841 



BOSSUET, JACQUES BENIGNE. 



BOSSUT, CHARLES. 



813 



at all) printed separately, and also prefixed to the ' Theatre de 

 Boursaut,' 1725. Bossuet replied to this letter in more polished 

 language indeed, but with scarcely less severity of censure upon the 

 diversions which he condemned than animated Prynne or Jeremie 

 Collier. The argument was afterwards remoulded into an essay, 

 published under the title of 'Maximea sur la Comddie.' But the 

 most celebrated of Bossuet's polemical works are his ' Exposition de 

 la Doctrine de 1'Eglise Catholique sur les matieres de Controversie ' 

 (1671), and his 'Histoire des Variations des I'Eglises Protestantes.' 

 The former was composed for the private use of the Marquis de 

 Dangeau, and it is eaid that an accidental perusal of it greatly con- 

 tributed to the conversion of the Mareehal de Turenne. It was 

 circulated in manuscript long before its publication, and attained the 

 final state which it now exhibits by very slow degrees. Its most 

 important chapters, namely, those on the Eucharist, on Tradition, and 

 on the Authority of the Church, were wanting in the original sketch, 

 and the Sorbonne, when applied to for their approbation, privately 

 censured many parts which they conceived to be unsound. 



Nine years elapsed, and considerable alterations took place before 

 it received the approval of the Holy See, and it ia averred that many 

 of the doctrines when preached by others were declared to be scandalous 

 and pernicious. Clement IX. positively refused to acknowledge it, but 

 two briefs were issued in its behalf by Innocent XI. ; one, November 

 22nd, 1675 ; the other, July 12th, in the year following. The Gallican 

 clergy, assembled in 1682, declared that it contained their doctrine; 

 and an authority of our own time, which few of the Romish persuasion 

 will be inclined to dispute (Mr. Charles Butler) has stated that " the 

 Romish Church has but one opinion of it ; in private and in public, by 

 th>: learned and unlearned, it is equally acknowledged to be a full and 

 faithful exhibition of the doctrine of their church." It has been 

 translated into almost every European language, but unhappily the 

 English version by the Abbd Montague in 1672 bears a bad character. 

 The assertion that it was translated by Dryden rests, as Sir Walter 

 Scott has shown, on very slight authority. (' Life of Dryden,' ' Works," 

 j. 339.) In the Bodleian Library, Oxford, there is a translation pub- 

 lished in London in 1663, in the title-page of which is the following 

 note in Baron Barlow's handwriting : " By Mr. Dryden, then only a 

 poet, now a papist too ; may be he was a papist before, but not known 

 till of late." Wake, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, and M. de 

 St. Baatiile, a French Protestant minister, are the most distinguished 

 opponents of the points ia which it invites controversy. 



The 'Exposition' awakened much attention in France; and out of 

 it arose a personal conference between Bossuet and M. Claude, whom 

 the Protestants considered to be their head, held in 1681, in the presence 

 and at the request of Mademoiselle de Duras, a niece of Turenne, who 

 Bought an excuse for the change of faith in which she had resolved to 

 imitate her uncle. One of the chief questions debated was the authority 

 by which Jesus Christ directed that his future Church should be guided 

 in cases of dissensions concerning doctrine. The debate was conducted 

 with much regard to courtesy, but terminated, like all similar debates, 

 without any approach to conviction. Each party published its own 

 account of the conference, and each claimed the victory, after repre- 

 senting the contest with ao wide a difference of facts that they might 

 be supposed to relate to wholly distinct occurrences. Bossuet WHS 

 admitted to the academy in 1671, and his next great controversial 

 work appeared in 1688. The first five books of his ' Histoire des 

 Variations des Eglises Protestantes ' narrate the rise and progress of 

 the Reformation in Germany ; the sixth is devoted to a consideration 

 of the sanction given by Luther and Melancthon to the adulterous 

 marriage of the Landgrave of Hesse; the seventh and eighth books 

 contain the ecclesiastical history of England during the reigns of 

 Henry VIII. and of Edward VI., and a continuation of that of Germany. 

 The French Calvinists are discussed in book ix., and the assistance 

 afforded to them by Queen Elizabeth, on the avowed principle that 

 subjects might levy war against their sovereign on account of religious 

 differences (a doctrine which Bossuet asserts to have been inculcated 

 by the reformers), forms the groundwork of book x. Book xi. treats 

 of the Albigenses and other sects from the 9th to the 12th centuries, 

 who are usually esteemed precursors of the reformed. Books xii. and 

 xiii. continue the Huguenot history till the synod of Gap. Book xiv. 

 gives an account of the dissensions at Dort, Charenton, and Geneva ; 

 and book xv. and last endeavours to prove the divine authority and 

 therefore the infallibility of the true Church, and to exhibit the marks 

 by which Rome asserts her claim to that title. Basnage, Jurieu, and 

 Bishop Burnet may be mentioned among tho chief opponents of this 

 work, to a perusal of which, in conjunction with that of the ' Expo- 

 sition,' Gibbon attributes his short-lived adherence to popery. " I saw, 

 I applauded, I believed ; and surely I fell by a noble hand." 



The fanciful project of a union between the Lutheran and Gallican 

 churches occupied much of Bossuet's attention, and led to a correspond- 

 ence of deep interest with Leibnitz. On matters of discipline the 

 Bishop of Meaux professed an inclination to be indulgent. On those 

 of faith (concerning which the Council of Trent was his final appeal) 

 he peremptorily declared that there could not be any compromise. 

 The discussion lasted during ten years : it is replete with learning, but 

 it proved utterly fruitless. 



In 1682 Bossuet assisted at the general assembly of the clergy of 

 France, convened in order to restrain the aggressions made by Inno- 



cent XII. on the ' Regale :' a right always claimed by the kings of that 

 country, and almost always virtually tolerated by the Holy See, which 

 vested in the French crown the revenues of any vacant bishopric, and 

 the collation to simple benefices within their dominions. The Bishop 

 of Meaux was selected to preach at the opening of this synod ; and the 

 four articles, which were published at its declaration, registered by all 

 the parliaments, and confirmed by a royal edict which forbade the 

 appointment of any person as professor of theology who did not pre- 

 viously consent to preach the doctrines contained in them, are known 

 to be his production. 



In the dispute with the nuna of Port-Royal relating to the five 

 condemned propositions in Jansenius, Bossuet exerted himself to bring 

 the fair enthusiasts to reason ; and in like manner he opposed Quietism 

 and Madame Guyon, till he incurred opposition from Fenelon and 

 displeasure from Madame de Maintenon. The controversy with 

 Fenelon is perhaps the single transaction in the life of Bossuet which 

 his admirers would desire not to be remembered. Now that the 

 question is almost as much forgotten even among theologians as if it 

 had never existed, if any of the numerous writings by the Bishop of 

 Meaux to which it gave birth are ever opened by some curious inquirer, 

 he lays them aside w.ith pain. They create indeed a strong wish that 

 Bossuet had imitated the meekness of his antagonist. It is chiefly by 

 his sermons that Bossuet is now remembered ; although perhaps those 

 by which he attained most celebrity, the ' Oraisons Funebres,' are ill 

 calculated for the English taste. They belong to a style of composition 

 far too theatrical and dramatic for our temperament, but especially 

 adapted to the court of the Grand Monarque, in which religion, like 

 everything else, was reduced to mere show. The death to the world, 

 which Madame de la Valliere voluntarily encountered by her con- 

 ventual seclusion, is among the most pathetic occurrences related in 

 modern history ; but few things are less likely to suggest Christian 

 devotion than a show, tricked out with ecclesiastical pomp, to exhibit, 

 in the presence of the queen-consort whom she had injured, the retire- 

 ment of a royal mistress, discarded by her licentious and unfeeling 

 lover. Three volumes of the Benedictine edition of Bossuet's works 

 are filled with sermons. 



A life of Bossuet was published by M. de Burigny, Paris, 12mo, 1761. 

 That written by Mr. Charles Butler possesses a raciness which could 

 not be imparted by any biographer unless he shared the Kotnish 

 persuasion ; and yet, like moat other writings of the same distinguished 

 person, it is singularly free from the offensiveness of exclusive 

 prejudices. 



BOSSUT, CHARLES, was born at Tartaras, in the department of 

 the Rhone-et-Loire, August 11, 1730. His family was, like that of 

 the Bernoullis, Belgian, and expatriated during the civil troubles. He 

 was educated partly by an uncle and partly by the college of Jesuits 

 at Lyon. Happening to meet with the ' eloges ' of scientific men by 

 Fontenelle at au early age, he was struck with the desire of making 

 his own career resemble those of which he had read : and finding no 

 one to advise with, he wrote to Fontenelle himself, who, though then 

 niuety years of age, answered his letter, begged for an account of his 

 future progress, and said that he felt a presentiment that his youug 

 correspondent would rise to eminence. This beuevoleut politeness 

 (which is made a prophecy by its fulfilment) brought Bossut to Paris, 

 where he was cordially received by Foutenelle, and introduced to 

 D'Alembert and Clairaut. D'Alembert became his friend and instructor, 

 and so well versed did Bossut become in his works, that D'Alembert 

 was accustomed to send those who asked him for explanation to 

 Bossut, as Newton did to De Moivre. Camus, in 1752, procured for 

 him the professorship of mathematics iu the school of engineers at 

 Mdzierra, and in the same year he was made a corresponding member 

 of the Academy of Sciences. He had previously presented a memoir 

 containing new methods in the integral calculus. 



He continued at Mdzicres sixteen years, during which time- he 

 obtained alone, or in conjunction with others, several of tho prizes of 

 the academy. He divided one with Albert Euler (sou of the Euler), 

 another with the son of Daniel Bernoulli. He published during this 

 period his course of mathematics, which for a long time was in high 

 reputation, and procured him the means of living when he lost his 

 professorship by the revolution. He succeeded his friend Camus as 

 member of the Academy of Sciences, and as examiner of the candidates 

 for the artillery and engineers. He was one of tho contributors to 

 the ' Eneyclope'die,' and wrote the introductory discourse to the mathe- 

 matical volumes. Hia articles are signed I. B. iu that work. He 

 gave in 1779 a complete edition of Pascal, of whose writings he was a 

 great admirer. 



His treatise on ' Hydrodynamics," and his memoirs on that subject 

 in the memoirs of the academy, contributed materially to the con- 

 nection between the theory and practice of that science. In a memoir 

 which gained the prize in 1796, he endeavoured to account for the 

 acceleration of the moon's mean motion by the supposition of a 

 resisting medium. ' 



When he lost all his places by the revolution ho went into retire- 

 ment, and wrote his sketch of the history of mathematics. The 

 second edition of this work he published in 1810 : it ia a lively and 

 interesting sketch, but written, as it appears to us, in strong colour- 

 ing. Delambre asserts that a misanthropic feeling, the consequence 

 of his misfortunes, made him unjuat towards hia contemporaries; 



