Bossuet, Jacques Benigne

Bossuet, Jacques Benigne, who ranks with Massillon as the greatest of French pulpit orators, was born at Dijon on the 27th September 1627. His family belonged to the middle class. He was educated in the Jesuits' School in Dijon, and at the Collège de Navarre in Paris. He received a canonry at Metz in 1652, and soon afterwards earned distinction as a controversialist by a reply to a work of the Protestant divine, Paul Ferri. In 1661 he preached for the first time in the chapel of the Louvre before Louis XIV., who was so impressed by the discourse, that he wrote to Bossuet's father congratulating him upon having such a son. Bossuet remained at Paris until 1669. His reputation as an orator spread over France, and he became the recognised chief of the devout party at court. After holding for a short time the bishopric of Condom, he was appointed tutor to the Dauphin, for whose benefit he is said to have written his Discours sur l'Histoire Universelle (1679). In 1680 he was elected to the academy, and in 1681 he received the bishopric of Meaux. He took a leading part in the Gallican controversy. His Exposition de la Doctrine de l'Église Catholique sur les Matières de Controverse—in which he advocated the royal as opposed to the papal claims—was adopted by the assembly of the French clergy held in 1682. He was less fortunate in his controversy with Fénélon, whose mysticism he regarded as heretical, and whom he attacked with an excessive violence, in strong contrast to the quiet and telling irony of his adversary's reply. The king, however, and ultimately the pope, supported Bossuet. He was made a member of the Council of State in 1697, and first almoner to the Duchess of Burgundy in 1698. He died at Paris on the 16th April 1704. Bossuet's character is not an attractive one. He never protested against the king's licentiousness, oppressions, and unjust wars. As a preacher, he had neither the outspoken courage of Bourdaloue nor the persuasive gift of Massillon. His greatest works are the Histoire Universelle, regarded by many as the first attempt at a philosophy of history, and the Oraisons Funebres, discourses on the death of the two Henriettas of England, of Condé, of Turenne, and of the Princess Palatine. Their chief characteristics are the splendour of the diction and the sustained flight of the rhetoric. While their author cannot be classed among great original thinkers, he is not a mere weaver of eloquent words. Intense religious conviction and deep knowledge of human nature give fervour and weight to his imposing sentences. As a controversialist, he combines, when at his best, the energy of enthusiasm with great dialectic ability; grasping his subject firmly, and showing remarkable wealth and felicity of allusion and metaphor. His chief controversial work is the Histoire des Variations des Églises Protestantes (1688). Bossuet was also the author of Maximes sur la Comédie; Conférence avec le Ministre Claude (1678); Négociations avec Leibnitz (1691); De l'État Présent de l'Église; Sur la Morale Relâchée; Mémoires présentés à Louis XIV. (1700); Politique Tirée de Sainte Écriture, in which he upholds the divine rights of kings, and which was published in 1709. The best edition of Bossuet's works is the Benedictine (Versailles, 1815-19). See his Life by Réaume (3 vols. Paris, 1870), and the Mémoires et Journal of the Abbé Ledieu, Bossuet's secretary.—JACQUES BOSSUET, nephew of the above, was born in 1644. He became Bishop of Troyes, where he died, 12th July 1743. He left a voluminous correspondence, dealing mainly with the controversy between his uncle and Fénélon.