Jacques benigne bossuet biography of martin

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Bossuet — the Bossuet of the "Sermons" and of the "Funeral Orations" — is a poet, a great poet; and he is lyrical in his blending of personal and interior emotions with the expression of the truths which he unfolds. But now his patience was wearing out. Quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est; this was for Bossuet, in a manner, the absolute criterion of Catholictruth.

This post brought about his election to the Académie Française. 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. His major political work, the Politique tirée des propres paroles de l'Écriture sainte ("Statecraft Drawn from the Very Words of the Holy Scriptures")—which uses the Bible as evidence of divine authority for the power of kings—earned Bossuet his reputation as a great theoretician of royal absolutism.

But then the Discours was composed under a single preoccupation. Throughout this controversy, unlike the court bishops, Bossuet constantly resided in his diocese and took an active interest in its administration. Besides the "Discourse on Universal History", he wrote other works for the education of the Dauphin; notably the "Treatise on the Knowledge of God and of Oneself" and the "Art of Governing, Drawn from the Words of Holy Scripture", which appeared only after his death; the "Art of Governing", in 1709, and the "Treatise on the Knowledge of God", in 1722.

But, as there existed at Metz a large Jewish community (and in some respects, the only one in France that was recognized by the State), and as the Protestants were numerous, and still fervent, in the neighboring province of Alsace, one may believe that Bossuet's natural tendency to take religion on its controversial side was encouraged or strengthened by these circumstances.

On September 13, 1670, he was appointed tutor to the Dauphin, only child of Louis XIV, and then a boy of nine. Quite apart from the satisfaction which his own genius, naturally attracted to order and to clarity, found in this conciliation of reason and faith, he judged this the most propitious ground of all for the reconciliation of Protestantism with Catholicism.

During this period, he preached his first sermons. He would not write out his discourses in full, much less memorize them; of the 200 printed in his Works all but a fraction are rough drafts.

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.

In the Politique he developed the doctrine of divine right, the theory that any government legally formed expresses the will of God, that its authority is sacred, and that any rebellion against it is criminal. In that period he completed his long-interrupted works of historical controversy, wrote innumerable spiritual letters, took care of his religious communities (for whom he composed "Meditations on the Gospel" and "Uplifting of the Soul on the Mysteries"), and entered on endless polemics with Ellies du Pin, Caffaro, Fénelon, the Probabilists, Richard Simon and the Jansenists.

Bossuet now composed Instructions sur les états d'oraison, a work which explained the Articles d'Issy in greater depth. For Bossuet's worship of authority by no means killed his confidence in reason; what it did was to make him doubt the honesty of those who reasoned otherwise than himself.

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 pope. Till he was over 70 he had scarcely known what illness was; but in 1702 he was attacked by the stone.