consort of England, Scotland and Ireland as the wife of King Charles I...
and Henrietta Anne of England. Bossuet's funeral orations in particular had lasting importance and were translated early into a variety of languages, including English. Such was their power that even Voltaire, normally so antagonistic toward the clergy, praised the giftedness of Bossuet as an orator.
Writings by Bossuet
- Méditation sur la brièveté de la vie (1648)
- Réfutation du catéchisme de Paul Ferry (1655)
- Oraison funèbre de Yolande de Monterby' (1656)
- Oracion funebre e Valeria Slazar (2007)
- Panégyrique de saint Paul (1659)
- Oraison funèbre de Nicolas Cornet (1663)
- Oraison funèbre d'Anne d'AutricheAnne of AustriaAnne of Austria was Queen consort of France and Navarre, regent for her son, Louis XIV of France, and a Spanish Infanta by birth...
(1667) - Oraison funèbre d'Henriette Marie de FranceHenrietta Maria of FranceHenrietta Maria of France ; was the Queen consort of England, Scotland and Ireland as the wife of King Charles I...
(1669) - Oraison funèbre d'Henriette d'AngleterrePrincess Henrietta of EnglandHenrietta Anne of England & Scots was born a Princess of England and Scotland as the youngest daughter of King Charles I of England and his consort Henrietta Maria of France. Fleeing England with her governess at the age of three, she moved to the court of her first cousin Louis XIV of France,...
(1670) - Exposition de la foi catholique (1671)
- Sermon pour la Profession de Mademoiselle de La VallièreLouise de La VallièreLouise de La Vallière was a mistress of Louis XIV of France from 1661 to 1667. She later became the Duchess of La Vallière and Duchess of Vaujours in her own right...
(1675) - Traité de la connaissance de Dieu et de soi-même (1677)
- Traité du libre arbitre (1677)
- Logique (1677 - published only later)
- Conférence avec le pasteur Claude (1678 - published 1682)
- Discours sur l'histoire universelle (1681)
- Politique tirée de l'Écriture sainte (Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy ScripturePolitics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy ScripturePolitique tirée des propres paroles de l'Écriture sainte is a work of political theory prepared by Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet as part of his duties as tutor for Louis XIV's heir apparent, Louis, le Grand Dauphin...
) (1679 - published 1709) - Sermon sur l'unité de l'Église (1682)
- Oraison funèbre de Marie ThérèseMaria Theresa of SpainMaria Theresa of Austria was the daughter of Philip IV, King of Spain and Elizabeth of France. Maria Theresa was Queen of France as wife of King Louis XIV and mother of the Grand Dauphin, an ancestor of the last four Bourbon kings of France.-Early life:Born as Infanta María Teresa of Spain at the...
(1683) - Oraison funèbre d' Anne de Gonzague, princesse Palatine (1685)
- Oraison funèbre de Michel Le TellierMichel Le TellierMichel Le Tellier, marquis de Barbezieux, seigneur de Chaville et de Viroflay was a French statesman.-Biography:...
(1686) - Oraison funèbre de Mme du Blé d'Uxelles (1686)
- Oraison funèbre du prince de CondéLouis II de Bourbon, Prince de CondéLouis de Bourbon, Prince of Condé was a French general and the most famous representative of the Condé branch of the House of Bourbon. Prior to his father's death in 1646, he was styled the Duc d'Enghien...
(1687) - Catéchisme du diocèse de MeauxDiocese of MeauxThe Roman Catholic Diocese of Meaux, is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic church in France. The diocese comprises the entire department of Seine-et-Marne...
(1687) - Histoire des variations des Églises protestantes (1688)
- Explication de l'ApocalypseBook of RevelationThe Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
(1689) - Avertissements aux Protestants (I, II, III) (1689)
- Avertissements aux Protestants (IV, V, VI) (1690–91)
- Défense de l'<
> (1690–91) - Correspondence avec Leibniz (1691–93)
- Défense de la Tradition et des Saints Pères (1691–93)
- Traité de la concupiscence (1691–93)
- Lettre au P. Caffaro (1694–95)
- Maximes et réflexions sur la comédie (1694–95)
- Méditation sur l'Evangile (1694–95)
- Élévations sur les mystères (1694–95)
- Instructions sur les états d'oraison (replying to Fénelon) (1697)
- Relation sur le quiétismeQuietism (Christian philosophy)Quietism is a Christian philosophy that swept through France, Italy and Spain during the 17th century, but it had much earlier origins. The mystics known as Quietists insist, with more or less emphasis, on intellectual stillness and interior passivity as essential conditions of perfection...
(1698) - Instructions pastorales pour les Protestants (manual for Protestant converts to Catholicism) (1701)
Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture
When Bossuet was chosen to be the tutor of the Dauphin, oldest child of Louis XIV, he wrote several works for the edification of his pupil, one of which was Politics Derived from the Words of Holy Scripture, a discourse on the principles of royal absolutism. The work was published posthumously in 1709.The work consists of several books which are divided into articles and propositions which lay out the nature, characteristics, duties, and resources of royalty. To justify his propositions, Bossuet quotes liberally from the Bible and various psalms.
Throughout his essay, Bossuet emphasizes the fact that royal authority comes directly from God and that the person of the king is sacred. In the third book, Bossuet asserts that "God establishes kings as his ministers, and reigns through them over the people." He also states that "the prince must be obeyed on principle, as a matter of religion and of conscience." While he declares the absolute authority of rulers, he emphasizes the fact that kings must use their power only for the public good and that the king is not above the law "for if he sins, he destroys the laws by his example."
In books six and seven, Bossuet describes the duties of the subjects to the prince and the special duties of royalty. For Bossuet, the prince was synonymous with the state, which is why, according to him, the subjects of the prince owe the prince the same duties that they owe their country. He also states that "only public enemies make a separation between the interest of the prince and the interest of the state." As far as the duties of royalty, the primary goal is the preservation of the state. Bossuet describes three ways that this can be achieved: by maintaining a good constitution, making good use of the state's resources, and protecting the state from the dangers and difficulties that threaten it.
In books nine and ten, Bossuet outlines the various resources of royalty (arms, wealth, and counsel) and how they should be used. In regards to arms, Bossuet explains that there are just and unjust grounds for war. Unjust causes include ambitious conquest, pillage, and jealousy. As far as wealth is concerned, he then lays out the types of expenditures that a king has and the various sources of wealth for the kingdom. He emphasizes that the true wealth of a kingdom is its men and says that it is important to improve the people's lot and eliminate the poor and the beggars.
Trivia
The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) calls Bossuet the greatest pulpit orator of all time, ranking him even ahead of AugustineAugustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
and Chrysostom.
The exterior of Harvard's Sanders Theater
Sanders Theater
Sanders Theatre or Sanders Theater is the premiere lecture and concert hall at Harvard University. It is internationally known for its superior acoustics, which in New England are only surpassed by Jordan Hall, Mechanics Hall, Worcester, and Boston Symphony Hall.-History:Plans for the theater...
includes busts of the eight greatest orators of all time - they include a bust of Bossuet alongside such giants of oratory as Demosthenes
Demosthenes
Demosthenes was a prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowess and provide an insight into the politics and culture of ancient Greece during the 4th century BC. Demosthenes learned rhetoric by...
, Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
, and Chrysostom.
A character in Les Misérables
Les Misérables
Les Misérables , translated variously from the French as The Miserable Ones, The Wretched, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, or The Victims), is an 1862 French novel by author Victor Hugo and is widely considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century...
, being from Meaux and an orator, is nicknamed Bossuet by his friends.
Bossuet was one of several co-editors on the Delphin Classics
Delphin Classics
The Delphin Classics was an edition of the Latin classics, intended to be comprehensive, which was originally created in the 17th century.The 25 volumes were created in the 1670s for the Louis, le Grand Dauphin, heir of Louis XIV , and were written in Latin...
collection.
Bossuet was the uncle of Louis Bossuet
Louis Bossuet
Louis Bossuet was a French parlementaire.-Life:Bossuet was born in Dijon in 1663, the son of Antoine Bossuet , the seigneur of Azu, The Cosnée, and Vatronville Bonval, and Renée Madeleine Gaureault Mount , daughter of René de Nicolas Gaureault Mount, Marquis de la Perriere and Catherine of Hautoy...
.