Jacques Benignus Bossuet

Jacques Benignus Bossuet
Bossuet portrait by Hyacinthe Rigaud
Birth	27 September 1627 Dijon , Kingdom of France
Deaths	12 April 1704 (76 years) Paris , Kingdom of France
Occupation (s)	Bishop , preacher , teacher and Royal writer
Honors	Member of the French Academy

Jacques Benignus Bossuet ( 27 September 1627 in Dijon - 12 April 1704 in Paris ) was a churchman, preacher and writer French.

Coming from a family of magistrates, he was first placed with the Jesuits of Dijon, who dispensrent classical education (learning Greek and Latin). It came 15 years to complete his studies in Paris at the College of Navarre, where he had to master Nicolas Cornet : he studied in depth the philosophy and theology. Yet for the priesthood, he attended for some time the worldly Corneille did not displease him, he devoted himself to writing about precious and do not denigrate the Hotel de Rambouillet. Ordained sub-deacon in Langres in 1648, he broke with the century and wrote a meditation on the brevity of life, which bears traces of his future works. The same year, he explained the main ideas on the role of Providence in his Meditation on the happiness of the saints. He is considered one of the greatest orators that France has ever known. In 1652, received a doctorate in theology, was ordained priest he became archdeacon of Sarrebourg the same time, then, in 1654, that of Metz.

Sermons

Often called in Paris, he began to make itself a great reputation for his sermons and panegyrics of the saints. He preached an Advent and Lent to the queen mother and to the king , and opera among Protestants, a large number of conversions, between which we quote those of Turenne and his niece Miss Duras , of Dangeau. This is to help accomplish these conversions he wrote his Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church. Bossuet underwent several influences: those of the Jesuit Claude Lingendes, Jansenists of St. Cyran and Singlin , and the more remarkable Vincent de Paul. The latter was, in Saint-Lazare, lectures on preaching, which Bossuet was present. His eloquence was marked, it was closer and easier.

Most of his improvised speech are lost. A few hours before mounting the pulpit, he pondered his text, threw some words on paper, some passages of the Fathers, to guide its course, sometimes he dictated rapidly longer pieces, and then delivered to the inspiration of the moment, and amazed at the impression he made on his listeners.

It has reached us that approximately two hundred to five or six hundred sermons, as Bossuet did not consider them as literary works worthy of being printed. In the late eighteenth ^century that some sermons were preserved, thanks to the work of Don DeFore. However, these are really just drafts, weighed down by the deletions and variants, and that does give us a rough idea of his preaching.

Bishop of Condom

On 21 September 1670 , Charles-Maurice Le Tellier became Archbishop of Rheims , spent, with the consent of Pope , Jacques Benignus Bossuet as bishop of Condom ( Gers ), in the Franciscan church at Pontoise , but the following year he relinquishing that position and becomes the tutor of the Dauphin , son of Louis XIV.

Funeral Orations

This year and next, he pronounced his funeral orations in which he felt with the musical scale and emptiness of human greatness. In 1669 he pronounced the funeral oration of Henriette de France , Queen of England then nine months later her daughter, Madame Henrietta of England , Duchess of Orleans, sister-in-the king, died suddenly at the age 26 and whose funeral oration "... Madam is dying, Madam is dead ... "Is the most famous in 1683 and that of Queen Maria Theresa of Austria. The eulogies are only twelve in number, they are masterpieces of eloquence which have no model since the Antiquity.

Tutor of the Dolphin

He became tutor to the Dauphin Louis de France , the son of King Louis XIV and Marie-Therese in September 1670 but the eloquence of the prelate is not made for a child 10 years and the Dolphin admit ^{Bishop of Meaux}

Statue of Bossuet on the Place Saint-Sulpice in Paris

In 1681 , when the education of the Dauphin was finished, he was appointed bishop of Meaux (hence the periphrasis "the Eagle of Meaux", sometimes used to call it) and then gave himself to the care of the episcopate, made frequent preaching, wrote the famous Catechism of Meaux (1687) and composed for the nuns of his diocese the Meditations on the Gospel and the elevations on the Mysteries.

In this activity he joined an Episcopal work of theologian : the controversy against the Protestants. He published in particular the history of changes in Protestant churches (1688). The Protestant minister Pierre Jurieu responding to this work, Bossuet published the warnings on the Protestant minister's letters Jurieu cons history variations. In the fifth of these warnings, he denies the theory of explicit or implicit contract between the prince and his subjects, as supported Jurieu, and made the famous statement: "To condemn this state

The Preacher

Bossuet played an important role as a preacher and director of the assembly of the clergy of France.

In the convocation of 1682 , during conflict between the king and the pope, he was the author of the Declaration on the liberties of the Gallican Church in 1682 , which set limits on the power of the Pope , and wrote the Four Articles of 1682 which remained a state law which gave rise to lively discussions. The pope was very angry and burned.

This statement by the clergy of France, more commonly known as the Declaration of the four sections, fixed to the end of the ancien regime, the doctrine of freedom of the Gallican Church. It will have a huge influence on the history of the Church of France, predisposing to future reforms of religious constituents in the Civil Constitution of clergy in 1790.

Monsignor Francis de Caulet is one of two bishops, with that of Alet , who opposed the policy of Louis XIV Gallican, culminating with the Declaration of the four articles written largely under the aegis of Bossuet. These two bishops appeared to Jansenist persuasion, but in this particular context, there was a convergence of interest with Rome, which makes Caulet and after the death of the latter in 1680, his Vicar Antoine Charles , of " ultramontanes "avant la lettre - that word does not exist in the seventeenth ^century, but it covers the reality does exist.

The fight against quietism

Bossuet is thereby in conflict with Fenelon , who leaned towards quietism : he continued his opponent with both the king, who disgraced and banished the Bishop of Cambrai , and with the pope, who condemned the Maximes des Saints, where he supported the doctrine of God's love for himself, without any mixture of the fear that theologians call slaves. He is accused of bringing too much bitterness in this case.

After a slow and painful death, Bossuet died in Paris on 12 April 1704 of stone disease. The autopsy took place the next day. "They found in his bladder that was all spoiled, a stone as big as an egg" wrote Father Ledieu.

Quotes

• There comes a day, even when you're a fisher of souls, we must take care of her body.
• Our real enemies are ourselves
• Human happiness consists of so many parts it still lacks
• A defect that prevents men to act, not to feel what they are capable.
• This child is already crucified to the world, this child is already dead to the world, which he never began to live
• God laughs at men who deplore the consequences of which they cherished causes.
• When there is no master, all become masters. When everyone is master, everyone is a slave.
• The youth appears to be formed for the joy and pleasure sees nothing untoward - just smiled.
• My girls, always keep the silence of prudence in the conversation, patience in the dispute.
• Rich, the poor carry the burden.
• Power is conferred immediately to each of the Kings.
• Sovereignty has never been the subject of an assignment because the people have never owned such sovereignty. God governs all peoples and gives them a king.
• The Kings must employ their power than public good.

Works

Discourse on Universal History - 1771 edition

• Exposition of the doctrine of the Church.
• Discourse on Universal History ( 1681 ) Available at: Bibliography

  Reference Publishing

  • Oratorical works, edition of Joseph Lebarq, Lille, Descle De Brouwer, 1890-1896, revised and enlarged by C. Urbain and E. Levesque, Paris, Hachette and Descle, 7 volumes: Volume I (1648-1654), 1914, Volume II (1655-1659), 1914, Volume III (1659-1661), 1916, Volume IV (1661-1665), 1921 , Volume V (1666-1670), 1922, Volume VI (1670-1702), 1923, Volume VII Additions and tables, 1926.
  • Correspondence, editing and E. Urban Ch Levesque, Paris, Gallimard, 1909-1925, 15 volumes.

  Recent Editions

  • Works, edition of Abbe B. Velate Champailler and Yvonne, Paris, Gallimard, Bibliotheque de la Pleiade , 1961.
  • Funeral orations, edition of Jacques Truchet, Paris, Garnier, 1961.
  • Sermon on the Death and other sermons, edition of Jacques Truchet, GF, 1970.
  • Sermons, edition of Philippe Sellier , Paris, Larousse, 1975.
  • Sermons. Lent Louvre, edition of Constance Cagnat-Deboeuf, Paris, Gallimard, Folio-Classical, 2001.
  • Sermon on the Guardian Angels, with a preface by Carlo Ossola (trans. The Lirzin Nadine), Paris, Zone Books, 2005.

  More

  • Patrick Andrivet , Freedom guilty or the ancient Romans as Bossuet, Orleans, Paradigm Publishing, 2006.
  • Jacques Le Brun , Spirituality preacher Bossuet, Paris, C. Klincksieck, 2002, revised and expanded reissue of The Spirituality of Bossuet, Paris, C. Klincksieck, 1972.
  • Kinky Michel Le Tombeau de Bossuet, Paris, Grasset, 1997.
  • Couton George , Flesh and soul. Louis XIV between Bossuet and his mistresses, Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, 1995.
  • John Meyer , Bossuet, Paris, Plon, 1993.
  • Rene Jasinski , Through the ^seventeenth century, Volume I, p. 227-304, "Readings of Bossuet, Paris, Nizet, 1981.
  • Jacques Le Brun , The Spirituality of Bossuet, Paris, C. Klincksieck, 1972, repr. revised and enlarged, 2002 under the title Spirituality preacher Bossuet.
  • Gerard Kufferath , cruel and slow death of Bossuet in Historia No. 301, November 1971.
  • Jacques Le Brun , Bossuet, Paris, Descle de Brouwer, 1970.
  • Therese Goyet , Humanism of Bossuet, the taste of Bossuet, 1965.
  • Jacques Truchet , The Preaching of Bossuet. Study topics, Paris, Editions du Cerf, 1960, 2 volumes.
  • Paul Valery , "On Bossuet, Dijon, Le Bien Public, 1926, resumed in 1929 in Pop II, and in Volume I of Works, Bibliotheque de la Pleiade , 1957.
  • Ferdinand Brunetiere , Bossuet, Paris, Hachette, 1914.
  • Gustave Lanson , Bossuet, Leucaena-Oudin, 1891.
  • Jean-Michel Delacompte "dead language. Bossuet", Gallimard, coll. One and one, 2009

  See also

  Internal Links

  • French school of spirituality
  • Muse Bossuet

  External Links

  Also on Wikibooks the quotes "Jacques Benignus Bossuet".
  • Complete Works of Bossuet in digital reading

  Sources partial

  Marie-Nicolas Bouillet and Alexis Chassang (ed.), "Jacques Benignus Bossuet" in Universal Dictionary of History and Geography, 1878 References

  1. Voltaire, The Age of Louis XIV, ch. 32, Complete Works of Voltaire, Paris, Desoer, 1817, p. 1401, available on Google Books. See also Wiki.
  2. I Corinthians, VII, 24; Ephesians., VI, 7 seq.
  3. Bossuet Warning Protestants, 5th warning, 50. (Complete Works, Vol 3, 1879, p. 610.)
  4. Flaubert, excerpts from Sottisier, in ed. Folio Bouvard and Pecuchet, 2006, p. 468.
  5. A.-G. Martimort, Gallicanism Bossuet, Paris, Le Cerf, 1953

  
  

  Preceded by Daniel Hay Chastelet

  Chair 37 of the French Academy 1671-1704

  Followed by Melchior de Polignac

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