Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
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Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (French: [bɔsɥɛ]; 27 Septem- ber 1627 – 12 April 1704) was a French bishop and theologian, renowned for his sermons and other ad- dresses. 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 daugh- St. Etienne’s Cathedral in Metz, where Bossuet was made a canon ter, Henriette, Duchess of Orléans (1670), and the out- at age 13 in 1640 standing soldier le Grand Condé (1687). His work Discours sur l'histoire universelle or Discourse on Universal History (1681) is regarded by many Catholics as an actualization or second edition of the City the college’s president, Nicolas Cornet, the theologian of God of St. Augustine of Hippo. 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 1 Biography to the Hôtel de Rambouillet, a great centre of aristo- cratic culture and the original home of the Précieuses. 1.1 Early years Bossuet was already showing signs of the oratorical bril- liance which served him so well throughout his life. On Bossuet was born at Dijon. He came from a family of one celebrated occasion at the Hôtel de Rambouillet, dur- prosperous Burgundian lawyers - on both his paternal and ing a dispute about extempore preaching, the 16-year-old maternal side, his ancestors had held legal posts for at Bossuet was called on to deliver an impromptu sermon at least a century. He was the fifth son born to Beneigne 11 pm. Voiture famously quipped: “I never heard any- Bossuet, a judge of the parlement (a provincial high court) body preach so early nor so late.” at Dijon, and Marguerite Mouchet. His parents decided on a career in the church for their fifth son, so he was tonsured 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 fa- 1.2 Early clerical career ther 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 Go- Bossuet became a Master of Arts in 1643. He held his drans, he gained a reputation for hard work: fellow stu- first thesis (tentativa) in theology on 25 January 1648, in dents nicknamed him Bos suetus aratro, an “ox broken the presence of the Prince de Condé. Later in 1648, he in to the plough”. His father’s influence at Metz allowed became a sub-deacon at Metz. He became a deacon in him to obtain for the young Bossuet a canonicate in the 1649. During this period, he preached his first sermons. cathedral of Metz when the boy was just 13 years old. He held his second thesis (sorbonica) on November 9, In 1642, Bossuet enrolled in the Collège de Navarre in 1650. Then, in preparation for the priesthood, he spent Paris to finish his classical studies and to begin the study the next two years in retirement under the spiritual direc- of philosophy and theology. His mentor at Navarre was tion of Vincent de Paul. 1 2 1 BIOGRAPHY 1.3 Priest at Metz the two hundred printed in his works, all but a fraction are rough drafts. Ladies such as Mme de Sévigné forsook In January 1652, Bossuet re-entered public life, being him when Bourdaloue dawned on the Paris horizon in named Archdeacon of Sarrebourg. He was ordained a 1669, though Fénelon and La Bruyère, two much sounder priest on 18 March 1652. A few weeks later, he defended critics, refused to follow their example. Bossuet pos- his brilliant doctoral work and became a Doctor of Divin- sessed the full equipment of the orator, voice, language, ity. flexibility and strength. He never needed to strain for ef- He spent the next seven years at Metz, where his father’s fect; his genius struck out at a single blow the thought, influence had got him a canonry at age 13 and where he the feeling and the word. What he said of Martin Luther now also had the office of archdeacon. He was plunged applies peculiarly to himself: he could fling his fury into at once into the thick of controversy; for nearly half of theses and thus unite the dry light of argument with the Metz was Protestant, and Bossuet’s first appearance in fire and heat of passion. These qualities reached their print was a refutation of the Huguenot pastor Paul Ferry highest point in the Oraisons funèbres (Funeral Orations). (1655), and he frequently engaged in religious controver- Bossuet was always best when at work on a large can- sies with Protestants (and, less regularly, with Jews) dur- vas; besides, here no conscientious scruples intervened to ing his time at Metz. To reconcile the Protestants with the prevent him giving much time and thought to the artistic Roman Catholic Church became the great object of his side of his subject. The Oraison, as its name betokened, dreams; and for this purpose, he began to train himself stood midway between the sermon proper and what would carefully for the pulpit, an all-important centre of influ- nowadays be called a biographical sketch. At least that ence in a land where political assemblies were unknown was what Bossuet made it; for on this field, he stood not and novels and newspapers scarcely born. His youthful merely first, but alone. imagination was unbridled, and his ideas ran easily into One hundred and thirty-seven of Bossuet’s sermons a kind of paradoxical subtlety, redolent of the divinity preached in the period from 1659 to 1669 are extant, and school. Nevertheless, his time at Metz was an important it is estimated that he preached more than a hundred more time for developing his pulpit oratory and for allowing that have since been lost. Apart from state occasions, him to continue his studies of Scripture and the Fathers. Bossuet seldom appeared in a Paris pulpit after 1669. He also gained political experience through his participa- tion in the local Assembly of the Three Orders. In 1657, in Metz, Bossuet preached before Anne of Aus- 1.5 Tutor to the Dauphin, 1670–81 tria, mother of Louis XIV. As a result, he received the honorific title of “Counselor and Preacher to the King”. A favourite of the court, in 1669, Bossuet was gazetted bishop of Condom in Gascony, without being obliged to reside there. He was consecrated as a bishop on Septem- 1.4 Early career in Paris ber 21, 1670, but he resigned the bishopric when he was elected to the Académie française in 1671. In 1657, St. Vincent de Paul convinced Bossuet to move On 18 September 1670 he was appointed tutor to the to Paris and give himself entirely to preaching. (He did nine-year-old Dauphin, oldest child of Louis XIV. The not entirely sever his connections with the cathedral of choice was scarcely fortunate. Bossuet unbent as far as Metz, though: he continued to hold his benefice, and in he could, but his genius was by no means fitted to enter 1664, when his widower father was ordained as a priest into the feelings of a child; and the dauphin was a cross, and became a canon at the cathedral at Metz, Bossuet was ungainly, sullen lad. Probably no one was happier than named the dean of the cathedral.) the tutor when his charge turned sixteen and was married Bossuet quickly gained a reputation as a great preacher, off to a Bavarian princess. Still, the nine years at court and by 1660, he was preaching regularly before the court were by no means wasted. in the Chapel Royal. In 1662, he preached his famous Bossuet’s tutorial functions involved composing all the sermon “On the Duties of Kings” to Louis XIV at the necessary books of instruction, including not just hand- Louvre. writing samples, but also manuals of philosophy, history, In Paris, the congregations had no mercy on purely cler- and religion fit for a future king of France. Among the ical logic or clerical taste; if a preacher wished to catch books written by Bossuet during this period are three clas- their ear, he had to manage to address them in terms they sics. First came the Traité de la connaissance de Dieu et would agree to consider sensible and well bred. Having de soi-même (“Treatise on the Knowledge of God and of very stern ideas of the dignity of a priest, Bossuet refused One’s Self”) (1677), then the Discours sur l'histoire uni- to descend to the usual devices for arousing popular in- verselle ("Speech of Universal History") (1679, published terest. The narrative element in his sermons grew shorter 1682), and lastly the Politique tirée de l'Écriture Sainte with each year. He never drew satirical pictures like his (“Politics Drawn from Holy Scripture”) (1679, published great rival Louis Bourdaloue. He would not write out his 1709).