Misplaced Pages

#466533

105-635: The Declaration of the Clergy of France was a four-article document of the 1681 assembly of the French clergy . Promulgated in 1682, it codified the principles of Gallicanism into a system for the first time into an official and definitive formula. The 1516 Concordat of Bologna between the Holy See and the Kingdom of France repealed and explicitly superseded the 1438 Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges and

210-541: 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 " ("the king, Jesus Christ, and the Church, God in His three names"), he says in a characteristic letter. The object of his books was to provide authority with a rational basis. Bossuet's worship of authority by no means killed his confidence in reason- what it did

315-555: A century (1715-89) the Clergy paid in, either for the rentes of the Hotel de Ville or as "free gifts", over 380 million livres. When, in 1789, an attempt was made at imposing on the Church of France an equal share of the public expense, the Archbishop of Paris, Monseigneur de Juign', was able to say that the Church already contributed as much as the other orders (nobility, bourgeoisie, and people); its burdens would not be increased by

420-586: A convention at Poissy to consider matters of Church-reform, an occasion made famous by the controversy ( Colloque de Poissy ) between the Catholic bishops and the Protestant ministers, in which the chief orators were the Cardinal of Lorraine and Theodore Beza . At this assembly the Clergy bound themselves by a contract made in the name of the whole clerical body to pay the king 1,600,000 livres annually for

525-510: A detailed account of his management to the assembled Clergy. In each diocese there was a board of elected delegates presided over by the bishop, whose duty it was to apportion the assessments among the beneficed ecclesiastics. This Bureau diocésain de décimes (Diocesan Board of Tithes) was authorized to settle ordinary disputes. Over it were superior boards located at Paris, Lyon, Rouen, Tours, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Aix, and Bourges, courts of appeal, whose decisions were final in all disputes concerning

630-457: A dispute about extempore preaching, the 16-year-old Bossuet was called on to deliver an impromptu sermon at 11 pm. Vincent Voiture famously quipped: "I never heard anybody preach so early nor so late". Bossuet became a Master of Arts in 1643. He sustained his first thesis ( tentativa ) in theology on 25 January 1648, in the presence of the Prince de Condé . Later in 1648, he was ordained

735-720: 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 ("Treatise on the Knowledge of God and of Oneself") (1677), then the Discours sur l'histoire universelle (" Discourse on Universal History ") (1679, published 1682), and lastly the Politique tirée de l'Écriture Sainte ("Politics Drawn from Holy Scripture") (1679, published 1709). The three books fit into each other. The Traité

840-400: A later period the contributions of the clergy were increased, and during the reign of Louis IX (1235–70) thirteen subsidies are recorded within twenty-eight years. Francis I of France (1515–48) made incessant calls on the ecclesiastical treasury. The religious wars of the sixteenth century furnished the French kings with pretexts for fresh demands upon the Church. In 1560, the clergy held

945-576: A lively resistance to the royal pretensions. The pope sustained them with all his authority. Thereupon the king convoked the Assembly of 1682, presided over by Harley de Champvallon, and Le Tellier , Archbishops respectively of Paris and of Reims. Bossuet , on 9 November 1681, preached in the church on the Grands Augustins at Paris his sermon "On the Unity of the Church". This piece of eloquence

1050-504: A period of six years; certain estates and taxes that had been pledged to the Hôtel de Ville of Paris for a (yearly) rente , or revenue, of 6,300,000 livres. In other words, the clergy bound themselves to redeem for the king in ten years a capital of 7,560,000 livres. The French monarchs, instead of settling their debts, made fresh loans based on this revenue, paid by the Church, as if it were to be something permanent. After lengthy discussions,

1155-595: 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

SECTION 10

#1732775506467

1260-527: A result, he received the honorific title of "Counselor and Preacher to the King". 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 widowed father was ordained as a priest and became a canon of the Metz cathedral chapter, Bossuet

1365-416: 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

1470-402: A splendour comparable only 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 with a single purpose in mind. To Bossuet, the establishment of Christianity was

1575-520: A still more cruel persecution of the poor Catholics in England". However, Arnauld and most other Jansenists sided with the Holy See about the case of the droit de régale . Pope Innocent XI hesitated to censure its publication. On April 11, 1682, he protested in a papal brief in which he voided and annulled all that the 1681 Assembly had done in regard to the droit de régale as well as all

1680-534: A subdeacon by Sébastien Zamet , Bishop of Langres . His ordination as a deacon came in 1649, after which he began to preach his first sermons. He sustained his second thesis ( sorbonica ) on 9 November 1650. Then, in preparation for the priesthood , he spent the next two years in retirement under the spiritual direction of Saint Vincent de Paul at Saint Lazare in Paris. In January 1652, Bossuet returned to public life, being named Archdeacon of Sarrebourg . He

1785-469: 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 forever moving forwards. Next, Protestant writers began to accumulate some alleged proofs of Rome's own variations; and here, they were backed up by Richard Simon ,

1890-458: 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 first of philosophic histories. With the period of the Dauphin's formal education ending in 1681, Bossuet was appointed Bishop of Meaux by the King on 2 May 1681, which

1995-458: 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

2100-592: The droit de régale as their right by virtue of the supremacy of the Crown over all episcopal sees , even those that had been exempt from the assertion of that right. Under Louis XIV, the claims to appropriate revenues of vacant episcopal sees and to make appointments to benefices were vigorously enforced. The Parlements were pleased and most bishops yielded without serious protest. Only two prelates , Nicolas Pavillon , bishop of Alet , and François de Caulet , bishop of Pamiers , both Jansenists , resisted

2205-579: 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 violate the law He had Himself established. Bossuet might scribble nova, mira, falsa in

SECTION 20

#1732775506467

2310-525: The Bishop of Meaux stood out against the Gallican propositions presented in the name of the commission by Choiseul-Praslin , Bishop of Tournai . Thereupon the propositions were turned over to Bossuet himself; he succeeded in eliminating from them the irritating question of appeals to a future council, a proposition several times condemned by the Holy See. It was then that the Assembly voted (19 March 1682)

2415-479: The College of Navarre in Paris, where he studied philosophy and theology. In 1652, he was ordained a priest and became a Doctor of Divinity . He spent the next seven years at Metz , where he honed his skills in oratory and politics, before returning to Paris and establishing his reputation as a great preacher. By the early 1660s, Bossuet was preaching regularly before the court of King Louis XIV at Versailles . He

2520-526: The College of Sorbonne solemnly declared that it admitted no authority of the pope over the king's temporal dominion, his superiority to a general council or infallibility apart from the Church's consent. In 1673, King Louis XIV of France , an absolute monarch , extended the droit de régale throughout the Kingdom of France. There were two types of régale : régale temporelle and régale spirituelle . Prior kings of France had affirmed

2625-629: The Declaration of the clergy of France , nor was it created by the Concordat of Bologna or the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges. Two of the most important liberties defended by parliamentary Gallicanism were that kings of France had the right to assemble church councils in their dominions and to make laws and regulations touching ecclesiastical matters. Louis XIV ordered the Declaration of the Clergy of France to be promulgated from all

2730-479: The Edict of Nantes stopped far short of approving dragonnades within his Diocese of Meaux, but now his patience was waning. 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 attack on the memory of Molière , dead more than twenty years. Three years later, he was battling with Bishop François Fénelon over

2835-606: The Edict of Nantes , which abolished the rights of the Huguenot Protestant minority. Bossuet died in 1704 at the age of 76. The works of Bossuet best known to English speakers are three great orations delivered at the funerals of Queen Henrietta Maria , widow of Charles I of England (1669), of her daughter Henriette, Duchess of Orléans (1670), and of the outstanding military commander le Grand Condé (1687). He published his Discours sur l'histoire universelle ( Discourse on Universal History ) in 1681. Bossuet

2940-761: The Four Gallican Articles . According to Antoine Dégert, in Catholic Encyclopedia , the doctrines of the four articles are the following: According to the Gallican theory, then, papal primacy was limited by: There were two types of Gallicanism: Parliamentary Gallicanism was of much wider scope than episcopal and was often disavowed by the bishops of France. W. Henley Jervis wrote, in The Gallican Church , that Gallicanism preceded Louis XIV and it did not originate with

3045-590: 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

3150-475: The Maximes des Saints on 12 March 1699. Pope Innocent XII selected 23 specific passages for condemnation. Bossuet triumphed in the controversy and Fénelon submitted to Rome's determination of the matter. Until he was over 70 years, Bossuet 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

3255-416: The assemblées des comptes which met once during the interval of ten years. Under this arrangement an assembly was convened every five years. There were two steps in the election of deputies. First, at the diocesan assembly were convened all holders of benefices, a plurality of whose votes elected two delegates. These then proceeded to the metropolitan see, and under the presidency of the metropolitan elected

Declaration of the Clergy of France - Misplaced Pages Continue

3360-444: The conversion of annuities and the consequent reduction of interest; as a matter of fact this was practised by the Clergy from the end of the seventeenth century, when they were forced to negotiate loans in order to furnish the sums demanded by Louis XIV. Necker , a competent judge, commended the Clergy for the care they took in liquidating these debts. He also praised the clerical system of the distribution of taxes, according to which

3465-539: The rentes of the Hôtel de Ville was an item of slight importance as compared with the sums which the Clergy were compelled to vote the king under the name of dons gratuits , or free gifts. It had been established during the Middle Ages that the Church should contribute not only to the expenses of the Crusades, but also towards the defence of the kingdom, a tradition continued to modern times. The religious wars of

3570-423: The right of presentation of a candidate for appointment as a bishop, abbot, or prior was conceded to the king and the right of confirmation of a candidate, right of devolution , and the right of reservation were conceded to the pope. Since he had to present a suitable and qualified candidate, "the king's choice was not to be purely arbitrary". The concordat also stipulated annates and other matters. In 1663,

3675-514: The "Four Articles" that may be briefly summarized as follows: Bossuet, who was drawn into the discussions in spite of himself, wrote his Defensio Declarationis in justification of the decisions of the Assembly. It was not published, however, until after his death. The king ordered the Four Articles to be promulgated from all the pulpits of France. Pope Innocent XI (1676-89), notwithstanding his dissatisfaction, hesitated to pass censure on

3780-409: The 1681 Assembly had decreed regarding ecclesiastical power and pontifical authority. Nevertheless, according to Dégert, the Declaration of the Clergy of France remained "the living symbol of Gallicanism" that was professed by the majority of the French clergy that defended in the faculties of theology, schools, and seminaries, and French parlements suppressed works that seemed to be hostile to

3885-619: 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 , his 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

3990-495: The Assemblies were unlikely to choose a person not in favour at court. During the reign of Louis XIV Harlay de Champvallon , Archbishop of Paris , was several times president. Finally, Saint-Simon writes that the royal displeasure deprived him of his influence with the Clergy, and even shortened his life. The offices of secretary and "promotor", being looked on by the bishops as somewhat inferior, were assigned to deputies of

4095-506: The Assembly of 1682, convened to consider the régale , a term denoting the right assumed by the French king during the vacancy of a see to appropriate its revenues and make appointments to benefices. The kings of France had often affirmed that the right of régale belonged to them in virtue of the supremacy of the Crown over all sees. Under Louis XIV, these claims were vigorously enforced. Two prelates, Nicolas Pavillon , Bishop of Alet , and François-Etienne Caulet , Bishop of Pamiers , made

4200-522: The Church, drew attention to whatever was prejudicial to her prerogatives of discipline, and in the parliament represented the ecclesiastical authority and interest in all cases to which the Church was a party. They enjoyed the privilege of committimus , and were specially authorized to enter the king's council and speak before it on ecclesiastical matters. On the occasion of each Assembly these agents rendered an account of their administration in reports, several folio volumes of which have been published since

4305-476: The Clergy. Jacques-B%C3%A9nigne Bossuet Jacques-Bénigne Lignel Bossuet ( French: [bɔsɥɛ] ; 27 September 1627 – 12 April 1704) was a French bishop and theologian . Renowned for his sermons , addresses and literary works, he is regarded as a brilliant orator and literary stylist of the French language . A native of Dijon , Bossuet was educated at a Jesuit school before enrolling in

Declaration of the Clergy of France - Misplaced Pages Continue

4410-496: The Colloquy of Poissy, the original germ of the Assemblies, was expressly convened for the discussion of Protestantism, and in opposition to schism and heresy . Practically every Assembly, from the first in 1560 to the last in 1788, dealt with the problem of Protestantism; their attitude was scarcely favorable to liberty of conscience . In its turn, Jansenism received much attention from these Assemblies, which always supported

4515-593: The Huguenots to the Catholic Church. In 1668, he converted Turenne ; in 1670, he published an Exposition de la foi catholique ("Exposition of the Catholic Faith"), so moderate in tone that adversaries were driven to accuse him of having fraudulently watered down the Catholic dogmas to suit Protestant taste. Finally, in 1688, his great Histoire des variations des Églises protestantes ("History of

4620-546: The Israel of Solomon. 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 son, the Petit Dauphin , would bear them in mind. The tutor's imagination looked forward to a time when France would blossom into Utopia , with

4725-503: 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 applied peculiarly to himself: he could fling his fury into theses and thus unite

4830-491: 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. 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

4935-624: The Variations of the Protestant Churches"), 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,

5040-525: The beginning of the eighteenth century under the title of Rapports d'agence . The usual reward for their services was the episcopate. Their duties prepared them admirably to understand public affairs. Monseigneur de Cicé , Monseigneur de La Luzerne , the Abbé de Montesquiou , and Talleyrand , all of whom played important roles in the Constituent Assembly , had been in their time Agents-General of

5145-409: The beneficed ecclesiastics throughout the kingdom were divided into eight départements , or classes, in order to facilitate the apportionment of taxes in ascending ratio, according to the resources of each. This shows that even under the old regime the Clergy had placed on a practical working basis, in their own system of revenues, the impôt progressif , or system of graduated assessment of income. On

5250-534: The candidates nominated for episcopal sees by Louis XIV enjoyed their revenues and temporal prerogatives but were incapable, according to the terms of the Concordat of Bologna and Catholic doctrine, of executing any part of the spiritual functions of the episcopate. At least 35 dioceses, nearly a third of all dioceses in the kingdom, were without canonically instituted bishops. The apostolic constitution Inter multiplices pastoralis officii promulgated by Pope Alexander VIII in 1690 and published in 1691, quashed

5355-549: The clergy assembled at Melun (1579–80) consented to renew the contract for ten years, a measure destined to be repeated every decade until the French Revolution. The "assemblies of the Clergy" were now an established institution. In this way the Church of France obtained the right of freely meeting and of free speech just when the meetings of the Estates-General ( États généraux ) were to be discontinued, and

SECTION 50

#1732775506467

5460-467: The consequences of that action, and bound by the Concordat of Bologna, he refused papal confirmations of appointment to those members of the 1681 Assembly who were presented as candidates for vacant sees by Louis XIV. The consequence was that a provision of the Concordat of Bologna was applied by Innocent XI and remained so until the reconciliation between the French court and Holy See in 1693. Meanwhile,

5565-469: The contributions of the dioceses within their jurisdiction. In this way the Clergy had an administration of their own, independent of the State, a very important privilege under the old regime . Their credit stood highest; the archives have preserved for us many thousands of rental contracts made in confidence by private individuals with the Church. It has been said that M. de VillŠle introduced into France

5670-546: The court, in 1669 Bossuet was gazetted bishop of Condom in Gascony without being obliged to reside there. He was consecrated bishop on 21 September 1670, but he resigned the see when he was elected to the Académie française in 1671. On 18 September 1670 he was appointed tutor to the nine-year-old Dauphin , eldest child of Louis XIV . The choice was scarcely fortunate. Bossuet unbent as far as he could, but his genius

5775-539: The dignity of a priest, Bossuet refused to descend to the usual devices for arousing popular interest. The narrative element in Bossuet's sermons grew shorter with each year. He never drew satirical pictures like his great rival Louis 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

5880-463: 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 from giving much time and thought to the artistic side of his subject. The Oraison , as its name betokened, stood midway between

5985-470: The entire proceedings of the 1681 Assembly and declared that the Declaration of the Clergy of France was null, void and invalid. On September 14, 1693, Louis XIV rescinded the four articles and "wrote a letter of retraction" to Pope Innocent XII . The members of the 1681 Assembly who were presented as candidates for vacant sees and were refused papal confirmation of their appointment received confirmation in 1693 only after they had disavowed everything that

6090-447: The executive power of the Church of France. They were known as Agents-General ( agents-généraux ) and were very important personages under the old regime. Although chosen from among the Clergy of the second order, i.e. from among the priests, they were always men of good birth, distinguished bearing, and quite familiar with the ways of the world and the court. They had charge of the accounts of all receivers, protected jealously all rights of

6195-578: The expenses of the French Government in the war of the American Revolution , to which they added in 1782 sixteen million and in 1786 eighteen million. The French kings more than once expressed their gratitude to this body for the services it had rendered both monarchy and fatherland in the prompt and generous payment of large subsidies at critical moments. It has been calculated from official documents that during three-quarters of

6300-478: The fifth of these Avertissements (1690), he denied the thesis of the explicit or implicit contract between the prince and his subjects, which Jurieu supported, and formulated the famous sentence: "To condemn this state [= slavery], it would not only be condemn the law of nations, where servitude is admitted, as it appears by all the laws; but that would be to condemn the Holy Spirit, who commands slaves, through

6405-722: The four articles principles. Those ideas were later expressed during the French Revolution in the Civil Constitution of the Clergy in 1790. Assembly of the French clergy During the Middle Ages the Crusades were the occasions of frequent levies upon ecclesiastical possessions. The Dime Saladine (Saladin Tithe) was inaugurated when Philip II Augustus (1180–1223) united his forces with those of Richard of England to deliver Jerusalem from Saladin . At

SECTION 60

#1732775506467

6510-557: 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 adulthood, brought together under an absolute sovereign, had suddenly burgeoned into

6615-410: 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

6720-402: 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

6825-492: The lives of saints or saintly contemporaries as examples. He preached, for example, on St. Francis de Sales as well as funeral orations on Queen Henrietta Maria of France and Henrietta Anne of England . Bossuet's funeral orations in particular had lasting importance and were translated early into many languages, including English. Such was their power that even Voltaire , normally so antagonistic toward clergy, praised his oratorical excellence. An edition of Bossuet's sermons

6930-578: The longer they lived, the more they varied on increasingly important points. The Protestant Minister Pierre Jurieu having responded to the Histoire des variations , Bossuet published the Avertissements aux protestants sur les lettres du ministre Jurieu contre l'Histoire des variations ( Warnings to Protestants on the letters of Minister Jurieu against the History of Variations , 1689–1691). In

7035-454: The love of God. Fénelon, 24 years his junior, was an old pupil who had suddenly become a rival; like Bossuet, Fénelon was a bishop who served as a royal tutor. The controversy concerned their different reactions to the opinions of Jeanne Guyon : her ideas were similar to the Quietism of Molinos , which was condemned by Pope Innocent XI in 1687. When Mme de Maintenon began questioning

7140-462: The margins of his book and urge 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

7245-541: The mouth of St. Paul, to remain in their state, and does not oblige their masters to free them. Flaubert , in his Sottisier , noted that in the 19th century, Catholic theology had varied to the point of expressing ideas on slavery diametrically opposed to those of Bossuet. 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

7350-455: The new law that imposed upon all an equal share in contributing to the expenses of the State. The Assemblies of the Clergy conducted their temporal administration carefully. They appointed for ten years a receiver-general ( Receveur-général ), in reality a minister of finance. The office carried with it a generous salary, and for election to it a two-thirds majority was required. He was bound to furnish security at his residence in Paris and render

7455-638: 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 to 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

7560-404: 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 34 articles known as the Articles d' Issy , which condemned Mme Guyon's ideas very briefly and provided a short treatise on the orthodox, Catholic conception of prayer. Fénelon, who had been attracted to Mme Guyon's ideas, signed off on

7665-509: The papal bulls that condemned it. Indeed, some of the severest measures against Jansenism came from this quarter. The eighteenth century, with its philosophers and encyclopaedists, brought the Assemblies of the Clergy anxieties of a new and alarming character. They stirred up and encouraged Christian apologists, and urged the king to protect the Church and defend the faith of the French people. They were less successful in this task than in their previous undertakings. Four Articles were voted on by

7770-579: The provincial deputies. Theoretically, parish priests ( curés ) might be chosen, but as a matter of fact, by reason of their social station, inferior to that of abbés and canons, they seldom had seats in the assemblies. The rank of subdeacon suffices for election; the Abbé Legendre relates in his memoirs as a contemporary incident that one of these young legislators, after an escapade, was soundly flogged by his perceptor who had accompanied him to Paris. The assemblies at all times reserved to themselves

7875-470: The publication of the "Four Articles". He contented himself with expressing his disapproval of the decision made by the Assembly on the question of the régale , and refused the papal Bulls to those members of the Assembly who had been selected by the king for vacant sees. To lend unity to the action of the Assemblies, and to preserve their influence during the long intervals between these meetings, two ecclesiastics were elected who were thenceforth, as it were,

7980-477: The pulpits of France. He commanded the registration of the four articles in all the schools and faculties of theology. No one could even be admitted to degrees in theology without maintaining the doctrine in one of his theses, and it was forbidden to write anything against the four articles. Although it initially resisted, the Sorbonne yielded to the ordinance of registration. The Jansenist Antoine Arnauld , who

8085-494: The rest of his time at Metz he frequently engaged in religious controversies with Protestants (and, less regularly, with Jews ). Reconciling the Protestants with the Catholic Church became his dream, 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

8190-472: The reward of eternal life having anything to do with this pure love of God. King Louis XIV 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 1697–1699 battling each other in pamphlets and letters until the Inquisition finally condemned

8295-433: The right of deciding upon the validity of procurators and the authority of deputies. They wished also to reserve the right of electing their own president, whom they always chose from among the bishops. However, to conciliate rivalries, several were usually nominated for the presidency, only one of whom exercised that function. Under a strong government, withal, and despite the resolution to maintain their right of election,

8400-426: The royal encroachment. Both unsuccessfully appealed to their metropolitan archbishop, who sided with Louis XIV, and they appealed to Pope Innocent XI in 1677. In three successive papal briefs Innocent XI urged Louis XIV not to extend the right to dioceses that had previously been exempt, sustaining them with all his authority. Louis XIV convoked the 1681 Assembly at Paris to consider the droit de régale . It

8505-533: The second rank, i.e. to priests. The Assemblies of the French Clergy divided their work among commissions. The "Commission of Temporal Affairs" was very important and had an unusually large amount of business to transact. Financial questions, which had given rise to these assemblies, continued to claim their attention until the time of the Revolution. Beginning with the seventeenth century, the payment of

8610-442: 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. 137 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. A favourite of

8715-401: The sixteenth century, later the siege of La Rochelle (1628) under Richelieu , and to a still greater extent the political wars waged by Henry IV, Louis XIII, Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI occasioned the levying of enormous subsidies on the Clergy. The following example may serve as an illustration: the Clergy who had voted sixteen million livres in 1779 gave thirty million more in 1780 for

8820-405: The true wealth of a kingdom is its men and says that it is important to improve the people's lot and that there would be no more poor. The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) calls Bossuet the greatest pulpit orator of all time, ranking him even ahead of Augustine and Chrysostom . The exterior of Harvard 's Sanders Theater includes busts of the eight greatest orators of all time – they include

8925-399: 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

9030-432: The verge of the Revolution, they accepted the principle that the public burden should be equally divided among all classes of the nation, a step they had delayed too long. Public opinion had already condemned all privileges whatsoever. The Assemblies of the Clergy did not confine their attention to temporal matters. Doctrinal questions and spiritual matters held an important place among the subjects discussed in them. Indeed,

9135-459: The voice of the nation was to be hushed for a period of 200 years. At a very early date, these assemblies adopted the form of organization which they were to preserve until the French Revolution . The election of deputies forming the body was arranged according to ecclesiastical provinces . It was decided in 1619 that each province should send four deputies (two bishops and two priests) to the assemblées de contrat held every ten years, and two to

9240-573: The young Bossuet a canonry 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 there was the college's president, Nicolas Cornet , the theologian whose denunciation of Antoine Arnauld at the Sorbonne in 1649 was a major episode in

9345-478: Was ordained a priest on 18 March 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 he now had the office of archdeacon. He was plunged at once into the thick of controversy; nearly half of Metz was Protestant , and Bossuet's first appearance in print was a refutation of the Huguenot pastor Paul Ferry (1655). During

9450-525: Was appointed tutor to the Dauphin in 1670 and elected to the Académie Française a year later. In 1681, he was appointed Bishop of Meaux , a position he held until his death. Bossuet was a strong advocate of political absolutism and the divine right of kings . Later in his life, he was also involved in the controversies over Gallicanism and Quietism , and supported the king's revocation of

9555-470: Was approved by Pope Innocent XI on 17 November. But before he could take possession of his see, he was drawn into a violent quarrel between Louis XIV and Pope Innocent XI . Here he found himself in a quandary: to support the Pope meant supporting the Jesuits, and he hated their supposed casuistry and dévotion aisée almost as much as Pascal ; to oppose the Pope was to play into the hands of Louis XIV, who

9660-430: Was born at Dijon . He came from a family of prosperous Burgundian lawyers – on both his paternal and maternal sides, 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 tonsured at age eight. The boy

9765-490: Was by no means fitted to enter into the feelings of a child; and the dauphin was a choleric, ungainly, sullen boy. Probably no one was happier than the tutor when his charge turned sixteen and was married off to a Bavarian princess . Still, Bossuet's 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

9870-547: Was confirmed by the contemporaneous Fifth Lateran Council . The concordat was registered by the Parlements in 1518 and defined, according to Roger Aubenas, in The New Cambridge Modern History , "a logical division of prerogatives, but one which involved discontinuance of elections". Under the terms of the concordat, the election of bishops by canons and abbots by monks was discontinued;

9975-424: Was eager to subject the Church to the will of the State. Therefore, Bossuet attempted to steer 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 XIV 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

10080-492: Was edited by Abbé Lebarq in 6 vols. (Paris, 1890, 1896), as the Œuvres oratoires de Bossuet . His complete works were edited by Lachat in 31 vols. (Paris, 1862–1864). 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

10185-489: Was given by Charles de la Rue , SJ. He was buried at Meaux Cathedral . Bossuet is widely considered to be one of the most influential homilists 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

10290-430: 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

10395-680: Was named chapter's dean .) 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

10500-563: Was presided over by François de Harlay de Champvallon , archbishop of Paris , and Charles Maurice Le Tellier , archbishop of Reims . The question of the droit de régale was quickly decided in favor of the king. Louis XIV then asked them to pronounce upon the authority of the pope and the Assembly again sided with the king. The four articles were drafted by Charles Maurice Le Tellier , archbishop of Reims ; Gilbert de Choiseul Duplessis Praslin , bishop of Tournai ; and Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet , bishop of Meaux . Those article are called

10605-459: 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

10710-627: 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 accustomed to the plough". His father's influence at Metz allowed him to obtain for

10815-474: Was so fortunate as to secure the approbation of both pope and king. Contrary to its custom, the Assembly ordered the discourse to be printed. Thereupon, the question of the régale was quickly decided according to the royal wish. When Louis XIV asked the Assembly to pronounce upon the authority of the pope, Bossuet tried to temporize and requested that, before proceeding further, Christian tradition on this point be carefully studied. This move proving unsuccessful,

10920-490: Was then a refugee at Brussels , Spanish Netherlands , agreed with the doctrine of the four articles and wrote to dissuade Innocent XI from publishing any formal censure of the four articles. Arnauld surmised that a papal denunciation of the four articles would precipitate an "immense advantage into the hands of heretics, to make the Roman Church odious, to raise up obstacles to the conversion of Protestants, and to provoke

11025-595: Was unbridled, and his ideas ran easily into a kind of paradoxical subtlety, redolent of divinity faculties. Nevertheless, his time at Metz was an important time for developing his pulpit oratory and for allowing him to continue his study of Scripture and the Church 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

#466533