THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
Jacques Benigne Bossuet
By the same Author
Angtliqite of Port-Royal ; Fin-
cent de Paul; Ste. Chantal
Jacques Benigne
A S TUDY by E. K. SANDERS
LONDON
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE
NEW YORK t THE MACMIIXAN COMPANY
1921
College
Library
<
Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
INTRODUCTION i
I. SCHOOLBOY AND STUDENT 7
II. A PRIEST'S APPRENTICESHIP 18
III. BOSSUET IN PARIS 28
IV. THE BATTLEFIELD OF CONTROVERSY 46
V. THE CONVERSION OF TURENNE 57
VI. THE MESSAGE OF LA TRAPPE 68
VII. THE COURT PREACHER 83
VIII. THE PRIEST AT COURT 103
IX. THE CONTEST WITH THE KING 124
X. THE DAUPHIN 143
XI. THE COURT ECCLESIASTIC 164
XII. THE GALLICAN CRISIS 177
XIII. A CLERICAL ASSEMBLY 188
XIV. THE DEFENCE 202
XV. THE BISHOP IN HIS DIOCESE 208
XVI. THE SPIRIT OF VERSAILLES 220
XVII. BOSSUET AND THE MONASTERIES 230
XVIII. BOSSUET THE HISTORIAN 244
XIX. THE TOLERANCE OF BOSSUET 256
XX. QUIETISM AT COURT 270
XXI. THE COMBAT 285
XXII. THE MYSTICISM OF BOSSUET 305
XXIII. THE NUN OF JOUARRE 322
XXIV. BOSSUET THE DIRECTOR 336
XXV. BOSSUET AND HIS VOCATION 352
XXVI. THE END 367
Appendices
I. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 383
II. HOUSES IN PARIS OCCUPIED BY BOSSUET 383
III. MLLE DE MAULE"ON AND THE MARRIAGE LIBEL 384
IV. NOTES ON GALLICANISM 387
V. LIST OF WORKS PUBLISHED IN THE LIFETIME OF BOSSUET 389
VI. POSTHUMOUS PUBLICATIONS 390
VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY 391
Index
401
1385614
List of Illustrations
PORTRAIT from an engraving by Peter Drevet after the
painting by Hyacinthe Rigaud Frontispiece
PORTRAIT from an engraving by Auguste St. Aubin Facing p. 208
Introduction
THE most distinguished of French critics and
historians, during the last hundred years, have
made the personality and work of Bossuet the
subject of eager study. So great indeed is the eminence
to which he has attained that Shakespeare alone of
English writers holds with us a position akin to that
which he occupies among his countrymen.* Yet in
England, notwithstanding the widespread and increasing
appreciation of French literature, a student of Bossuet
is a rarity, while a vast number of well-informed persons
are content with knowledge summarized in the state-
ment that " he was a great French preacher who be-
haved very badly to Fenelon." The explanation of this
ignorance does not evade inquiry. It lies in the simple
admission that he has not awakened interest. Sermons,
even though they achieve the rank of classics, are not
popular reading, and the writings of Bossuet appear to
be inextricably entangled with the controversies of an-
other nation and another age. Moreover, Rigaud's im-
pressive portrait of him at Versailles has helped to remove
him to a sphere beyond the ken of ordinary humanity.
If the pompous personage created by tradition were
actually Bossuet he might be relegated to a place in the
group behind the throne of the Great Monarch and left
without regret. Recent admirers of his, however, have
had the courage to attack tradition, and by their efforts
new truth concerning him is brought to light. Thus a
man concealed by legend for two centuries at length
emerges. And, having thrust aside the veil of imposing
reputation, we find a character full of surprises. De-
throne him from his pedestal, and at close quarters he
shows himself to be the tool of contradictory impulses.
The saying of Pascal that " men are not so different
from each other as one man is from himself" draws sup-
port from such a study. Bossuet was an idealist.
When he wrote, glorious visions of man's possibilities of
holiness inspired his pen ; but when he left his desk the
* In the phrase of Sainte-Beuve : " La gloire de Bossuet est devenue
1'une Je> religions de la France."
2 Jacques Benigne Eossuet
interests of the world submerged his aspirations. The
standards behind his teaching were worthy of a saint,
but his relations with his fellow men do not display the
marks of sanctity. He gave himself with generous
ardour to the fulfilment of an exalted purpose from which
he never wavered till he died, yet many of his actions
were not exalted. Indeed, it must be said, at once and
without flinching, this man with his abnormal genius
was not great in personal character, and the varying
stages of his history are only scenes in a very familiar
spiritual drama. We behold a soul in conflict with the
powers of evil and, when at length the end of the long
struggle is in sight, there is no triumph in the victory.
He confesses in his sermons to a will that is wayward *
and hard to govern, and the same self-revelation may be
found in many intimate letters. The picture that is
suggested by his own avowal does not accord with the
traditional conception of him, but it is more convincing.
It may well be that the capacity for vision which raised
him to the position of a prophet was no aid in personal
conduct. With his gaze fixed on a far horizon he over-
looked the problems of each day's experience, and never
recognized the influences that mastered him. Of these
there is none more important than his devotion to the
King. To judge him fairly in a matter which has been
the subject of so much criticism we must see him as he
was before he had a claim to reputation, a simple-
hearted provincial of the middle class, and then consider
the effectiveness of the King's presentment of himself
before the eyes of his contemporaries. De loin il etonne,
de prts il attache f in that phrase Bossuet summed up
the two stages of his personal relation with his royal
master. He was dazzled first, and there are signs that
he made a struggle against the fascination so few had
power to resist, but his eventual surrender was complete.
He hugged his chains. And thereafter, for more than
thirty years, his imagination was so dominated by the
* See especially sermon preached at Metz ninth Sunday after Whit-
sun 1653.
f Discours pour I'Acadtmie Franfaise. (Euvns, vol. xii.
Introduction 3
King that it is impossible to picture him apart from the
associations of Versailles. All his worldliness sprang
from his love of royalty. For him the Court served as a
touchstone for the proving of his character so long as
he avoided it his weakness remained hidden. In 1670,
when he entered on his duties as tutor to the Dauphin,
a keen observer * could write of him that he had no
equal in reputation, that gentleness and frank sincerity
like his had not been known at Court. It would be
useless to seek for a corresponding tribute thirty years
later. Yet, while temptation exposed his frailty, it is
not clear that his nature suffered deterioration. It was,
and it remained, a simple nature, and the anomalies with
which his history presents us result from the extra-
ordinary tests to which it was subjected. If he had
thought and written in the obscurity of a distant diocese
there would be no clue to the personality of the man as
distinguished from the writer, and no reasonable ground
for the suggestion that his concentration on intellectual
labour was maintained at the cost of spiritual develop-
ment. It was real difficulty, when it confronted him
in the life of strenuous activities he had accepted, that
brought to light the incoherence in his claim to greatness.
Admiration for his genius (and for the portentous
industry which with him was the complement of genius)
is enhanced by an endeavour after knowledge of the man
himself. At the outset his aim was that of every faithful
priest, the conversion of his fellow men and the enlarge-
ment of God's kingdom. During the years in Metz and
Paris, when preaching was his special avocation, he held
this wide and obvious view of the duties of his calling.
It was only by degrees that he recognized the summons
to labour for reunion as personal to himself. Once this
mission was accepted, it filled his life. For one so im-
bued with the love of souls this was inevitable. To
understand his position it is only necessary to regard
his simplification of the differences that divided Christen-
dom. To deny the Church, he said, is to deny the
Gospel. Belief in the second involves belief in the first.
* Madame de La Fayette : see Bossuet CorresponJance, vol. i, p. 209.
4 'Jacques Benigne Bossuet
No one who believes in the Church can remain a Pro-
testant, no one who refuses such belief can remain a
Christian.*
Perhaps he paid the penalty of such simplicity when
there was need for apprehension of the honest difficulties
of other minds. (" // nous faut un prophete qut ait vaincu
le doute " is the suggestive comment of M. Bremond.)f
To himself, however, unwavering certainty was a treasure
beyond price, and his chief ambition was to impart it to
all whom he could reach by tongue or pen. He wondered
at delay, but he never doubted that eventually the Faith
itself would wield converting power over all mankind.
Thus, the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes must be
numbered among those catastrophes that disturbed the
fair development of his career. He paid his well-known
tribute of admiration ^'to that act of tyranny because,
in his eyes, the will of the King was admirable, but there
is abundant proof that his own conviction remained un-
altered. And his conviction was directly contrary to the
King's policy towards Protestants : his chosen method
of approach to them was by conciliation. He believed
that the world awaited a presentation of the Faith so
true and comprehensive that every heretic would see
the misery of alienation from the Fold. Resort to perse-
cution || postponed the fulfilment of such a hope to the
millennium.
His ardour being that of the idealist his hope re-
mained undaunted, although a life of unremitting effort
did nothing towards the fulfilment of his vision. " All
else must yield when the Faith is concerned,"^ he said,
and his definition of the Faith was unalterably fixed in
every detail. To this fixity he owes his peculiar force
as a controversialist. Thus, in the Gallican dispute,
* See Conference avec Claude. CEuvres, vol. xiii.
f See Bossuet : Textes Choisis et Comment^.
\ Oraisons Funebres : Michel le Tellier.
See Correspondance, vol. i, No. 28.
|| Victor Hugo presents Bossuet "chantant le Te Deum sur lei dragon-
nadei " (Les Mis/ra&ks, 1. i, ch. x), but the evidence is against that view.
5 Correspondance, vol. xi, No. 1879.
Introduction 5
so perilous to the Church at large and so vital to himself
as an exponent of the Faith, the avoidance of catastrophe
may be attributed to his calm discernment. Indeed, if we
observe him in relation to this difficult episode it becomes
evident that for him a Gallican Question had no existence ;
it was only in its detailed application that an unassailable
opinion gave legitimate opportunity for argument.
Similarly the Quietist teaching, when first presented,
did not seem to him to admit discussion. Quietism,
as interpreted by Madame Guyon, must be realized, to
appreciate the effect of that doctrine on the mind of
Bossuet. For Madame Guyon welcomed Protestants
into her Companies of the Very Elect without requiring
their submission, and she did not disguise her own in-
difference to the Sacraments.* This is his justification
for the wrath that moved him. In his own eyes his
wrath was righteous, for this new heresy struck at the
root and principle of the Faith. It cannot be emphasized
too much that the antagonism which has become so
celebrated had no original taint of personal feeling : it was
directed towards Madame Guyon 's errors. The practice
of isolating the quarrel with Fe'nelon and regarding it
as a separate incident is responsible for the severity with
which the conduct of Bossuet is judged.f In fact the
Quietism controversy and his part in it should be studied
as a whole, and placed in their true relation with that
purpose which was the reason of his being.
The object of this book is to induce English readers
to discover Bossuet for themselves. His writings cover
a wide field, and selection from them, according to the
instinct of the reader, should not be difficult. They
must, however, be read as they were written ; the lyrical
quality of his style defies translation. And for knowledge
of the man as distinguished from the writer there are
the volumes of his Correspondance^. now almost com-
* Masson: Fe'nelon et Madame Guyon, p. 74, letter xxvii.
f In 1901 appeared a study of Fe'nelon by the present writer. The
judgments formed at that period have been modified by the reading of
the intervening twenty years.
^ Urbain et Levesque, 12 vols. (Hachette.)
6 "Jacques Eenigne Eossuet
plete. Hitherto the vision of him as the inspired orator,
the triumphant controversialist, has arrested any desire
for approach, and his letters have remained unread.
In their present form, arranged in accurate sequence,
they show him to us under a new guise. Here we
surprise him in moments of self-distrust and feebleness
and disappointment, and on occasion are admitted to
his confidence.
Chapter L Schoolboy and Student
JACQUES BENIGNE BOSSUET was born at
Dijon September 27, 1627, and baptized the same
day at the Church of St. John.* He was the
seventh child and fifth son of Benigne Bossuet and
Marguerite Mochet, both of whom belonged to the
minor bourgeoisie of Burgundy. A draper's shop in the
little town of Suerre was kept by a Bossuet for genera-
tions^ until the great-grandfather of Jacques Benigne
removed the business to Dijon in 1543, and trained his
son to a more exalted and more lucrative position as a
lawyer. During the civil warfare of the sixteenth cen-
tury, when loyalty and personal safety were often in-
compatible, no taint of treason rested on any of the family.
This fact is of interest in connection with the political
creed of their great descendant. His vision of monarchy
as the system of government designed by the Almighty
must have been conceived in a childhood passed among
staunch supporters of Church and King, and thus the
conviction that had such supreme importance in shaping
the thought and action of his later years may be traced
to the influence of his original environment.
In 1635 Jacques Benigne received the tonsure from
Sebastien Zamet, Bishop of Langres, and his later boy-
hood justified the assumption of his vocation for the
priesthood. When, three years later, his father left
Dijon for Metz, where family interest had secured him
a good appointment, Jacques and his favourite brother
Antoine remained with their uncle, Claude Bossuet
d'Aiserey, to continue their studies at the Jesuit College. :
Thus Dijon ceased to be his home while he was still a
schoolboy, and soon after his father's removal his future
prospects were definitely linked to Metz. In December
1640 a canonry in Metz Cathedral was secured for him,
and the fact gives an interesting illustration of the eccle-
siastical abuses then so prevalent, and the advantage to be
derived from them by a shrewd business man with a
* Floquet: fctudes sur la Fie de Bossuet, vol. i, p. 3. f Ibid,, p. 7
\ Founded 1581 by Jacques and Odinet Godrans, citizens of Dijon.
For reputation of Counsellor Bossuet see Correspondence, vol. i,
appendix iv and notes.
8 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
large family. The retention of the appointment seems
indeed to have depended on proficiency in the practice
of the law, for it was so hotly contested by a rival claimant
that the dispute won celebrity in Metz for the name of
Jacques Be*nigne Bossuet before its bearer had entered
on his fourteenth year.*
We have no means of ascertaining the views of the
new canon with regard to his preferment, for there are
no records of his intimate life during its early stages.
Tradition says that he showed himself to be a student
from the first moment that the chance of study offered
itself, and thereafter was always absorbed in books.
We owe to tradition also the dramatic details of his dis-
covery of the Bible, made in his fifteenth year. The
studious boy is shown to us approaching a volume that
lay open in his uncle's library at Dijon, pausing before it
because to him all printed pages held promise of enjoy-
ment, giving a curious glance at one line or another
until the spell of Isaiah's solemn poetry fell on him and
he became absorbed. Thenceforward all his learning
was focussed on his study of the Scriptures.
If the traditional date for this important incident be
accurate, it took place a few months before his departure
from Dijon. His exceptional talents having convinced
his father of his claim to a fuller education than that
which President Godrans had provided for the youth
of his native city, he was sent to Paris and to the College
of Navarre.f This was in October 1642, when he was
just fifteen. There was nothing astounding to con-
temporary opinion in plunging a lad of his age into the
dangers of life in Paris ; at fifteen it was customary to
assume some of the independence of manhood, and a
career might be made or marred before it had run a score
of years. In the case of Jacques Benigne it is likely
that his prudent father had assured himself that the
venture entailed no risk. He was the fifth son, but he
seems to have had opportunities that were not given
to any of his brothers ; certainly he went alone to Paris,
* Bausset : Hist, de Bossuet, liv. i, pt. v.
t Now ficole Pol/technique, Place Monge.
Schoolboy and Student 9
and he remained there studying for ten years. They
were eventful years in the history of France. The death
of Cardinal Richelieu was followed by that of Louis XIII.
Cardinal Mazarin assumed despotic power, and the
Fronde Rebellion expressed the general revolt against
his pretensions. No line of diary or letter records the
thoughts or experience of the young student, Jacques
Benigne Bossuet, during those troublous times. It was
a period when a condition of insignificance had many
advantages, and the routine of the universities seems to
have been maintained in spite of sieges and civil tumults.
In those days Intellect was apt to be on the side of the
Court, for the simple reason that revolt against the King
implied disorder and neither research nor education can
be maintained without stable authority and government.
Moreover, the foundation and endowment of a university
was most often the result of royal liberality. The time
had not yet come when scholars made the plans of revolu-
tion, for scholarship in the seventeenth century was
associated with the Church, and the interests of Church
and Throne alike required the maintenance of order.
Nicolas Cornet,* the head of the college, was orthodox
in theology and politics ; " there could not be a truer
Frenchman," as his pupil f said of him after his death.
His character, as well as his opinions and his learning,
fitted him for his post, and for young men who were
destined to an ecclesiastical career he was an admirable
model. The years at college passed under such direction
were peaceful ones for Bossuet in spite of the storms that
raged around him. He enjoyed the special favour of
Cornet, and may have owed to his constant and close
association with a man more than thirty years his senior
that solemn view of the conditions of human existence
which marked him at this time. He speaks of the
" constant and unbroken friendship "^ existing between
them ; it lasted for twenty-one years, but at their first
* See Soyez, E. : Nicolas Cornet : Grand Mai f re du College de
Navarre.
j" Bossuet : Oraisons Funebres : N. Comet.
$ Oraisons Funebres : N. Cornet.
io Jacques Eenigne Eossuet
meeting the master was fifty and the pupil fifteen. It
was while he was under this influence, at the age of
twenty-two, that he wrote his Meditation on the Brevity
of Life, which is the earliest example of his work that has
survived. Although the morbid tendency of some pas-
sages betrays his youth, there is nothing youthful in his
valuation of the triumphs of the world, and the work
as a whole is astonishingly mature. It was written in
Retreat at Langres before his ordination as sub-deacon,
when, standing on the threshold of life, he could look
forward thoughtfully.*
" I mean to assert myself, to show myself off as others
do, and then I must disappear ; I see others go before
me, others will see me go, these again give place to their
successors. . . . My life here will last eighty years at
most even call it a hundred : how much time there
has been when I was not ! how much when I shall be no
longer ! How very small a place I hold in the vastness
of the years 1 And the comedy will not be less well
played when I go behind the scenes. My part is a very
little one, and so unimportant that when I look at it
closely it seems to me to be only in a dream that I am
here at all, and that everything that surrounds me is
pretence, for the fashion of this world passes away.
" My term is eighty years at most, and to reach that
how many dangers, how much sickness, must I not go
through ! How insecure our hold on life from one
moment to another 1 Have I not realized this again
and again ? I have escaped death on such and such
occasions ; that is a false statement 1 I have escaped
death ? I have avoided a particular danger, but not
death ! Death prepares many pitfalls for us ; if we
avoid one we fall into another ; in the end she must
lay hold upon us. I seem to see a tree at the mercy
of the wind ; there are leaves falling every moment, some
yield quickly, others cling longer. If there are any that
escape the storm, the coming of winter will bring them
down.
" My term is eighty years at most, and of those eighty
* See Revue Bossuet, 1901, p. 108.
Schoolboy and Student 1 1
years what proportion can be really looked upon as life ?
Sleep is more death than life. Infancy is merely the
life of an animal. How much of my youth has there
been which I would wish to cancel, and when I have
lived longer how much will there be then ? What does
it all amount to ? What is there that is worth counting ?
Is it the moment when I have been happy or in which
I have won some honour ? Such moments are very
thinly sprinkled through my life. And what remains
to me from innocent enjoyments ? Merely an idle
memory and of those which were unworthy only regret
and a debt which I must pay in penitence or else in hell.
' Truly we use an apt phrase when we speak of passing
our time. We do pass it indeed, and we pass with it.
All my being hangs on this moment, that is all that is
between me and nothingness ; the moment flies I seize
another ; they slip by one after another ; one after
another I link them together trying to have something to
which to hold, and I forget that they are taking me with
them, and that it is not time itself, but only the time which
is mine which is passing by. That is the condition of my
life, and it is terrible in this : that, while time passes
away from me it remains before God, and I am con-
cerned in it. All that I have depends on the passing of
time because I myself depend upon it ; but it all be-
longed to God before it belonged to me, it all depends on
God more than on time, time cannot take it from His
grasp, it is superior to time in its relation to Him, it
endures and is stored in His Treasury. That which I
place there I shall find again : the use that I make of
time passes through time into eternity. My enjoyment
of this pleasure is only for its moments as they pass ;
when they have passed I must answer for them as if they
remained with me. It is useless to say * They are over,
I will think no more of them ! ' They are over ! Yes,
they are over for me, but they remain with God. I shall
have to answer for them to Him."*
Thus Jacques Benigne Bossuet, the young student
meditating in the silence of Retreat; and in the spirit of
* See (Euvres Oratoires, Lebarq, vol. i.
12 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
that meditation he entered on the period of self-training
and self-repression which followed his university career.
The prospect of future priesthood did not debar the
students at schools of theology in Paris from amusing
themselves, but no legends of youthful escapades are
attached to Bossuet's record. Probably the excite-
ments that were a temptation to his contemporaries had
no attractions for him, and certainly his youth was dis-
tinguished by unvarying discretion and solemnity. His
kindred at Metz and Dijon may have rejoiced at his
prudent conduct, but to future generations the picture
of his years at college would be more pleasing if they
contained a hint of boyishness. Instead of the follies
and ambitions natural to his age, a sense of the responsi-
bility of life possessed him. The immense conclusions
regarding God and the Universe that emerged from his
study of theology engrossed him to the exclusion of all
else. Fifty years later the Bishop of Meaux, when occa-
sion offered, could treat difficult questions with a light-
ness of touch that recalled St. Francois de Sales, but
Jacques B6nigne, the student, remained shrouded in a
cloak of gravity which hides any of the inclinations or
weaknesses of youth.
In those ten years, moreover, there seems to have been
no crisis, no moment of awakening or immense decision.
We have seen that Bossuet was a Canon of Metz Cathe-
dral when he came to Paris. Ten years later he left
Paris for Metz to take up the duties of his office. Other
opportunities offered themselves. A congenial life at
the College of Navarre and future succession to Nicolas
Cornet as its head was open to him,* and if he had re-
mained in Paris his fortune would have been secure. It
was characteristic of him that he fulfilled a plan which
had been gradually maturing in his mind. The strength
of his conviction did not inspire him to any tremendous
venture, he never hesitated on the threshold of the
cloister, he never resolved as did Cornet to refuse
the prizes of his calling. Yet, though we may look in
vain for a dramatic moment, his vision of the meaning of
* Floquet: tudts, vol. i, p. 188.
Schoolboy and Student 1 3
the priest's vocation called him to a form of definite
renunciation special to himself : he chose to withdraw
into obscurity, that the powers of mind and spirit which
he was dedicating should have time to mature in prepara-
tion for the claim that might await them. Such a choice
made at twenty-five augured well for the future, for
already the recognition of his intellectual powers was
wide enough to make it clear to him that they were of no
common order. In the scholastic world he had won fame
in the public examinations that began and ended his
career at college ; and, in addition, he had achieved
celebrity by his appearance at the Hotel Rambouillet
as the youngest preacher known to society.
The story is a familiar one. One evening, at a gather-
ing of those brilliant and distinguished persons who
frequented the Chambre Bleue, one of the intimates of
Madame de Rambouillet introduced the young scholar
from the College of Navarre as an orator competent,
if they desired it, to preach a sermon on any subject
chosen for him, without book. The company, always
athirst for novelty, welcomed the suggestion. Bossuet,
then a lad of sixteen, having claimed a few minutes for
preparation, delivered a discourse which won unqualified
applause.* This feat was too much of the nature of
a drawing-room performance to be creditable, and its
celebrity might have aroused all the latent vanity of
youth. Fortunately for himself his nature was well
balanced, and he seems to have had the judgment of a
man where the use of his boyish powers was concerned.
While many of his contemporaries were eager to make
their voices heard in the pulpits of Paris f long before
the course of education prescribed for them had been
completed, he showed precocity of a very different kind :
in the midst of clamour he could be silent.
It is always difficult to determine the degree to which
a young life may be ordered by the advice of the ex-
perienced. Bossuet had wise friends, and foremost
* The occasion of the hackneyed mot of Voiture " Je n'ai jamai
entendu precher si tot ni si tard"
f See Serrant: L 'Abbt de Ranee" et Bossuet, p. 13.
14 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
among them stood Cospe"an, Bishop of Lisieux,* a
notable scholar and preacher, whose favour with the
Queen earned him the enmity of Mazarin. The veteran
priest discerned the great promise of the young Burgun-
dian, and warned him that learning and reflection rather
than constant practice were the best preparation for a
preacher.f Cospe'an belonged to the inner circle of the
Hotel Rambouillet, and was so experienced in men and
manners that it was in itself a compliment that he
should give counsel to an unfledged youth. Bossuet
obeyed him ; the chances of immediate notice and suc-
cess were put aside, and when the time came for choice,
and the student period was over, he had the courage to
turn his back on Paris. Four years earlier, in May 1 648,
having attained the prescribed age of twenty-one, Bossuet
had visited Metz to make formal assertion of his position
as a canon, and in the following autumn he was ordained
sub-deacon by Zamet, Bishop of Langres. A year later,
in the Cathedral at Metz, he was ordained deacon.
Clerk's orders, involving the tonsure, were a necessary
preliminary to ecclesiastical preferment, and were re-
ceived by many youths who had no semblance of vocation.
It was possible to draw a large income from the endow-
ment of a cathedral or a monastery, even to hold the rank
of bishop or of cardinal without being committed further.
But some of the recipients of the prizes of Church
patronage were not content with a titular appointment ;
they desired the full state and power of their office, and
to them any delay in attaining the full privilege of priest-
hood was irksome. Therefore it was a recognized practice
at this period to confer the three degrees of ordination
at the same time. Vincent de Paul strove to inculcate
a general recognition of the sacredness of Holy Orders,
but his teaching was regarded as an innovation and was
only accepted by a minority. The younger sons of noble
* " // //ait le Saint de la Cour " : Madame de Motteville (M/m.,
vol. i, p. 203).
t Floquet: Etudes, vol. i, p. 101 ; and Lebarq: op. cit., vol. i, p. 2.
$ See Tallemant des Rcaux: Historifttfs, vol. ii, No. 130.
$ Serrant : op. cit., p. 1 6.
Schoolboy and Student 1 5
families still assumed the mysterious responsibilities of
priesthood, and therewith the wealth of bishopric or
abbey, hastily and without any scruple regarding their
qualification for their charge. Jacques Benigne Bossuet
was not the scion of a noble family, and neither his
opportunities nor his temptations were as great as those
of his well-born comrades, but the slowness of his pro-
gression may be attributed to a deeper cause than the
accident of birth. His successive ordinations each
marked a definite stage in advance towards the goal to
which his course was directed. In March 1652 he was
ordained priest, and when, ten years later, in the Church
of the Oratorians, he described the solemnity of ordina-
tion he did so in terms which were not representative
of contemporary opinion.
' To prepare for the priesthood," he said, " is not,
as many people seem to think, an undertaking that can
be accomplished in a few days, it is the employment of a
lifetime. It does not mean the repudiation of sin by a
sudden effort of the will, but a persistent habit of re-
sisting it. Devotion must not have the fervour that
springs from novelty, but that which has been confirmed
and deepened by long custom. St. Gregory Nazianzen
said of St. Basil that ' he was a priest before he was made
a priest,' which means, if I am not mistaken, that without
waiting for the mystic consecration he had from his child-
hood consecrated himself by the untiring practice of
piety."*
There is every reason to believe that Bossuet had been
preparing since his childhood for the day when he should
be made a priest, and at its near approach he withdrew to
St. Lazare for the Retreat which M. Vincent had suc-
ceeded in making customary before ordination in the
diocese of Paris. In that ten days of undistracted quiet
there was opportunity for looking back, for recognizing
the mistakes and failures of the first period of youth,
and for surveying the possibilities of the future. Gondi
future Cardinal de Retz had emerged from a similar
Retreat resolved on the choice of evil ; to Ranee*, the
* Oraisons Funebres : Pere Francois Bourgoing, December 1662.
1 6 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
future Trappist, it meant only the deepening of his revolt
against the state of life to which he was committed. On
neither of these two did association with St. Vincent and
his company have an elevating influence, but to both
their sojourn at St. Lazare meant the deliberate facing of
reality ; they could not plead that they had drifted into
misuse of the high calling they had accepted ; they had
seen and considered its claim upon them and had re-
fused it.
Bossuet had no new considerations awaiting him in his
Retreat ; circumstances had combined with desire to
make his vocation unquestionable. He brought great
powers and strong purpose to its fulfilment, and the day
of his ordination to the priesthood was the greatest land-
mark in his life. His future prospects were by no means
assured, however. He was resolved to be the faithful
servant and defender of the Church, but wide oppor-
tunities of service were, ordinarily, obtained by family
interest, and Jacques Be'nigne Bossuet was not secure of
full scope for his great powers because the name he bore
was incurably plebeian.
To the inhabitants of Metz the subject of family
interest and misused patronage in the Church was a
burning question. For forty-seven years Verneuil, the
natural son of Henri IV, enjoyed the revenues of their
bishopric, but, as he never received even deacon's orders,
he could not exercise full episcopal authority, and dis-
cipline, particularly in the Cathedral Chapter, was diffi-
cult to maintain. The position was further complicated
by an attempt to transfer the title and revenues to Cardinal
Mazarin, an arrangement which the Pope refused to
ratify, and M. de Verneuil remained bishop until 1659,
when he resigned. A few years later he astonished
society by his marriage with the widowed Duchesse de
Sully.* The system of using ecclesiastical revenues to
reward those who found favour with the King or his
First Minister was too firmly established to be a cause
of scandal, but it was hard to reconcile with those high
standards which were cherished by the disciples of
* Correspondanct, vol. i, No. r, note.
Schoolboy and Student 1 7
Vincent de Paul. And here, at the opening of his career,
we find Bossuet confronted with the necessity of choice
between the claims of traditional loyalty and of his own
conscience. He was shrewd enough to know that
Verneuil represented an evil which was more destructive
to the Church than any Protestant machinations. Nomin-
ally Verneuil was his bishop, it is true ; nevertheless,
it is matter for regret that he addressed to him an essay,
composed at the College of Navarre, with a compli-
mentary Latin dedication as respectful as if it were
offered to a veritable Father in God.* The custom of
the time is his excuse. Verneuil showed his appreciation
of the compliment promptly by conferring the Arch-
deaconry of Sarrebourg on the young canon, and prefer-
ment to the Archdeaconry of Metz itself followed two
years later. f
* Correspondence, vol. i, No. r, July 5, 1651.
f Floquet: tudes, p. 372.
V
Chapter II. A Priest's Apprenticeship
BOSSUET began his work as a preacher as soon
as he was established in residence at Metz.
If it is the case that he intended this early period
of his career to be a time of definite preparation his sur-
roundings had many points that were favourable to his
design. A contemporary chronicle * tells us quaintly
that " Metz was an important place with its own Parle-
menty where the ladies were more cultivated and agree-
able than in any other provincial town." Probably this
is not unprejudiced testimony, but it suggests that there
was capacity for intellectual response in the audience
before whom the young abbe" was to test and mould
his powers of oratory. And, besides the legal and com-
mercial element, there was an occasional reminder of the
Court in the cathedral congregations. Marshal Schom-
berg was Governor of the province and made Metz his
home, and he had married Marie de Hautefort,f whose
experience as a lady-in-waiting was peculiarly rich in
adventure and romance. She had passed from the
service of Marie de' Medici to that of Anne of Austria ;
she had been the object of the passionate attachment of
Louis XIII ; she had served her royal mistress, in her
years of distress as the neglected Consort, with un-
swerving self-devotion ; and she had admonished her,
when her liberty as Regent had led her into licence,
with no less courage. She had been exiled, first as the
victim of the jealousy of Cardinal Richelieu, and again
for her opposition to Mazarin, and throughout she pre-
served her reputation quite unsullied. The dramatic
career of Madame de Schomberg was a matter of com-
mon knowledge, and Bossuet, though he became the
declared enemy of the drama, had the dramatic instinct
sharply developed : we see it in his Oraisons Funebres, in
many sermons, in many letters, and in his work as an
historian ; therefore he must have welcomed his oppor-
tunities of intercourse with this great lady. Indeed, to
* Quoted Victor Cousin : Madame de Chevreuse et Madame de Haute-
fort, vol. ii, p. 229.
t See Levesque de Burigny : Vie de Bossuet, p. 24.
A Priest's Apprenticeship 1 9
a student of human nature few subjects could offer
greater interest, for she had every reason for disillusion
and yet was not disillusioned ; she had proved the hollow-
ness of royal favour, yet could not renounce her desire
for it.* Also she was intimate with that devout world
whose place as an influence on the conduct and on the
politics of the day is so hard to define and so impossible
to deny. As the Queen's companion she had been
familiar with Val de Grace ; for her own consolation
she was a constant guest at the Visitation Convent close
to it ; and her husband's sister was Madame de Lian-
court, at whose house f she had associated with the
adherents of Port Royal.
Bossuet's experience as a student in Paris cannot have
left him in ignorance of the significance of these cele-
brated convents. The scheming that went on within
their walls may have been prompted by high motives,
but it gave ample justification for the suspicion that they
were a danger to the ruling powers of the moment ;
there are many proofs of the real spiritual life in the back-
ground, but contemplative and intrigante knelt side by
side in choir stalls, and to describe a Carmelite as " stand-
ing in high favour with the Queen " suggested no con-
tradiction in idea. Possibly the whisper of conspiracy
increased the glamour which the convents of that period
undoubtedly possessed, and their appeal to popular
imagination attracted within their precincts many who
would have been repelled by the Religious Life in its
true aspect. The net was wide enough to sweep out-
siders of very diverse types into the vast chapels of Val
de Grace and of the Visitation in the Rue St. Jacques,
and preachers invited to these pulpits had a great oppor-
tunity. Bossuet was to distinguish himself particularly
by the use he made of such openings when his years of
apprenticeship were over, and his intercourse with
* Madame de Motteville: M/moires, vol. i, p. 507.
f Rapin : MJmoires, vol. i, p. 99.
^ Louis XIV referred in public to the Carmelites of Rue du Bouloi as
" des intrigueuses." (See Madame de Sevigne, vol. v, No. 663.)
Rapin : MJmoires, vol. i, book i, p. 161.
2O Jacques Eenigne Bos suet
Madame de Schomberg was calculated to enlighten
him on the possibilities of evangelization accorded by the
organization of the convents. It is evident that he stood
in considerable awe of the Governor * and his distin-
guished lady. They were great people, and their bene-
volence to him, from which he derived a social standing
not otherwise attainable, f made their natural claims on
outward manifestation of respect more insistent. Yet
he was not lavish in his use of pulpit adulation ; they
made their appearance unexpectedly when he was about
to preach on St. Gorgon $ in the Cathedral at Metz,
and he improvised the complimentary phrases which the
elaborate custom of the time demanded ; but when he
had proved that his wits did not fail him in an emergency
he put aside the language of compliment and proceeded
to balance flattery with solemn exhortation. On another
occasion, when he had paid his tribute from the pulpit
to the virtue and good works of Madame de Schomberg,
he summoned courage to warn her that all the admiration
of which she was the object was ill-bestowed unless she
was grounding all she did upon humility.5
Even at that early stage there were omens of the
struggle that later was destructive to inward self-com-
placency or calm. He desired to conform to the wishes
of the world, to be liked by those with whom he asso-
ciated ; yet at all times, even in those moments still far
distant when the pride of life seemed to have mastered
him, he hated worldliness and battled with it. The
society of the Schombergs could not be said to represent,
even to a young priest, the temptations of the world ;
they were both far too exemplary in faith and conduct
to be classed as worldlings, nor was there experience to
be gained from intimacy with Marie de Hautefort that
could aid him in future intercourse with the more typical
* The earliest published work of Bossuet was dedicated to Schomberg.
See (Euvres, vol. xiii, " Refutation du Cattchisme de Ferry " chez Jean
Antoine a Metz.
t Ledieu: MJmoires, p. 25. $ (Euvres, vol. xii, p. 315.
Victor Cousin : op. cit., appendix, p. 497.
5 (Euvres, vol. xii, p. 167.
A Priest's Apprenticeship 2 1
ladies of the Court. His friendship with her in these
early scenes is important, nevertheless, for it shows that
there was already developed in him that power of under-
standing and of suggestion which made him the ideal
consoler of Henrietta of England on her deathbed, and
the prop and stay of Louise de La Valliere in her great
decision. Schomberg died in Paris in 1656, and a
letter * from Bossuet to Marie de Hautefort in her third
year of widowhood is the first evidence of his capacity
for personal dealing with troubled souls. The worst
pain of her bereavement was her constant apprehension
as to the future state of the being she had loved. This
distress assumed terrible proportions from time to time,
and it is supposed that Bossuet was urged to write to her
by a third person, probably Alix Clerginet, foundress of
the Institute for the Propagation of the Faith in Metz.
The letter is a long one, and is free from platitudes of
condolence or of compliment ; it is written with the
confidence of one who knows his correspondent inti-
mately and respects character as well as rank in her.
The grief with which he is dealing is not selfish, it is
rooted in the depths of absorbing human love, but it
indicates Disorder of mind and failure to grasp an essential
part of Catholic teaching. Schomberg's conversion had
taken place long before his last illness ; he had been
known in Metz for his devout practices (we are told that
he fasted during one Lent on the coarser kind of bread),f
he lived strictly, and died with the consolation of the
Sacraments. " We should not pity the dead under such
conditions," says Bossuet, " we do them wrong in calling
them the dead. His end, madame, was that of one of
the predestined. He saw Death coming towards him,
he felt it approaching step by step ; with that knowledge
he made Communion and took stock of the vanished
years."
To mourn as one without hope over such a bereave-
ment as this is heresy, but Bossuet understood that it was
* Correspondance, vol. i, No. 13.
f Vie incite de Marie de Hautefort^ quoted Victor Cousin : op. cit.,
vol. ii, p. 233.
22 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
not theological argument or priestly admonition that
would lessen the terrors that oppressed the mourner,
but rather sympathy and the tenderest persuasion.
Marie de Hautefort was set apart from the other well-
known women of her time : all that she said and did
proclaimed her absolute integrity, and that quality had
become rare under the rule of Richelieu and of Mazarin.
Indeed, she owed her celebrity as much to popular esteem
for her real worth as to the importance of her part in the
drama that had the Court for stage. Bossuet's letter was
worthy of its recipient, and her desire for it proves that
already social barriers were breaking down before him.
We know that she regained her mental balance eventually,
and was able to assist and comfort the Queen-mother,
her former friend and mistress, in the miseries of her
last illness ; * and we can conjecture that it was Bossuet
who helped her through the perils of depression until her
faith returned.
The daily life of the young abbe at Metz, however,
was not greatly affected by his association with celebrated
personages, and it has no history. He was sincere" in his
acceptance of retirement, and he set an example of quiet
regularity to the turbulent ecclesiastics of the Cathedral
Chapter. There were many new experiences awaiting
him in Metz, for the frontier city had a character of its
own. He was not a stranger there, however, and he had
the temperament that readily adapts itself to any sur-
roundings. Consequently his position as a citizen was
assured before he had been many months in residence,
and in a year it had become a very important one. In
the miserable necessity of treating with Conde", who was
fighting for Spain against his own country, Bossuet was
the envoy of the people of Metz j" for the arrangement
of the subsidy which was demanded as the price of their
security. Here he had his first opportunity of showing
skill as a diplomatist, and he acquitted himself admirably
and won the gratitude of the townsfolk. It is possible
that he found the small adventure of passing the frontier
* Vie infdite : op. cit., vol. ii, p. 239.
f CorresponJance, vol. i, Nos. 3 and 4 and notes.
A Pries fs Apprenticeship 23
and treating with the enemy a welcome change from the
routine he had adopted, for he was at this time twenty-six,
an age at which outward monotony, however useful in
itself, cannot be welcome. His preaching made the
most important of all the claims upon his time, however,
because the study and consideration connected with it
involved far more than the act of pronouncing sermons
from the pulpit. The art of preaching, as Bossuet re-
garded it, involved an endeavour towards the understand-
ing of men and women, their interests and beliefs, and the
influences of the moment and of the locality that most
affected them. It was not merely a student and doctor
of theology who confronted the people of Metz in the
cathedral pulpit ; it was a young and ardent human
being, consumed, then and throughout the periods of his
public ministration, by a passion for the conversion of
souls. With that aim always in view, no point of ex-
perience in his round of duties was wasted on him, and
for four years he was content gradually to gather know-
ledge, to reflect, to gain facility in the use of his great
gift, without seeking recognition outside the narrow
circle of his fellow-citizens.
In September 1657 the door through which ultimately
the Abbe Bossuet was to pass to a position of distinction
was unfastened. Affairs of State brought the Queen
Regent, the King, Mazarin, and all their following to
Metz.* On October 1 5 the Regent, as befitted a devout
Spaniard, repaired to the cathedral for the panegyric of
St. Teresa."}" It was an opportunity which was seized
upon by Bossuet for the benefit of his flock rather than
for the service of his own ambition. The needs of the
diocese were great, and the abuses to which we have
already referred increased the difficulty of preserving
the faith of Catholics in the midst of a multitude of Jews
and heretics. It was only after the death of Mazarin
that her enterprises in connection with charity, and with
the Church, became the chief interest in the life of Anne
of Austria ; at this period there were many conflicting
* Floquet: fitudes, vol. i, p. 425.
f (Euvres, vol. xii, p. 382.
24 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
claims on her attention, and there was every reason to
expect that the needs of Metz, skilfully though they had
been presented, would be forgotten when she returned
to Paris. It chanced, however, that benevolent impulses
possessed her for so long that Vincent de Paul had been
commissioned to organize a Mission at Metz before
they had subsided. Bossuet was known at St. Lazare,
and belonged to the society that met there for the cele-
brated " Tuesday Conferences," * and when the an-
nouncement of the Queen's intention was made to him
he seized with alacrity upon the chance of personal
communication with M. Vincent.
The Mission was to be held in the Lent of 1658 by
twenty priests belonging to the " Conferences," under
direction of the Lazarists, and the leader chosen by
M. Vincent was Chandenier, Abbe* de Tournus, a man
of recognized power and great saintliness.f It was an
important enterprise, and Bossuet threw himself whole-
heartedly into the work of organization. M. Vincent
was supremely the apostle of Order ; his work was done
directly in the service of God and nothing in it was left
to chance ; it was the key to the success of his vast under-
takings that he considered and regulated every detail
of the original scheme with infinite care, and the letters
written to him by Bossuet, in capacity of agent for
St. Lazare at Metz, reflect the spirit that he strove to
inculcate. For the secular priest, in his practical as well as
in his spiritual life, there was no better guide and example
than M. Vincent, but there were very many who came
in touch with him and went upon their way unaffected.
Bossuet was not of these, however ; his business letters
are full of trembling respect, and there is a development
in the formality of their conclusion which is suggestive.
The first bears, after the signature, the pompous designa-
tion " Archdeacon of Metz," the second " unworthy
priest." The manifold occupations of M. Vincent
never affected his capacity for observation, and the young
* Revue Bossuet, October 1907.
f Abelly : Vie de Vincent de Paul (1664), liv. i, p. 242.
\ Correspondence, vol. i, Nos. 6 and 7.
A Priest's Apprenticeship 2 5
and brilliant abbe, who had already made his mark
among the members of the Conferences, was no stranger
to him, therefore he must have been fully alive to the
significance of those differing signatures and perhaps
allowed himself to smile at them. But the smile of
M. Vincent was innocent of mockery.
There were a vast number of uninteresting arrange-
ments to be made before the spiritual work of the Mission
came in sight : difficulties of lodging, of commissariat,
of service. It was not an easy task to provide for more
than twenty visitors, but that toil was as nothing beside
the effort which was needed to still the jealousies and evil
rumours that threatened to wreck the enterprise com-
pletely. The Suffragan was perpetually at variance with
the Cathedral Chapter,* and the announcement that he
had given his warm approval to M. Vincent's scheme
secured for it the opposition of the resident ecclesiastics.
And there was a popular Dominican preacher who had
already been engaged for Lent, and resented the sugges-
tion that he was no longer needed.f It was good training
and good discipline to deal with these obstacles, and by
the time he had overcome them Bossuet had made no in-
considerable addition to his capital of experience. It was
his duty also to prepare the people for the great oppor-
tunity offered to them, and he approached this spiritual
side of his task with real humility.
" I know my own incapacity to give the help I wish to
give," he wrote to M. Vincent,^ and his remarkable
success in dealing with the jealousies and contentions
of his neighbours may be attributed to his own effort
towards self-effacement. M. Vincent was the real leader
of the Mission at Metz, although there was no thought of
his actual appearance there, and the young abbe, burdened
with the care of the multifarious preliminaries, turned
constantly towards him, and from him drew inspiration
to humility. When the Missioners arrived Bossuet
himself took over a little church upon the ramparts, and
* For details see Maynard: Fie de St. Vincent de Paul, vol. ii, p. 92.
t Correspondance, vol. i, appendix iii, p. 422.
\ Ibid., No. 6.
26 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
withdrew into the background. Two months later, when
they left for Paris, his letter to M. Vincent expresses the
thanks of one who has witnessed with admiration the
work done by others, and refers to himself as though his
own association with the Missioners was an honour to
which he could not reasonably have aspired.*
This Mission at Metz was generally regarded as extra-
ordinarily fruitful ; M. Vincent himself referred to it
with thankfulness ; it woke Catholics from spiritual
slumber and disturbed the peace of the Huguenots and
of the Jews. Moreover, it reached further than the
limits of a Mission to the people and touched their
pastors, thereby fulfilling a constant aspiration of the
Superior of St. Lazare. The reality of the impression
is proved by the formation of a society instituted by the
priests of Metz and the surrounding districts, whose
object was the continuance of Conferences and Mission
work. Undoubtedly the personal labours of Bossuet
had been instrumental in bringing all this about. At
every stage his influence in the city, and his familiarity
with the various aspects of its life, were valuable, and,
in addition, there had been opportunity for his natural
gifts to make their mark. Chandenier had not been too
much engrossed with the responsibility of leadership to
note the powers of this young recruit. He was himself
a man whom others held in reverence, he was of high
birth (which meant much to the position of a priest in
those days), and he had been chief in this great spiritual
venture of which the devout world was chattering, but
he felt that the service rendered by the Abbe* Bossuet
deserved greater recompense than thanks from him.
The documents relating to the Mission at Metz, pre-
served at St. Lazare, included the letter in which he asked
that M. Vincent himself should write congratulations to
Bossuet on his preaching and instructions. f
' What is there that is worth counting ? Is it the
moment in which I have been happy or have won some
honour ? Such moments are very thinly sprinkled
* Correspondence, vol. i, No. 1 1 .
t Ibid., p. 29, note 5.
A Priest's Apprenticeship 17
through my life." So runs the meditation in Retreat
six years earlier. But already the writer was discovering
that life offered privileges which brought neither happi-
ness nor triumph in their train, and these had not been
considered in his reckoning. Of such privileges was his
work in the Mission at Metz. The generous impulse
of the Queen Regent, to which the Mission owed its
being, had been evolved by his eloquence ; his skill and
energy had so smoothed the way that the Missioners
entered on their labours undistracted ; moreover, in his
association with the enterprise he had himself received
real spiritual benefit. Here, in truth, he had reached
not merely the moment, but the period in his life that
was worth counting, and it had not the evanescence which
his youthful pessimism ascribed to all human achieve-
ments and desires. Indeed, his connection with the
Mission had important effect on the development of
his career ; he seems by means of it to have found his
foothold. The spring of 1658 was the end of his retire-
ment.
Chapter III. Bossuet in Paris
AFTER the year of the Mission Bossuet's life no
longer centred at Metz ; his work was waiting
for him in Paris, and the links which bound him
to the scene of his first labours had to be loosened.
These links were strong, for all the fervour of his nature
had been thrown into the opening of his ministry. Metz
was not merely the arena in which he fought his earliest
battles with the champions of the hosts of Reform ;
it was the testing-place for his capacities in intimate
spiritual guidance. His admirers in labelling him theo-
logian and controversialist have injured him ; the venera-
tion accorded to him by the wise and learned is not more
than his due, but his stupendous intellectual achieve-
ment has been emphasized to the detriment of his other
important qualifications as a priest. If we look for it
there is abundant proof that Bossuet was a man of prayer,
and in his mind the life of a priest was a united whole:
there were no departments of study, of preaching, and
of social intercourse to be adjusted to their right pro-
portions. An idea of unity was always present to him,
and the fact that a priest was worthy to mount into the
pulpit implied his fitness to minister at the altar. Both
acts alike, as he regarded them, assumed the possession
of a power which was a trust from God, and for both
prayer was essential ; a priest neglecting prayer de-
prived himself of the force by which alone all the other
activities that belonged to his vocation could be sustained.
Perhaps a vivid intellect is not an unmixed blessing to a
man who has to deal with others, for it is hard to pre-
serve unbroken charity towards those whose dragging
minds refuse the sequence of clear reasoning, and in
Bossuet's case a subconscious instinct of impatience with-
held him from emphasizing that which appeared to
him to be self-evident. The value that he set on prayer,
for instance, or his sense of its necessity in his personal
life, is rarely stated, although his later teaching shows
that he knew more of the science of prayer than can be
learned by study.
There is, however, one record of his first year's
Bossuet in Paris 29
ministry which gives us a little knowledge of the progress
of his spiritual development. When he settled at Metz
there was living in the city a woman named Alix Clerginet,
whose efforts towards winning the daughters of the
Jewish population to Christianity had had remarkable
success. Her original plan was to receive her converts
into her own house, but she was in humble circumstances,
and the money necessary for the institution known as
La Maison de la Propagation de la Foi, of which she
was the foundress, was subscribed by charitable persons
headed by Madame de Schomberg. The enterprise
made particular appeal to the sympathy of Bossuet ; he
became Superior, and its rule in its final form was drawn
up by him.* His personal association with its foundress,
however, has a much more important bearing on his life
than his connection with its work, for there seems suffi-
cient evidence to establish the identity of Alix Clerginet
and " The Lady dwelling in Metz " to whom Bossuet
wrote letters of direction. f The lady in question was,
clearly, not a member of a religious Order, yet she was
so far advanced in the spiritual life that the young abbe
could write to her freely as to one who will meet him
with understanding. Caution would have forbidden
many expressions in the letters ^ had they been addressed
to a neophyte or to a stranger, but he is sure of his
ground, and he allows his pen to run freely into revela-
tion of his thought.
" My dear daughter, it is necessary that you should
have a vehement desire to love Jesus Christ. This de-
sire possessed me all day yesterday, and I am eager to
write something about it to you. The desire to love
Jesus Christ is the beginning of that holy love which
opens and expands the heart that it may abandon itself
to Him without reserve, completely to self-annihilation
so as to have no being apart from Him.
" Whoever loves Jesus Christ is always beginning over
again ; he regards all he has done hitherto as of no ac-
* (Euvres, vol. xvii, p. 285.
f Revue Bossuet, 1904 (July).
^ Correspondance, vol. i, Nos. 14, 15, 16, 17.
30 "Jacques Benigne Bossuet
count this is why he is always in a state of desire, and it is
this continual desire that makes love infinite. When
love has made if such a thing were possible its very
last effort, it is with its final moments that it wishes to
begin again ; and so it can never cease to call upon
desire to support it, because desire is always beginning
and never ends, and will not suffer itself to be limited.
The first condition for a heart that desires to love is the
fixed admiration with which it regards its object, and
that is the first wound that pure love makes in the heart.
The heart that is seized and possessed by this holy
admiration can see nothing that is not Jesus Christ, can
endure nothing that is not Jesus Christ. There is no
greatness for him except Jesus Christ, and his admiration
so surges up within him that he is forced to exclaim
' The Lord is Great,' Magnus Dominus. When this point
is reached, little by little he loses sight of everything else.
If anything else shows itself, either it repels him or else
he says ' That is beautiful but it has no part with my
well-beloved.' And from that springs a fierce desire
to break away every bond, however slight, that binds
the heart so that it cannot lose itself in Jesus Christ ;
and this is what is meant by the desire of love."
This is the mysticism of the scholar. The Saints
as well as the Fathers, evidently, had had their place in
the course of study undertaken during those years at
Metz.* The seed, moreover, had fallen upon fertile soil,
and Bossuet did not overrate the value of the fruit of
his own meditation in judging it worthy to be com- .
municated to a responsive soul. Indeed, a glimpse of
the knowledge that may not be gleaned from books had
been vouchsafed to him, there is the note of discovery,
and it becomes more resonant in another letter a few
days later. His theme (for the moment he has no other)
is still the love of Jesus.
' There in loving Jesus an immense love of other
souls is born, and thought of self should have no place
* M. Bremond suggests that his knowledge was drawn from contem-
porary devotional writers, such as Surin and Boudon (Bossuet, vol. i,
p. 112, note), but M. Bremond is the apologist of Fdnelon.
Bossuet in Paris 3 1
save in relation to the boundless love that we desire
to have for all souls in general and each in particular.
Jesus, by Thy bitter thirst upon the Cross give me the
grace of a true thirst for souls, the grace to prize my own
only by the claim upon it to have regard for others. I
desire to love them all because they are all capable of
loving Thee, because this capacity has been given to
them by Thee, and because it is from Thee that the call
comes to them to turn to Thee and concentrate all their
power of love upon Thee only. Therefore, O Jesus,
1 cannot rest while any soul is left without knowledge of
Thy love."
This is mysticism applied to the daily life of persons
whose vocation like that of Bossuet and his corres-
pondent involved the instruction of others, and the
dangers of its study (of which every honest student of
the subject is aware) slip out of sight. It is the mysticism
which his eager mind could grasp a stimulus to activity.
Indeed, from that day of Retreat just before Ascension-
tide, when the young priest discovered for himself the
meaning of the written words which Juan d'Avila and
Louis de Leon and St. Teresa had left behind them, and
the " ardent longing " for the love of Jesus ceased to be
a phrase, there came to him fresh inspiration for the
evangelistic work which was to be his part. He was
receiving many calls to Paris,* and he knew probably
that thenceforward his days would be passed in the
midst of controversy and effort and perpetual distrac-
tion ; it may be he was shrinking from the prospect,
and it was on the threshold of this new condition that
he experienced " the first wound that pure love makes
in the heart." The outpouring of his soul under that
joyful suffering suggests that the cell of the contem-
plative is drawing him, but that first fervour was rapidly
assimilated with his long-established purpose.
This revelation of his inner self acquires peculiar
interest from the circumstances under which he made it.
* He is accused of being actuated by motives of self-interest in leaving
Metz. For examination of this charge see M. Rebelliau in Revue des
Deux Mondes, July 15, 1919.
32 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
Before him lay Paris, and Paris was the home of a vast
multitude of whom a very small proportion desired that
their world should be conformed to the law of Christ.
That thought filled his mind as he faced the future,
because he held a commission to conquer souls, and the
chief motive of his life in those days was his absorbing
faith in that commission. Moreover, in his new revela-
tion of the love of Jesus there had come to him a new
capacity. In his own words : " There in loving Jesus
an immense love of other souls is born. I cannot rest
while any soul is left without knowledge of Thy love."
Aspiration, soaring beyond possibility of fulfilment, was
the best stimulus for the evangelistic labour on which he
was embarking. And he never lost the faculty of
aspiration through the long years of his pilgrimage.
The course that lay before him was not to be a steady
upward progress ; far from it yet in following it he
followed his vocation. There were times when tempta-
tion pressed upon him and the world passed severe judg-
ment on his failures, yet his purpose never faltered.
However strong the desires that personal ambition
prompted, they were all subservient to that one with
which he entered on his life-work, the desire to win souls
for the Church.
A direct result of the Mission at Metz was an in-
vitation from the Superior of St. Lazare to the Abbe
Bossuet to conduct the Ordination Retreat at Easter
1659.* It is memorable that Bossuet began his career
as a preacher in Paris under the auspices of Vincent de
Paul, and that his earlier sermons were not addressed
to fashionable audiences, but to inmates of charitable
institutions, to converted heretics, or to the more secluded
of the religious Communities. This should exonerate
him from any charge of being drawn to Paris by am-
bition, although it is likely that other motives moved
him to his venture f besides his thirst for souls. The
man who could achieve such close analysis of human
passions as may be found in many of his sermons must
* Floquet: Etudes, vol. ii, p. 14.
t Jovy, E. : tudcs et RecAercAes, p. 67.
Bossuet in Paris 33
have been well aware of the temptations likely to assail
himself. It is interesting to observe the pitiless minute-
ness with which the succeeding stages of ambition are
set forth in his panegyric of St. Francois de Sales,*
and his warning is directed especially to ecclesiastics,
and therefore to himself. If we consider his condition
and prospects, the temptation to push himself and win
recognition becomes evident. According to the tradi-
tions of the time, by which an inherited claim to high
place was the only valid one, his birth was a hindrance
to advancement so great as to be almost insuperable.
Yet his powers were not of a kind to come to full fruition
in obscurity and, while it was possible for him to be
conscious of this and yet to remain humble, the prompt-
ing of ambition in its most specious form was inevitable.
In following his career we shall find that external achieve-
ments brought in their train interior failures, and that
he fell most heavily when he was most secure that his
ardour was solely for the service of the Church.
When he came to Paris Bossuet took up his abode
at the Doyenne* du Louvre.f The churches of St.
Thomas and St. Nicolas du Louvre were surrounded
by the dwellings of great families, among them the
Hotel Rambouillet, the Hotel de Chevreuse and the
Hotel de Longueville, in the district between the Louvre
and the Rue St. Honore.:]: A little circle of his former
comrades at the College of Navarre was established at
the Doyenne", each one of whom had been touched by the
influence of M. Vincent, and for such work as lay before
him there could not have been a more desirable back-
ground. At first he was only clear of his object, he
could not foresee the method of accomplishment. From
the whirlpool of Paris life he desired to rescue souls,
but it is unlikely that during his student years he had
reached any distinct comprehension of the social con-
ditions with which he would have to deal in the pursuit
of his endeavour. Attempts to depict these social con-
* (Euvres, vol. xii, p. 70.
f Floquet: Etudes, vol. ii, p. 28.
4: The actual site is part of the present Place du Carrousel.
c
34 'Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
ditions of the reign of Louis XIV have been made many
times, but never with real success, because the mind
cannot grasp, as a connected whole, so diverse a medley
of contrasting types, or conceive with any clearness the
result on individual temperaments of that artificial code
of thought and practice which as we shall see the
King was imposing on the minds and consciences of his
subjects.
It would seem that human nature, in revenge against
this false coercion, asserted its independence with extra-
ordinary vigour in every sphere that was immune from
the King's authority. As if to counterbalance the effect
of the perverted standards which the pomp and circum-
stance of kingship imposed upon opinion, men and
women of all ranks gave constant proof that they recog-
nized the prevailing influence of the supernatural.
The supernatural in this connection must not, of course,
be confounded with the spiritual. Yet the constant
manifestations of popular credulity in its most degraded
form * bore testimony to the realization of an unseen
kingdom, even though that kingdom was an evil one.
It was of great importance to a preacher that he should
realize, as a component part of the material with which
he had to deal, this capacity for revolt against the actual,
but its realization must have been difficult to Bossuet.
Many years afterwards Antoine Arnauld commented on
"the depth of sincerity and of judgment "f which was
part of his mental endowment, and the bias of his mind
at all times was on the side of clearness and simplicity
of thought. To him therefore more than to others the
inconsequence and contradiction that characterized the
process of thinking in so many minds was baffling.
The instances of inconsistency which his generation pro-
duced can hardly be surpassed. Among his contem-
poraries to take one instance of many was the cele-
brated sorceress and poisoner, La Voisin, whose influence
in all grades of society was vast beyond all reckoning.
* See Colbert: Lettres, vol. vi, appendix xx, Mtmoire de ravocat
Duplessis.
f Arnauld, A.: Lettres, vol. vii, p. 370.
Bossuet in Paris 35
This woman, at a time when daily she was perpetrating
the most atrocious crimes, believed in the efficacy of
prayer, and considered that a novena strictly kept in the
chapel of Ste. Ursule at Montmartre was more likely
to obtain the restoration of peace in a divided household
than any potions or incantations.* And, at the other
end of the social scale, there was Madame de Montespan
with her rigid adherence to the Rule of the Church re-
garding Fast-days f at a time when the burden of flagrant
and notorious sin upon her conscience made additions
of this nature appear of negligible importance. Innate
in them both there was an instinct of reverence which,
though its expression may seem to travesty devotion,
was not entirely unreal. La Voisin is supposed to have
made a good end though she died upon the scaffold,
and Madame de Montespan devoted the last years of
her life to rigorous practices of penitence.:}: Manifesta-
tions of the same confusion of thought were rife among
all the social grades when Bossuet began his work in
Paris. Reliance on the pronouncements of soothsayers,
on charms, and on the grossest forms of sorcery did not
indicate an irremediable stage of mental perversion,
but rather a condition of mind which, if carefully treated,
would be as receptive to the teaching of the Faith as to
the suggestions of the Devil. Here, then, was the great
opportunity for the preacher; but in proportion to the
greatness of the opportunity was the difficulty of the task.
Bossuet could draw upon his experience at Metz for
those commissions which came to him through M. Vin-
cent. The untrained mind in Paris might be more
corrupt than that with which he was familiar in the
provinces, but it could be reached by the same channels.
Also he was practised in the work of attracting and
persuading heretics, and so long as he remained under
the direction of St. Lazare he found continual occupation
* Funck-Brentano : Le Drame des Poisons, p. 119.
f See Madame de Caylus: Souvenirs et Correspondance, p. 45, "faut-il
parcr quejefais un malfaire tous les autres ? "
$ For her connection with the Maison de St. Joseph, Rue S. Dominique,
see Lemoine : Madame de Montespan et la Le"gende des Poisons.
36 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
and avoided many difficult problems. But in the spring
of 1660 he stepped outside the boundary that the Lazar-
ists set upon their labour and undertook his first Lent
course in Paris. It was preached at the church of Les
Minimes, close to the Place Royale. This was an ex-
tremely fashionable quarter, and the simple truths of the
Church's teaching would not satisfy an audience drawn
from its inhabitants. The congregation at Les Minimes
was composed of persons who were well instructed in
the Faith, and who were in the habit of discussing ab-
struse questions of theology with enthusiasm. " Women
with any pretensions to cleverness make a point of telling
everybody what they think about predestination and
grace," writes a contemporary.* Such subjects were
topics of ordinary chatter at social gatherings ; dis-
cussion of them was encouraged by the fashionable
ecclesiastics who were to be met at the Hotel Rambouillet
or in any other popular salon, and the opportunity was
seized for the display of learning and of wit. Even the
language of devotion was familiar to those who were
intimately connected with the Court, for intimacy with
the Queen Regent necessitated sympathy with the life
of those convents where, from time to time, she sought
refuge from the sensational experiences of her chequered
career.f It will be seen, then, that the rustling, whisper-
ing crowd that thronged Les Minimes to hear a notable
preacher was not susceptible to the appeal that would
move the congregations at a Lazarist Mission to re-
pentance and conversion ; it was, in fact, difficult to find '
any argument or suggestion that they did not know
already. The mental attitude of the society woman was
admirably presented by Madame de La Sabliere in a
letter to the Jesuit Pere Rapin.
" I am always honest with you," she wrote, " and I
tell you plainly that I should greatly like to be devout,
but that I am not so at all. I have so high an idea of the
standard of true piety that I have no strength to aspire
* Rapin: Me"moires, vol. i, p. 62.
f See V. Cousin : Madame de CAevreuse et Madame de Haute/art,
vol. ii, p. 21.
Bossuet in Paris 37
after it, because of the immense number of things which
it appears I should be required to give up. Moreover,
if one has good manners, as I think, reverend father,
without vanity I may say that I have, what is most im-
portant is secure, and one is inclined to be slack about
the rest."*
* Thus," cried Bossuet, " we attempt to link Christ
and Belial and what has been produced ? A race of
semi-Christians, a corrupt race of worldly Christians
who have nothing but a bastard sort of piety, all chatter
and vain semblance. O fashionable piety, with your
boastings and your elaborate phrases which flow so
readily so long as the world is going well, what can I
offer you except derision ? " f
It was not the wickedness of the worldlings that
aroused his scorn, for he was in quest of sinners it was
their levity. These fashionable congregations would
listen with admiration while he declared to them the
consequences of the vices and the self-indulgence to
which most of them were addicted ; they were charmed
with the beauty of his discourse when he depicted the
peace and ultimate delight of a life of righteousness ;
they followed his argument point by point with flattering
attention, and his sermons were a topic for conversation
in the highest circles ; but there was little evidence
that his message to his listeners at Les Minimes had
any effect upon their actual conduct. His eloquence
at its highest level might provoke sensations of alarm
or of regret, but these were only sensations ; a popular
actor might boast a like achievement and would receive
a wider measure of recognition.
The dearth of personal record leaves us without
knowledge of Bossuet's valuation of the conditions that
he found in Paris. Just when he made his own great
venture, and entered on the possibilities of service which
the great world seemed to offer, another struggling
genius was emerging from obscurity. It was in 1659,
the year that Bossuet left Metz, that Moliere first played
* Quoted Griselle : Bourdaloue : Histoire Critique, vol. i, p. 300.
f (Euvres, vol. xii : Pantgyrique de St. Andrt.
38 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
before the King. The actor was five years older than
the priest, but he had raised himself from indigence,
and when his place was won no preacher could compete
with him in influence over the minds of his contem-
C-aries. And the young abbe" in the Doyenne" du
uvre had sufficient penetration to realize the im-
mensity of the power which a great gift had placed in
the hands of the popular favourite. The deep root of
his resentment on this count became evident forty years
later. Probably the disappointment, inevitable to men
of great intentions, which shadowed his years in Paris,
weighed on him more heavily because in Moliere he
saw the possibilities of real success. For him, in those
days, there was no certainty of eventual fame ; other
men before him had been as full of fervour, as certain
that they held the remedy for the evil under which the
world was groaning, and had made their puny efforts,
and had died and been forgotten. He must have fore-
seen the possible difficulty of obtaining listeners, and
when that was overcome he faced another hindrance
of a more insidious kind. A world that welcomed and
applauded him had not the least intention of altering its
customs at his bidding. One of his contemporaries,
having been required to observe him at this time, sums
up his observations thus : " His preaching is austere
but it is very Christian, and those who know him person-
ally say that his life accords with his preaching. He
always seems to me to be very clever and I know that
he is good. His appearance is not deceptive, for it is
charming. He gives the impression of being modest,
contented, and thoughtful. I know nothing of him that
is not excellent." *
Colbert, the King's First Minister, was making in-
quiries about the Abbe* Bossuet, and this was the result.
The testimonial is in every way satisfactory, but it was
written in 1662, when Bossuet was thirty-five and his
great powers had attained full development, and neither
the demand for it nor the terms in which it is couched
would have been possible if adequate recognition had
* Lfttres tie Colbert^ vol. v, appendix xv, p. 504.
Eossuet in Paris 39
been accorded to them. His ambition at this time
concentrated on obtaining the widest opportunities of
usefulness ; he had a message to deliver, and if he failed
in its delivery it meant the failure of his lifework, but in
that year 1662 the possibilities of real achievement still
hung in the balance. Moreover, the friendly view of his
personality which we have recorded does not appear
to have been universal. If a man displayed conspicuous
power it became the duty of the King's First Minister
to collect all information available with regard to him,
in case his power might be used in the service of the
State. A second report on the Abbe Bossuet may be
found in Colbert's Confidential Correspondence* It shows
him in an aspect that is not directly contradictory to
the first, as " keen-witted, sympathetic, eager to please
everyone with whom he came in contact and to agree
with everyone's opinion, and most unwilling to take any
side lest by so doing he should hinder the attainment
of his real object." The characteristics of this portrait,
as it gains in detail, are those of the time-server, the man
who can disguise his inclinations and master his real
self that he may win favour. " When he sees the part
that will bring him the highest fortune he will accept
it whatever it may be, and it is likely that he will play it
very well." That is the summing-up.
The unknown critic was superficial in his judgment,
however. No doubt it was true enough that Bossuet was
waiting upon Fortune, but the eagerness for personal
advancement so clearly indicated in the report is im-
possible to prove from authentic records of him.f The
power that he coveted, moreover, was not concerned with
temporal affairs; he hungered for dominion over the minds
of other men that he might convince them of that which
he believed to be the Truth. And in the future the
tasks that were destined to foster personal ambition were
* Quoted Ge"rin : " V Assemble du Clerge", etc.," p. 290.
f The comment on him in Les Annales de la Compagnie du Saint-
Sacrement says : " c'Jtait un des eccttsiastiques les plus zMs et les plus
exemplaires de la Compagnie." See MS. Bib. Nat., quoted Revue Bossuet,
1901, p. 32.
40 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
not solicited ; there was no moment in his life when he
planned his labours with any view to self-aggrandize-
ment.
During this precarious period of his career he
offered his services freely to the convents, and it
has been suggested that in doing so he was seeking
to attract the notice of the Queen-mother. It is true
that Carmel had great fascination for the two Spanish
queens, and the Carmelite convents north and south of
the river were centres of fashionable devotion. But if
he had been angling for Court favour he would, when he
preached the Lent course at the Louvre in 1662, have
used the opportunity the appointment gave him for
making himself acceptable to the King. It is notorious
that he did not do so.
In fact the motive for the service that he gave to the
convents was his deep sympathy with the Religious Life.
We have seen how the veil which hides the domain of
the spirit had been lifted for him just as his life of full
activity began, and that he realized then " the wound of
the love of Jesus " as something more than the mere
phrase of mystic writers. If that transitory experience
inflamed his tireless energy to fresh ardour in the search
for errant souls, it inspired him also with a craving for
response to that which he felt to be highest in himself.
He was fond of asserting that a preacher is dependent
upon his auditors, and in a convent chapel his appeal
to the idle throng whom he confronted from the pulpit
drew half its force from his remembrance of the listeners
behind the grille. It can be maintained, after study of
his sermons, that the deepest in thought and spiritual
understanding are those preached at the Carmelite
Convent of the Rue St. Jacques.
The powers that Bossuet possessed could not be used
mechanically ; their force did not wax and wane at his
discretion : he was an artist though his art was spiritual,
and therefore his message was hindered in its delivery
by an environment that was uncongenial.* The proof
* " C'est aux auditeurs de faire lei prtdicateurs." Sur la Parole de
Dieu (CEuvres, vol. ix, p. 122).
Eossuet in Paris 4 1
that he held his place in these centres of devotion by
virtue of powers that are not born of calculation lies in
the fact that he was chosen again and again by individuals
to preach the sermon of Clothing or Profession. That
was a tribute to something in him higher than the gift
of oratory, for those by whom he was selected were
women whose vocation was so clear as to serve as a beacon
to others. The central figure in these ceremonies was
taking upon herself a great responsibility, for the vocation
of the contemplative is not easy to fulfil, and, if the words
of exhortation were to be worthy of the act they heralded,
it was necessary that the speaker should have the true
vision of the Religious Life. It was because he pos-
sessed this vision that a few years later Louise de La
Valliere sought and found in him the support she needed
in the problems of her tangled career. The great
friendship of his life with the Abbe de Ranee owed its
permanence to the same source, for it would have been
difficult to maintain intimacy with the Trappist and refuse
sympathy to the impulse of self-immolation.
This side of the character of Bossuet claims separate
and careful study. The ascetic tendency in him has
not been given its due place in the traditional portrait,
and remembrance of its actuality is specially important
during the years of swift development in Paris when the
conditions of the social life around him were gradually
unfolding before his astonished eyes. He preached four
sets of sermons before the Court, beginning in 1662
with the Lent course at the Louvre, ending in 1669
with Advent at St. Germain, and this experience was im-
portant, but it was only a minor part of the training the
years were giving him. The Louvre was not yet de-
serted in favour of Versailles, and Bossuet's place of
abode was therefore very near the heart and centre of
the kingdom. His work took him north and east and
south away to the northern suburbs to take counsel with
the Lazarists or to give assistance in their ceaseless
labours, eastward to the wealthy quarter where the oldest
families in France had dwelt for generations, and then,
crossing the river southward, up the long straight in-
42 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
cline of the Rue St. Jacques to the great space beyond
the Luxembourg where innumerable monasteries were
clustered. In the years to come the coach of the Bishop
of Meaux was provided with a travelling library * and its
occupant was always immersed in books, but the Abb
Bossuet had to make his way about the city by simpler
methods, and had opportunities for the acquirement of
another species of knowledge during his journeys. The
experience of men and manners that he must have gained
was calculated to intensify his eagerness in the service
of the Church, for he held that the remedy for all the
misery he witnessed lay in her keeping. With each
one of his ten years in Paris, however, the hindrances
to the evangelizing of society became, of necessity, more
manifest.
He was an idealist, or he would have lost courage.
Practical, logical, industrious as he might appear before
the world, he was nevertheless a dreamer of dreams,
one who could turn from disappointment and baffling
difficulty to an interior vision that held the promise of
peace whatever might befall. We find him in this
character in a letter to his intimate friend and confidant,
M. de Bellefonds, written at a moment when the world
was pressing him on every side.
14 I picture a condition which it is hardly possible to
describe," he wrote ; " it is clear to me in theory though
I am very far away from it in practice. Imagine a soul
which knows itself to be nothing and is quite content
with its nothingness, but yet emerges from it at a sum-
mons which seems to have come from God ; it accepts
activity in obedience, yet sighs inwardly after the quiet
where it can feel God's Presence unhindered. In
obedience it takes its part in the world without caring
for its office or for itself ; equally ready to do or not to
do ; yet doing all things with energy because it is the
will of God that nothing should be done listlessly ;
moreover, because it loves to follow the will of God
it carries out all undertakings as divine commands,
and not to give satisfaction to itself or to others. A
* Revue Bossuet, 1904, p. 173.
Bossuet in Paris 43
soul such as this would rather be as nought in its own
eyes and in the eyes of the world ; it would have no being
save before God and remain useless unless used by Him.
Consider the joy with which the Blessed Virgin cried :
' He hath regarded the lowliness of His handmaiden.'
" I am using a great many words because I have not
yet arrived at the root of that which I am seeking :
a single word should be sufficient to convey it and, failing
human words, it is enough to fix one's mind on the
Word Incarnate, Jesus hidden for thirty years, no more
than a carpenter for thirty years, seemingly useless for
thirty years, but in reality very useful to the world,
for He was showing it that real life is to live only for God.
He emerged from obscurity when God so willed it, but,
though He was working for humanity, all the time He
was still seeking God and finding God."*
" I have not yet arrived at the root of that which I
am seeking " possibly to the end of his life Bossuet
would have been ready to make that avowal, yet behind
all the activity that the world observed and criticized
this secret quest went on. The problem of existence
was solved very simply by Louise de La Valliere, by
Ranee, and by many others, and Bossuet had close
and familiar intercourse with them; but he could not
share in their security. His vocation was for a life in the
world, a life passed in the midst of grievous perils in
which he never approached his ideal of self-surrender;
nevertheless in accepting it he obeyed the call of God.
We have seen him from his boyhood onwards intent
on conveying to the world the precious knowledge which
had been committed to him, and no rebuffs could shake
him in his purpose. This sense of vocation governed his
whole life and he had deep comprehension of its meaning.
At the very end of his years of work in Paris he delivered
a sermon on Vocation at the Carmel of the Rue St.
Jacques, and in spite of the fact that his hearers were,
many of them, experts in his chosen subject he had never
before produced so profound an impression. f In that
place, where each one of his listeners behind the grille
* Correspondance, vol. i, No. 90. f Ledieu : MSmoires, p. 86.
44 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
had made her venture of entire self-surrender, he set
forth the meaning of detachment and proclaimed the
dependence of every human effort upon the will of God.
That he could do so with success is proof of his own
spiritual advance during those years of preaching.*
" When God wishes to show that a piece of work is
really in His hands He allows it to reach the point of
absolute defeat and then He raises it." That is the
note to which the whole sermon is attuned. The
preacher, always untiring in his study of the Scriptures,
had evidently found his thoughts arrested by the miracle
of the Church's birth. " Only consider, I beg of you,"
he cried, " what it was that these fishermen undertook to
do ! Never did monarch or empire or republic make
so ambitious an attempt. They had no expectation of
any human help, yet they made the world a field for con-
quest and divided it among themselves. They intended
to bring about a change throughout the universe in all
established religion whether false or true, among Jews
and among Gentiles. They were going to establish a
new way of worship, a new way of sacrifice, a new law
because, as they said, this was the teaching of a man
who had been crucified at Jerusalem. Let the world
laugh as it will : a cause that could hold its own in
defiance of all probability, against the sharpest possible
tests, depending for support on men who were full of
doubts and fears, of whom the boldest denied his Master
out of cowardice, a cause such as this is true ! A sham
will not reach so far, a surprise will not last so long, a
dream is not so consistent."
Here, vehement and spontaneous, we have the appeal
this man could make by reason of his faith ; he swept
away the artificial methods that had long been practised
in fashionable pulpits, and strove to set before his listeners
the picture which had gripped his own imagination.
And if the cause upheld before the world by those humble
fishermen of Galilee were true, what then ? The argu-
ment discloses itself gradually. The claim of the
* For the attack on his private life and evidence connected with it, see
Appendix iii.
Bossuet in Paris 45
Crucified was an affront to human intelligence in the
days when His disciples first urged it on mankind, yet
it has won its way and still remains no less contradictory
to human reason and no less constant in insistence than
it was then.
" How hard it is when the world is offering us all
things to deny ourselves anything ! How is any one
to understand that in the midst of abundance he should
endure privation, that the life of penitence demands that
he should face every kind of suffering ? Yet little by
little he will discover more peace and more delight in the
rigour of penitence and in the humiliation of the way
of the Cross than the lovers of the world will ever draw
from the wildest of its joys and the greatest of its
triumphs."*
The paradox is familiar, but on Bossuet's lips it be-
comes a challenge, and he leads his audience on from the
suggestion of self-discipline as a necessity in ordinary life
to consideration of the further claim which could only
be satisfied within the cloister. The listeners ranged
before him in the nave belonged to the great world,
but it was to those behind the grille that he looked for
entire understanding. He had the vision of their life
and its true meaning. He saw it as a state of perpetual
self-offering which, at its highest, was the nearest ap-
proach to the imitation of Christ that human conditions
permitted, and the fervour of his admiration was infec-
tious ; those to whose hearts he spoke were inspired
to new knowledge of the privilege of their vocation.
To himself at that moment the call had come in a very
different form. The period of his obscurity was at an
end, and he was even then a well-known figure in the
world of Paris. But perhaps as he put aside the picture
he had made so clear for others, and left Carmel and its
silent appeal behind him, his certainty that God had
summoned him to labour in the world was mingled with
regret.
* Pantgyrique de St. Andrt (GEuvres, vol. xii).
Chapter IV. The Battlefield of Controversy
DURING the years that he was winning renown as
a preacher Bossuet was vigorously at work in
other directions. Among those who listened
to his sermons a few at least were in earnest and sought
counsel from him. We hear of instructions given in the
private apartments of Madame de Longueville,* of
growing friendship with M. de Luynes and M. de
Bellefonds, of intercourse with Mile, de Montpensier
and with Henrietta Maria, the widowed Queen of
England. At a time when all the various parties within
the Church threw suspicion on each other Bossuet in-
spired waverers with confidence ; and the reluctance
to choose a side, for which he was criticized, was an assist-
ance in his attempts to heal divisions among the faithful.
Possibly there were certain questions in which he recog-
nized the danger of decision. Among these may be
numbered the Six Articles f propounded in 1663 by the
Faculty of Theology assembled at the Sorbonne4 They
embodied the statement of Gallican independence with
which years later he was to be so closely associated,
and it is interesting to find his name noted among the
party opposed to their promulgation.
At Metz the question of heresy was comparatively
simple ; a heretic was a person who had been led astray
by the teaching of Calvin or of Luther, and his return
to the Church required visible acts and involved visible
consequences. But in Paris there were heretical by-
paths besides the broad road indicated by the Reformers,
and minor heresies became dangerous because they were
spread by the many who talked, before the thoughtful few
had had time to pronounce judgment on them. The
King was intolerant of those who differed from himself ;
he aspired to absolute control over the thoughts and
opinions of his subjects. The intelligence of a French-
man does not submit readily to coercion, however, and
royal interference was apt to turn temporary disagree-
* Ledieu : MSmoires, p. 86. f See Appendix iv.
$ Jourdain: Hist, de I' Univers ite" de Paris, p. 221.
G^rin: L'AsumbUe de 1682, p. 85.
The Battlefield of Controversy 47
ments into open warfare and to aggravate the many
disastrous controversies of the period. Of these the
most important in the history of the Church in France
is that concerning Jansenism. Probably there has never
been a question of theology which has aroused such in-
extinguishable bitterness, but Bossuet, who in later
years exhibited a capacity for partisanship of a very
vigorous type, was never deeply involved in this particular
struggle ; whenever he touched it he was in the character
OO '
of peacemaker. The fact is especially noticeable because
Nicolas Cornet, his friend and master, was responsible
for extracting the famous Five Propositions from the
study of St. Augustine written by Jansenius, Bishop of
Ypres.* When the Five Propositions were condemned
by the Pope the defenders of Jansenius denied that they
could be discovered in his book,f and Cornet became the
object of their most violent antipathy. Bossuet managed
to maintain friendly relations with Antoine Arnauld,
however, and with many on whom the taint of Jansenism
had fallen, without abating his admiration for their
chief accuser.
When Cornet died in April 1663 the task of preaching
the sermon and panegyric which the custom of the time
demanded was assigned to Bossuet, and he seized the
opportunity to summarize the position of the contending
parties in a passage that has become celebrated : "In
these days there are two grave diseases afflicting the
Church : there are certain among its leaders who are
imbued with a cruel sort of good-nature, a deadly type
of compassion, at the suggestion of which they have
cushions made ready for the elbows of penitents and
search for cloaks to provide them with a disguise for
their sins, thus avoiding wounds to vanity and encourag-
ing the pretence of simplicity and ignorance. There
are others also who go to the opposite extreme and bind
the conscience with unreasonable strictness : they cannot
* Soyez : Vie de Nicolas Cornet, p. 26.
t On this point Bossuet did not temporize. See Ledieu : Journal,
vol. i, p. 382, " /'/ dit qu'il a relu Jansenius tout entier, et que comme il fit
il y a quarante ans y i! y a retrouvt les Cinq Propositions tres-nettement"
48 Jacques Benigne Bos suet
make allowance for any weaknesses, they flourish the
threat of hell continually, and have nothing to offer
except curses. The Evil One has use for both sides
equally the easy-going make vice attractive, the violent
make virtue alarming."*
When those words were spoken it was five years since
Pascal's Provincial Letters, destined to infuse such extra-
ordinary acrimony into the Jansenist controversy, had
made their sensational appearance. That masterpiece of
pamphleteering is a personal attack from the Jansenist
camp upon the methods and principles of the opposing
party. Personal attacks were then in vogue. It
was a period when the war of pamphlets was waged un-
ceasingly in one direction or another, and the scribes,
writing for the moment, claimed the licence to put their
case with the vividness that cannot be attained without
exaggeration. Response, delivered on equal terms,
came swiftly, the real point at issue became more and
more obscured by personalities, and excitement rose until
the moment when hostilities were checked by authority,
either ecclesiastical or secular. When that stage was
reached the nature of the missiles thrown in the heat of
battle ceased to have serious significance.
For the defence of Port Royal, however, a genius
seized his pen, and, writing swiftly to arrest popular
imagination at the moment, he produced work of im-
perishable quality. This offence has never found forgive-
ness, and the cause he made his own paid heavily for the
glory won by its champion. Pascal died before the
world had recognized the literary value of the Provincial
Letters, and it is unlikely f that Bossuet grasped its
significance among the factors determining the fortunes
of Port Royal when he composed his Funeral Panegyric
on Nicolas Cornet. In condemning the extremists on
both sides he adhered to the controversial methods
habitual with him and attempted to make the way of
* (Euvres, vol. xii, p. 669.
t See Ecrit sur U Style, 1669 (Floquet : Etudes, Appendix): " Les
Lettres au Provincial, dont quelques-unes ont beaucoup de force et de
viktmence, et toutes tine extrlme dtlicatesse"
The Battlefield of Controversy 49
reconciliation easy. And his good intentions were so
far recognized that Perefixe, Archbishop of Paris, en-
listed his services for the persuasion of the religious of
Port Royal. By this time the two leaders of opinion,
Angelique Arnauld and Jacqueline Pascal, were dead,
and the Community had been scattered by order of the
King. Bossuet's mission was to La Mere Agnes and
her niece Marie Angelique Arnauld, in the Visitation
Convent in the Rue St. Jacques, where they were relegated
until they would make formal denunciation of the Jansen-
ist heresy as summarized in the Five Propositions.*
It is possible, but not certain, that the younger of the
rebels was influenced by Bossuet ; La Mere Agnes
remained unaffected, however, and his arguments and
exhortations had no lasting results. The importance
of the incident rests on a letter he addressed to the
Community of Port Royal in which the case against them
is stated temperately. Events moved rapidly, and by
the time the letter was ready for dispatch the Jansenist
mutiny had become too definite for a scholarly remon-
strance of this type, therefore it never reached its destina-
tion and was reserved in case of future opportunity for
use. Its revision was one of the last labours of Bossuet.
Some forty years after he composed it the controversy
regarding Pere Quesnel stirred the same questions as
he had treated in his interviews with Marie Angelique,
and he believed that his long-buried study of them would
be of service.f It was published in 1 709 by Cardinal de
Noailles and aroused considerable comment,^: for strife
still surged around Port Royal with unabated violence.
Its interest for the student of Bossuet, however, lies in
the conception of the Church that it presents. Originally
the State may have been responsible for the mistaken
handling of the Jansenists, but their ultimate revolt was
* See Correspondence, vol. i, No. 21, Notes, pp. 85-87, and Revue des
Deux Mondes, October and November 1919, for detail re dealings of
Bossuet with Jansenist Controversy.
f Ledieu: Journal, vol. i, p. 372.
^ The position of Bossuet towards Pere Quesnel and the controversy
that eventually produced the Bull Unigenitus is examined by M. Urbain
(Revue du Clerge"franfais, juillet 1897, aout 1899).
o Jacques Benigne Bossuet
against the authority of the Church. And Bossuet, in
his remonstrance with them, shows that the intellectual
independence they were claiming was inconsistent with
the Faith. Then and always he saw that unity depended
on the acceptance of the decision of the Church in all
spiritual matters. It is the reassertion of this principle
rather than the condemnation of Jansenism that is the
theme of the letter to Port Royal. In truth, Jansen-
ist doctrine in itself never seems to have aroused him
to serious apprehension ; the menace of it in his eyes
was the insubordination of its advocates. He decided
in his youth to combat Jansenism by a statement of the
necessity of obedience to the Pope in spiritual matters,
and forty years later he set the seal on that early decision
and manifested the unvarying quality of his convictions.
Yet while he judged the Jansenists as rebels he was
never numbered among their accusers. The standard
which Angelique Arnauld had set before her Community,
and through them before the world, was a high one,
and he could appreciate its value. Probably an honest
observer could not do otherwise, for we find even her
vehement opponent, the Jesuit historian Pere Rapin,
paying his tribute to the root of purity from which the
whole Port Royal movement sprang,* and to Bossuet,
approaching the case unbiassed, the circumstances ex-
tenuating the guilt of the Port Royalists must have been
clearly evident. Indeed, their original revolt against
habits and practices which dishonoured the name of
Christianity expressed the principle which inspired his
most powerful sermons, and the measure of sympathy
which he accorded to them f brought on him the suspicion
of Jansenist proclivities. The suspicion had no solid
foundation and has been harboured only by those who
desire to discredit him, but he must have been aware that
he risked discredit by continuing to be intimate with
those whom the world condemned. By so doing, how-
ever, he acquired personal knowledge of the ideas prompt-
* Rapin: Mtmoires, vol. i, p. 443.
t See Correspondance, vol. i, Nos. 128, 129; appendix xiv ; vol. iii,
Nos. 291,293,314.
The Battlefield of Controversy 5 1
ing the reform which had grown into revolt, and could
estimate the degree to which revolt was nurtured by
persecution. Thus his position of neutrality gave him
an opportunity of vision denied to those who were
committed to the struggle, and what he saw was useful
for his future guidance. It was plain that in the im-
placable hatred which could not rest without the entire
ruin of Port Royal there were other elements besides
theological antagonism. He had come to Paris with that
high sense of the possibilities of individual effort in the
evangelization of society which had been the inspiration
and the snare of Angelique Arnauld forty years earlier.
No doubt even without the example of her experience he
would have learnt that the world does not desire to listen
to a message of wholesale condemnation, but the story of
Port Royal provided a salutary warning against undue
insistence on unpopular doctrines.
Bossuet was no fanatic ; his dedication of himself and
all his capacities to the service of the Church was con-
ditioned by the resolve to use his powers to the best
advantage. He was governed most often by motives
deeply rooted in religion, but there is no moment of his
life when his choice of action was due to a swift impulse
of religious fervour ; even his self-dedication was a
considered act made in his youth and maintained until
his death. When he fought against the open enemies of
the Church he placed his blows deliberately and hus-
banded his strength ; and when he realized, as he did
in his life at Court, that vigorous denunciation of evil,
instead of lessening its volume would only close his own
opportunities of approach to the evil-doer, he accepted
silence. At every step there is evidence of calculation,
and undoubtedly an occasional lapse into the swift
venture of the enthusiast would add attraction to his
record. He was devoid of the gambler's spirit, however,
and the dangerous hours that the future held for him
were not of his own choosing ; indeed, his methods of
service to the Church appeared to himself to be in-
evitable ; he recognized no choice.
Certainly the controversy that had the first claim upon
52 Jacques Eenigne Bos suet
him was fought openly, for there were no subtleties in
the battle between Catholics and Huguenots. Both
parties fought with equal desire though not with equal
chances for supremacy in France ; both parties were
unscrupulous as to the means employed to gain their
ends, and it is probable that a Huguenot ruler would
have adopted the policy of extermination as readily as
did Louis XIV. This was the spirit of the times. In
individual cases, and throughout his diocese when power
was in his hands, Bossuet was merciful, but he was never
tolerant in any question that concerned the Catholic
faith. To his vigorous patriotism tolerance was im-
possible ; it was the privilege of his country to be
Catholic, and therefore heresy was treason to the King
as well as to the Church. His was a clear and simple
view : the teaching of the Reformers was equally
destructive to themselves and to the commonwealth,
and must therefore by argument or by force be silenced.
He differed from his contemporaries, however, in the
value that he gave to argument. He believed that a
great deal of heresy was rooted in misconception, that
the Church from which the Huguenots revolted was the
Church as presented by Bellarmin, not the Church of
Gallican tradition. It was his aim to show them that
the Church's doors stood wide open to receive them,
and that prejudice or calumny was responsible for most
of the obstacles which seemed to them insurmountable.
Indeed, although the Catholic faith was part of his being
he had none of the vices of the bigot : he strove to win
opponents to agreement, it was the office of smaller
minds to bully into submission.
We shall see that his writings on the Protestant con-
troversy are impregnated with the theory that reunion
was attainable, and the strength of his case seemed to
him so formidable that, granted a fair hearing, he could
not fail to win it. If he had lived in the sixteenth century
he might have laboured less vainly, but religion and
politics had become hopelessly entangled in the inter-
vening period, and every Huguenot who died for his
faith made the barrier to agreement more insurmountable.
The Battlefield of Controversy 53
When Bossuet came upon the scene he could claim that
there was a general desire for reunion, but the only
means of fulfilling that desire acceptable to either party
was the unreserved capitulation of the other, and all his
concessions and explanations did not inspire wise and
observant minds with hope. Cardinal de Be*rulle had
declared, after a lifetime of reflection, that forcible re-
pression by the State was the only way to deal with
Protestantism.* His conclusion is a confession of weak-
ness, yet it must be acknowledged that the result of
Bossuet's great endeavour confirms it. In fact, the
memory of the massacres under Charles IX in the minds
of Huguenots, and the thought of the political situation
in England under Cromwell in the minds of Catholics,
were obstacles to peace that no theologian could move
by so much as a hairsbreadth. Bossuet raised contro-
versial methods to a higher level f and achieved many
individual conversions, but unity remained as un-
attainable as though he had never taken pen in hand.
It was in 1654 that Paul Ferry, at that time the leader
of the Protestants in Metz, published his Catechisme
General de la Reformation, with the object of showing that
the Protestant schism had been a necessity. In April
of the following year Bossuet replied. He was twenty-
seve^i at this time, but, as we have seen, he attained to
intellectual maturity very early, and this, his first assay
in polemics, is free from the ordinary faults of youth and
bears witness to that capacity for seizing and presenting
the real points at issue which gave him such force as a
controversialist. His answer to Paul Ferry ^ was at
once a pleading and a protest against the separation
of the Reformers from the Church. He does not deny
that many evils were crying for reform, but he declaims
against the policy of adding to their number a greater
one than all that of schism. Under two distinct heads
he admitted the responsibility of Catholics for alienating
the Reformers: by teaching which he regarded as un-
* Tabaraud : Vie de C. de Bfrulle, vol. ii, pp. 52, 55.
f See Correspondance, vol. i, No. 23, and appendix x.
$ CEuvres, vol. xiii.
54 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
authorized and contrary to tradition, and by a way of life
that gave cause for scandal.*
He declared, on an occasion when he preached before
the King,f that " the bodyguard of the Church is required
as a defence against all human weaknesses and vices and
passions, against all the bad habits of the worldly, against
all the scheming of the heretics ; in short, against all
the energies of hell. Does it not need therefore to be
as well equipped with experience and skill and wisdom,
yes, and with courage also, as the troops of the visible
world ? But what is one to think when those who hold
command are completely ignorant of tactics ? Heresy
wins kingdom after kingdom from the Church. Where
will you find the cause of that disaster ? The answer
rises up all around us from the depths of hell the cry
of the people from the abyss into which they have fallen :
' Unworthy priests are the cause of our destruction ;
their follies and their ignorance made us distrust them ;
their pride and their malice made us hate them ; when
we turned from them we became the prey of our se-
ducers ! ' While the sentries slept the enemy came
upon us and the Faith has been despoiled because its
appointed keepers were neglectful. "$
These are strong words, but Vincent de Paul fifty
years earlier had given voice to the same opinion :
' The worst enemies of the Church are her unworthy
priests," and there is sufficient evidence to justify them.
Even Pere Rapin allowed that the exaggerated rigour
of Port Royal found its excuse in the corruption within
the Church that Mazarin encouraged, and Bossuet, in
acknowledging responsibility for the errors of the
Huguenots, lost the self-righteousness that is the ordinary
characteristic of the controversialist. In all his dealing
* The Minister Claude vehemently repudiated the suggestion that
Huguenot belief owed any of its strength to the depravity of Catholics.
See (Euvres PostAumes, vol. v, p. no.
f (Euvres, vol. x, p. 164.
See also Introduction, Hist. Jet Variations des Eglises Protestantes
(GEuvrfs, vol. xiv).
Rapin: Me"moires t vol. i, p. 212.
The Battlefield of Controversy 55"
with Paul Ferry he never forgot the respect due to a
man of great learning and irreproachable virtue who was
old enough to be his father, and his desire to conciliate
was inseparable from his eagerness to convince. His
response to Ferry's pamphlet, instead of opening a feud,
established a friendship ; the Huguenot and the priest
discovered that they held one great aim in common,
and that each was absolutely sincere in his pursuit of it.
If realization of their dream of unity had been attain-
able they were the men to give it substance. In fact
their friendship left their division unaffected. After
twelve years they were still conferring, and we find
Bossuet planning to visit Ferry at whatever time he
chooses. " I will come to you in your library ; I only
ask that you should be at leisure and alone."* He was
untiring in writing letters that set forth what may be
termed the minimum of Catholic faith and doctrine
required for reconciliation with the Church, but the
enterprise was foredoomed to failure ; it is evident that
the Huguenot party, as a whole, would not have agreed
to any scheme of reconciliation that it was possible for a
Catholic priest to propound.
Bossuet ' seems to have merited the reputation for
kindliness in personal dealing with the Huguenots
ordinarily accorded to him. Episodes are recorded,
nevertheless, in which his conduct cannot be described
as kindly. These do not belong only to the difficult
period at Meaux after the Revocation of the Edict of
Nantes. There are letters f written from Metz which give
evidence of a keen desire to avail himself of the authority
of the Law to its utmost limits for the discomfiture
of his Protestant neighbours. His inconsistency was
not altogether without method, however. When he
settled in Metz about one third of the population,
some ten thousand persons, professed the Reformed
Religion, and they were a well-conducted body, loyal
to the King, diligent in business, and becoming
more and more influential as the years passed.
To Bossuet the spectacle of prosperous and contented
* Correspondance, vol. i, No. 22. f Ibid., Nos. 7, 8, 9, 10.
56 Jacques Benigne Bos suet
Huguenots was unseemly ; if they confronted him on
equal terms they were his enemies ; it was only when
they suffered in mind or body that charity had part in
his relations with them. Nothing indeed could be so fatal
to his hopes as this contentment. Actually it was rare
to find among the followers of Paul Ferry the restlessness
of spirit which gave him his opportunity, and his per-
suasive gifts were wasted on those whose faith sufficed
them.
Chapter V. The Conversion of Turenne
THE Court itself proved the best field for individual
conversion, and the genius of Bossuet found its
most fruitful opportunity among those sons and
daughters of the ruling class whose fathers had rejected
the old Faith. The new religion had been the fashion
at Court a century earlier, and the Huguenot nobles who
fought under the banner of Navarre against the League
had been able then to unite loyalty to their King and to
their Faith; but their descendants were in a different
position. It has been said* that Henri IV, in his personal
charm, in his virtues and in his vices, is the type of the
high-born Frenchman. If this be so his action, when
he abjured Protestantism, was symbolic as demon-
strating that the true French temperament can assimilate
the Faith of the Catholic Church and none other. The
aspiration of a section of the middle class in the sixteenth
century, which resulted in schism and in civil war, was
after a high ideal, a new form for the old Faith. It was
prompted by disgust at prevalent disorder, not by in-
tellectual negation as in Germany f or by the spirit of a
political party such as that of the Puritans in England,
and it was an unfortunate succession of circumstances
that made it a danger to the State. The position of
nobles who were Huguenot was encompassed by many
difficulties, some of which derived their force from senti-
ment, for under the Bourbon monarchy aristocrat and
courtier were almost synonymous terms and the true
courtier cannot remain at variance with his King. The
scholars summed up the position in a phrase : Cujus
regio ejus religio, and it was very difficult to be superior
to a sentiment which was held by all who were most
worthy of esteem. To assert that it was among the
nobility that Bossuet found the most fertile ground for
his persuasions and arguments against the Reformed
Faith is not thereby to impugn the sincerity of the con-
versions he effected. Tradition and inheritance were
all on the side of the Church, and tradition and in-
* An tin : L'Echec de la R/forme en France, p. 238.
t Ramsay : Hist, de Turenne, vol. i, pp. 7, 8.
58 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
heritance were stronger forces in men of pure descent
than in a humbler and more promiscuous class. As the
years passed Bossuet's intellectual distinction gave him
more and more intercourse with a social grade above his
own, and the combination in him of learning and of
sincerity, which seems to have been very generally
recognized, had special attractions for those whose change
of Faith was of public importance.
Most celebrated, and most deliberate in process of all
the conversions of the period, was that of Marshal
Turenne. For him worldly consideration lay on one
side and family ties on the other, while personal opinion
wavered betwixt the two. He stood, moreover, between
Claude and Bossuet, who were in future to be adversaries
before the world, and by temperament he was no more
disposed to theological controversy than any other
eminent soldier. In private life he was of peaceable
and kindly disposition, and was reputed to be under the
influence of his sisters,* who were all ardent Calvinists.
At forty he married a woman whose intellectual ability
was equal to his own, and whose religious convictions
were far stronger Charlotte de Caumont la Force.f
She was the friend of the minister Claude, and her
enthusiasm for Reform was of the type that thrives on
persecution. The marriage took place in 1651, and
those sanguine persons who had seen in Turenne a
medium of reconciliation between his party and the
Church recognized that this alliance was an insuperable
obstacle to the fulfilment of their hopes.
When Conde", after his imprisonment by Mazarin,
turned traitor, Turenne was the greatest commander
left to the French Army, and his adhesion to the cause
of Reform became a fact of serious political importance.
It is probable that his chief desire was to abstain from all
religious discussion, to serve his King and country with
all his great ability, and to enjoy domestic peace when his
country was not needing him. The spirit of the times
in which he lived, however, did not permit him to fulfil
* Sff Picaret: Les Dernieres Anntes de Turenne, p. 202.
f Ibid., p. 1 8.
The Conversion of Turenne 59
these moderate ambitions. His world was insatiable
in curiosity and untiring in speculation as to the possible
developments of his religious opinions. His elder
brother had long since returned to the Church,* and
Turenne's real inclinations may have lain in the same
direction, but he knew that his wife and sisters would not
follow him and therefore in his individual existence
conversion implied havoc.
It is a curious picture, belonging essentially to that
period and to no other. On the one hand the King,
impatient of any opposition to his wishes, ready with
bribe or threat to obtain his will : behind him and one
with him in opinion, the great mass of society ; and
at his side, sharing his eagerness, Bossuet, the most
perfect medium through which the royal wishes might
become articulate. On the other hand were forces less
susceptible of calculation : the traditions of a lifetime,
the deep implanted memories of purity and virtue spring-
ing from the Faith the Huguenot professed, and, finally,
the influence that women of indomitable will can exercise
in the association of daily life.f Lured to advance by
every prize the world can offer, yet held by chains whose
every link was dear, it is no marvel that the puzzled
soldier evaded arguments and temporized with direct
questions bearing on the Faith. His wife and sisters
were unequivocal in their dislike of Rome, and he, whose
courage was so conspicuous on the field of battle, does
not seem to have displayed that quality in domestic inter-
course. And so he continued to disappoint the fashion-
able ecclesiastics who were sent to convince him of his
errors. Such persons never received a rebuff, but
gradually it became evident that his case was not more
hopeful because there was no violent prejudice or antagon-
ism to be overcome ; his resistance was gentle, but
persuasion left him unmoved.
A series of bereavements altered the position.:}: In
swift succession he lost two of his sisters, Mile, de Bouillon
and Madame de la Tremouille, and in 1666 his wife died.
* In 1636. f See Picaret : op. cit. y pp. 211-213.
$ Picaret: op. cit., p. 220.
60 Jacques Eenlgne Bossuet
Popular opinion had assigned responsibility for his
obstinacy to Madame de Turenne, and it was supposed
that the news of her death would be followed by the
announcement of his conversion. For a time, however,
her influence survived her, and if her husband had been
less important to the State he would probably have died
a Huguenot. But he was not allowed to remain undis-
turbed ; his friends were scheming constantly to bring
him within reach of such presentations of the Church's
teaching as might rouse in him the desire, hitherto lack-
ing, for the benefits she only could bestow. Finally,
in the autumn of the year 1668, he abjured his errors
and was received into the Church. The Oratorian
preachers had some share in the conquest, and Turenne
himself acknowledged a debt to Antoine Arnauld, the
Jansenist.* It was due chiefly to Bossuet, however,
and the Bishopric of Condom was his reward.
Undoubtedly he rendered a great service to the State
when he fixed the hesitating opinion that had hung so
long in the balance, and it is likely that the tremendous
weight of his own conviction was just the force required
for a condition of vacillation that had become chronic.
That there were inducements that had no connection
with theology is plain. The conversion of Turenne was
of great benefit to his country ; it was also, like that of
Henri IV, advantageous to his personal fortunes, and
knowledge that this would be so was a perfectly legitimate
argument in its favour. All this was open to the con-
sideration of Bossuet ; his enterprise had been for the
service of the State as well as for the Church, and his
dealing with Turenne may be regarded as a link between
his public and political career and that deeper side of his
life which concerned the awakening of souls. This con-
version was, as we have said, his stepping-stone to
episcopal dignity. Preaching at Court did not advance
his fortunes (although the King sent a gracious message
to old Be'nigne Bossuet at Metz congratulating him on
the talents of his son),f for it was not the royal pleasure
* Olivier Lefevre d'Ormesson : Journal, October 24, 1668.
f Floquet : IituJes, vol. ii, p. 204.
The Conversion of Turenne 6 1
to encourage talents that had been exercised over-
boldly on himself by giving them wider scope; and it is
plain that the Abbe Bossuet would never have won prefer-
ment by the exhortations delivered in the royal chapel.
It was as a result of the capitulation of Turenne that he
became an object of royal favour, and his obligation
to the great soldier did not end there, for the work that
laid the foundation of his literary reputation was the
result of their intercourse.
It is quite impossible to have any understanding in
these days of the sensation created by The Explanation of
the Doctrine of the Catholic Church which was published
by Bossuet in 1671.* Short and luminous statements of
every kind of Faith are now placed before the public
constantly, and even those that most perfectly achieve
their purpose do not create excitement. But religious
opinions in the seventeenth century were matters of life
and death to individuals a*d the causes of savage warfare
among nations, and that background, and all that it means
in its effects upon the minds of men, must be remembered
when Bossuet's work as a controversialist is under con-
sideration. The leader of a movement of revolt is
tempted, for purposes of propaganda, to exaggerate
those abuses which prompted him to violent action,
and it seldom happens that the temptation is resisted.
The Protestant ministers encouraged their flock to regard
Catholic belief as a compound of fable and idolatry, and
kept before them all the worst instances of mistaken
teaching and unworthy practice that could be collected.
These tactics, common to all types of controversy, infuse
peculiar venom when the subject is a religious one, and
an exchange of violent recriminations by the commanders
of opposing camps ordinarily usurps the place of argu-
ment. The method and the aim of Bossuet differed
from those in vogue. In his correspondence with Ferry
he was attempting to evolve a real scheme of reunion,^
and then and ever after he believed in its possibility.
The progress of the negotiations alarmed the extremists
* (Euvres, vol. xiii. Cf. Arnauld, A.: Lettres, vol. iv, p. 155.
f See Carre spondance, vol. i, appendix x.
62 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
on either side and the scheme collapsed, but the time
and thought that Bossuet gave to it were spent to good
purpose, for he acquired an insight into the mental
position of the Protestants that was of incalculable
service to him.
His Exposition of the teaching of the Catholic Church
is the written summary of the statements he had made to
well-disposed inquirers. His desire, as recorded in his
preface, was to go to the root of the matter and dispose
of the misunderstandings as well as misrepresentations
which he knew to be widening the gulf between Pro-
testantism and the Church. In fact we shall see that
the book produced a new form of misunderstanding
and aroused peculiar bitterness against Bossuet himself.
He has been freely accused of duplicity, but if he was
false in this matter it must be admitted that he showed
extraordinary pertinacity in maintaining falsehood. The
doctrine of the Exposition is foreshadowed in his cele-
brated letter on the Church to la demoiselle de Metz*
and in letters to Ferry, f and a part of it was re-
stated in his sermon on Unity \ which inaugurated the
Clerical Assembly of 1682. In fact, his vision of the
Church never altered, and it sustained his hopes and his
ardour through all the discouragement and opposition
that lay before him. Unfortunately the Church as the
Huguenots observed it even in their native country was
difficult to reconcile with the Church that Bossuet
described to them. There were many points that to
them were reasons of offence, such as the Adoration of the
Cross, the Invocation of Saints, the worship of Relics
and of Images, the denial of the Chalice to the laity,
the granting of Indulgences,^ etc., which Bossuet in his
Exposition ignored entirely or represented as unessential.
He maintained that the Reformers were alienated by
"the name of a thing and not by the thing itself," ||
* Correspondence, vol. i, No. 17. t Ibid., Nos. 23, 28.
\ (Euvres, vol. xi.
For summary see Claude, J. : Rent on trance sur les Lettres Circulates
de I' Assemble <& 1682 (1683), p. 36.
|| CEuvres, vol. xiii : Exposition, etc.
The Conversion of Turenne 63
and his own faith assured him that nothing really taught
by the Church could shock or disturb the intelligence of
well-disposed people. There is nothing aggressive in
the Exposition ; it is an attempt to allure rather than to
convict, and such an attempt was a new and as-
tonishing experiment in controversial writing.* And
part of its force was derived from the unwavering
purpose that animated the writer. His appeal to
unknown readers was an honest one " the most
fervent prayer which I bring daily before God is for
their salvation." f
His difficulties with heretics, and also with the faithful,
would have been lightened had it been possible to share
with others his own capacity for differentiating between
the essentials of the Faith and the pious practices that
were not of obligation. He had no sympathy with the
extravagances that were so repugnant to the Reformers,
but he made a mistake in treating them as negligible.
Contemporary writers, approved by Papal authority,^:
could be cited who urged upon the faithful just those
doctrines that he waived, and it may be surmised that
the approval of the book by Cardinal Bona on the
ground that " he had managed to avoid all thorny contro-
versial questions " was not altogether innocent of irony.
The Exposition provided waverers with an excuse for
their defection and, at a time when every worldly induce-
ment to a change of faith was offered to the Huguenots,
the number of waverers was very large ; but it seems only
to have hardened the antagonism of the convinced
believer. 1 1 Moreover, the incredulity with which this
summary of the teaching of the Church was received
* See Madame de Sevigne: Lettres, vol. ii, No. 202.
f (Euvres, vol. xi, p. 405.
^ Two notable instances : Pere Crasset, La Veritable Devotion
envers la Sainte Vierge, and Pere Bou hours, Vie de St. Ignace.
In a letter to Cardinal de Bouillon (CEuvres, vol. xiii, p. 35).
|| Cf. La Bastide : Seconde Rfyonse a M. de Condom (1680). "La
doctrine deM.de Condom sur les articles meme ou il se relache, et aux
termes meme ou il la reduit, soit qu'elle soit approuvde par tous ceux de sa
communion, ou qu'elle ne le soit pas, est toujours directement opposee
aux principes de la vraye religion " (p. 249).
64 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
expressed itself in prognostications that it would never
be sanctioned by the Pope.
Obviously Bossuet must have been confident that he
had stated the veritable doctrine of the Church when he
decided on the publication of his book. After its ap-
pearance, however, his letters show his eagerness for
expressions of official approval,* and the growing con-
viction that without the authorization of the Pope his
whole purpose would be defeated. The issues involved
reached far beyond his concern for his personal reputa-
tion. It was on the truth of his presentation of the
Church that his hopes of reunion depended, and if the
party in favour of the stiffening of authority should prove
more formidable than he anticipated the framework of
his endeavours, past and future, would inevitably collapse.
Bossuet had entered on his duties as tutor to the
Dauphin before the Exposition was given to the world,
and thenceforward a multiplicity of occupations filled
his days. Even under such conditions, however, it may
be conjectured that, in the eight years intervening be-
tween its publication and the Papal Brief expressing
" praise and approval of it," f he had periods of the most
poignant anxiety. His hopes were raised when leave was
obtained for its circulation in Rome, and he had seized that
occasion to address to Innocent XI a letter in which
gratitude, veneration, and eagerness for a more pro-
nounced manifestation of agreement are skilfully com-
bined. The Papal Brief, received in January 1679, was
the direct result, and he lost no time in setting the printers
to work upon a fresh edition of his book. The import-
ance of the event can hardly be exaggerated, and jubilant
references in his letters show his appreciation of it.
It placed within his reach the opportunities that he most
coveted and a recent experience bore witness to his
capacity for making use or them. Mile, de Duras, niece
of Marshal Turenne and a member of a well-known
Protestant family, had expressed doubts regarding the
* CorresponJance, vol. i, Nos. 54, 63, 67.
t Ibid., vol. ii, No. 187. \ Ibid., vol. ii, No. 182.
Ibid. t vol. ii, Nos. 239, 249.
The Conversion of Turenne 65
Faith in which she had been reared, and desired that
Bossuet and Claude, the Protestant minister of Charen-
ton, who had for years been in close relation with her
kindred, should hold a discussion in her presence re-
garding their differences in belief. The result was the
conference which has won such immense celebrity.
Claude had established his reputation as a writer and
as a theologian by his Defense de la Reformation* and
his party could not have furnished a worthier representa-
tive^ therefore the contest excited widespread interest.
Claude embarked upon it against his better judgment \
and against the aavice of his friends. Mile, de Duras
declared that she looked to him to allay the doubts that
were assailing her, and if he refused to meet Bossuet
he would leave her defenceless, but his experience of
human nature prepared him for the sequel : the symp-
toms of a predisposition to conversion had become
familiar. The discussion took place at the house of
Madame de Roye, March i, 1678, in the presence of
six persons, of whom five were Huguenots. It occupied
five hours and was conducted with the utmost courtesy.
Before taking leave of Bossuet Mile, de Duras expressed
a wish that she might have his arguments in writing,
and shortly afterwards she was received into the Church.
As her wavering had been the occasion of the con-
ference her conversion implied the triumph of Bossuet.
The Huguenots did not accept her verdict, however,
and the resentment which had been aroused by the
Ex-position became acrid when an account of the incident
was printed. There had been an agreement between
the parties that the discussion should not be published,
but the version given to Mile, de Duras was copied and re-
copied until at length a pirate edition, issued at Toulouse
without the knowledge of its author, |j forced him in self-
* Published 1673 in response to Prjjugts Itgitimes contre le cahinisme
of Nicole.
f See Bayle : Dictionnaire, vol. v, p. 226.
$ Claude, J. : Rfyonse au livre de M. rfiveque de Meaux (1683),
p. 391. Ibid., p. 2.
|| (Euvres, vol. xiii, p. 499.
E
66 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
defence to prepare it for the press himself. After a
four years' interval a conversation lasting for five hours
cannot be set down verbatim, and the Conference avec
M. Claude should not be regarded as the relation of an
actual argument, but merely as one among the contro-
versial writings of Bossuet that are specially designed to
continue the work of the Exposition. Its theme was the
constitution and authority of the Church. As was in-
evitable, Claude replied at once,* and denied emphatically
that he had made certain admissions f imputed to him,
but his realization of the fruitlessness of protest is very
evident. His conviction that his belief was the true one
could not be shaken ; no argument of Bossuet's had
moved him, yet the Conference and its sequel must have
loomed large among the bitter memories of his closing
years, and the courage of his response to his opponent is
the courage of despair.
In following the controversial triumphs of Bossuet,
in reading his lucid statements of Catholic doctrine and
his stately refutation of every charge against his accuracy,
it is easy to forget the external advantage of his position
and the disabilities under which the Huguenots were
labouring. It may appear that his moderation and self-
restraint invited friendliness and gave no excuse for the
detestation with which, in certain quarters, he was re-
garded. Yet to men of violent temper, harassed and
tormented by the perpetual injustice to which the Pro-
testants were subjected before the days of open persecu-
tion, the assurance and composure that distinguished
Bossuet were in themselves an insult. This side of the
picture is vividly conveyed by Jurieu, the most savage of
his antagonists, in the succession of volumes which dealt
with Catholic misdoing and Protestant faithfulness.
" It is the clergy who are intent on driving us to despair "
* See R/portse, etc., op. cit., his account of conference, pp. 391456.
t His faith in the authority of Scripture is shown in his letters xl-xlv
((Euvres Posthumes, vol. v).
Particularly impressive is his Polittque du Clergt de France (1681),
which is mainly in the form of a dialogue between two Catholics Parisian
and Provincial.
See Les Derniers Efforts de I' Innocence Affligte (1682), p. 50.
The Conversion of Turenne 67
that is his conviction. Not the arrogance of the King,
or the intrigues of politicians, or even the brutal instincts
of the soldiery, could be held responsible for the miseries
of the Huguenots ; it was the clergy, represented by the
bishops, who inspired persecution, and therefore he held
them in abhorrence. And Jurieu reserved the most
poisonous shafts of his abuse for Bossuet, for he could
see nothing but cunning and hypocrisy in the attempt to
simplify the points of difference between the Reformers
and the Church. In this, indeed, he was representative
of his co-religionists. '""The convinced Protestants in
France had watched the negotiations with Ferry with
apprehension, and after the conversion of Turenne and
the appearance of the Exposition they refused to believe
that Bossuet acted in good faith. Thus he was forced to
pay the penalty for the dissimulation practised by others,
and a material check was imposed upon the usefulness
of his labours. It is plain that he did not foresee the
doom that awaited the Huguenots, and never gave
sufficient weight in his calculations regarding them to the
effect of injustice upon character. The Exposition was
translated into many languages, its circulation was im-
mense, and it made its writer famous. Its success
probably exceeded his anticipations ; nevertheless, the
purpose for which it was designed remained unachieved.
He had not written it to help his reputation but to com-
mend the Faith to those who had rejected it, and so restore
to France that unity of worship and belief that had been
hers in earlier times. And it does not appear that his
venture had any appreciable effect on Protestant opinion
as a whole, although it turned the scale in many individual
cases. Therefore, in its relation to the longing for re-
union which inspired it, the book must be regarded as a
failure.
I
Chapter VI. The Message of La Trappe
DURING the first four years of his life in Paris
Bossuet came into close and personal contact
with a spiritual drama so remarkable that its
impression on him was indelible. After nearly three
centuries, indeed, it still makes appeal to the imagina-
tion.
The hero of it bore the name of Armand Jean le
Bouthillier de Ranee*.* He was born in the same year
as Bossuet, and the two began their college career in
Paris f at the same time though not at the same college.
Both were recognized as possessing very remarkable
abilities, and Ranee had received clerk's orders and be-
come Canon of Notre Dame, as Bossuet was a Canon
of the Cathedral at Metz, before his twelfth birthday.
Despite these points of similarity, however, they were
separated as widely by fortune as by character. Ranee
was of good family, a godson of Cardinal Richelieu,
and singled out by him for favour ; an established place
in society was waiting for him, and he had all the gifts
that would enable him to take full advantage of it.
While he was still a child he had been appointed titular
Abbot of certain monasteries with large revenues, and
later he accepted the necessity of ordination as the con-
dition on which he held his wealth. At seventeen he
began to preach and his sermons attracted large con-
gregations. The fashion of the time allowed consider-
able licence to a young abbe", and Ranee" seems to have
submitted to the wishes of his family on his own terms
and refused to accept the obligations of an office he had
not desired.
' What are you doing to-day ? " asked an old com-
rade, meeting him in the street.
' This morning I shall preach like an angel, this
afternoon I shall ride like the devil," was the reply.
Such is the traditional anecdote and, whether the
* For study of Ranc see Sainte-Beuve : Hist, de Port Royal, vol. iv,
ch. vi.
t Levesque de Burigny says that Cospdan introduced them to each
other (Vie de Bossuet, p. 15).
Serrant: UAbbe" de Ranee" et Bossuef, p. 28.
The Message of La Trappe 69
dialogue actually took place or not, it indicates the
standard of conduct held by Ranee* himself and by many
others like him. The flow of words came easily and it
was pleasant to be the centre of an admiring crowd,
but he had been born into the class which claimed
amusement and self-indulgence as a right, and he saw
no reason to check his natural instincts because family
calculations had made him into a clerk and not a soldier.
Yet for a moment the thought of priesthood sobered him.
Family interest had obtained permission from the Pope
for his ordination before he had attained the necessary
age, but he hesitated, as though his natural levity were
paralyzed by the prospect of that great responsibility.
It was for a moment only. His natural gifts were just
those most likely to attract the highest honours and digni-
ties the Church could bestow, and it was folly to stumble
at the step that was a necessary preliminary to their
achievement.
When Bossuet, gravely reflecting on possibilities of
future usefulness, retired to quiet study and work at Metz,
his contemporary kept himself constantly before the
public. Ranee had inherited the family estate at Veretz
on his father's death, and monastic revenues gave him
plenty of money to spend ; he entertained largely and
magnificently, and indulged his passion for horses and
for hunting without stint. At the same time he con-
trived to maintain a reputation among serious persons,
for Paris was not out of reach : he was a Canon of Notre
Dame and a Doctor of the Sorbonne, and could use
opportunities of intervention in ecclesiastical disputes with
rare skill and diplomacy. His uncle was Archbishop of
Tours and Almoner to Gaston d'Orleans, who had re-
tired after his unfortunate connection with the Fronde
rebellion to his castle of Blois, and in 1656 this appoint-
ment as Almoner was transferred to Ranee.* The office
was much the same as that of domestic chaplain and was
regarded as a great honour. Gaston might be in partial
disgrace, but all the world remembered that for many
years, until the birth of Louis XIV destroyed his
* Dubois : Hist, de I'Abbt de Ranct, vol. i, p. 70.
70 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
prospects, only a very feeble thread of life had divided
him from the throne of France.
At this time Bossuet was not yet launched upon his
career and that of Ranee* was practically secure. He
was not, it is true, in the good graces of Mazarin, but the
Italian cardinal was not destined to be a permanent in-
fluence in France, and there was every reason for the
young abbe* to look forward to a brilliant future. His
way and that of the Canon of Metz did not lie together,
and it is probable that their acquaintance was only
formal, for they belonged respectively to parties within
the Church that were directly and openly antagonistic.
The influence of Vincent de Paul on the earlier period
of Bossuet's ministry was extremely strong, but it would
be impossible to maintain that Vincent de Paul dominated
the whole of the younger generation of clergy. His
standards were quite incompatible with any vestige of
worldly ambition, and, long before the death of their
founder, the austere example of the priests of the Mission
had lost the attractiveness of novelty. The affectations
of pulpit oratory which were an abomination at St.
Lazare still drew large congregations in the fashionable
churches, and, nearly forty years later, Fe'nelon declared
that the young man who desired celebrity as a preacher
must collect resounding phrases, but need not know
their meaning ! *
It was to correct just that system of which the Abbe*
de Ranee' was representative that M. Vincent had founded
his Tuesday Conferences and the society that gathered
round them, but Ranc was very far from desiring that
the system to which he owed an enjoyable existence
should be corrected. Towards Bossuet, his equal in age,
in learning, and in ability, whose conceptions of the
obligations of the priesthood differed so conspicuously
from his own, it is likely that his attitude of mind was
one of polite hostility. Nevertheless, though he avoided
the society of serious persons and did his best to silence
all suggestions of remonstrance or rebuke, his own brain
was uncomfortably vigorous and apt to raise disturbing
* (Euvres de Fe'nelon, vol. xri. p. 53.
The Message of La Trap-pe 7 1
questions. The exact motive of his conversion, when
it came, has been disputed. It has been said of him by
a great French critic * that " he did nothing by halves " ;
he was violent in study, in talk, in preaching, in hunting.
Rumour ascribed to him a passion for the well-known
beauty, Madame de Montbazon, and presumably he was
violent in love. She died with extreme suddenness,
and the shock altered him.f An alteration had been
noted earlier, however ; her death only set the seal on a
gradual development.
Three years later, in 1660, Ranee watched the slow
dying of Gaston d'Orleans among the pomps and
glories of the castle at Blois. That scene was an im-
pressive sequel to the other and more ghastly vision of
death, yet it is unlikely that either had much bearing
on the subsequent alteration of his life. The precise
point of inspiration or of motive that decides the con-
version of a soul is hard to fix, and it is a temptation to the
historians who treat of Ranch's early life to depict it as
if a succession of lawless escapades preceded an in-
evitable crisis. In fact, his way of life was that of many
others, and it was a way that many continued to pursue
without being arrested by any melodramatic event ;
indeed, the expectation of those most nearly allied to him
by ties of blood or friendship was to see him an arch-
bishop or a cardinal before he died. Moreover, the
tragic end of the lady he had loved was merely one,
albeit the most dramatic, of a sequence of events.^ He
was of those who are allowed to feel the Touch of God,
and his real history, after that great experience, is a
gradual progress in submission.
This is not the place to follow him in his difficult
return to the life of self-discipline and order which was
his obligation as a priest. He needed guidance, and at
first he sought it among the veterans of the Port Royal
school of thought. The violence of his revolt against his
own misdoing prepared him for the rigorous teaching
* Sainte-Beuve : Hist, de Port Royal, vol. iv, p. 45.
f Serrant: op. cit., p. 45.
Gervaise: Fie de rAbbtde Ranee", p. 141.
7 2 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
with regard to penitence which was the leading charac-
teristic of Jansenist doctrine, and it would have been a
natural sequel to his spiritual experiences if he had joined
himself to the little group of Hermits of Port Royal.
The fact that he did not do so is a testimony to the super-
natural strength of the vocation of a Religious, for in other
directions he conformed to the searching demands of
Jansenist guides and was as violent in repentance as he
had been in all other departments of life. Early in 1657
he was still associated with the gayest society in Paris.
Only three years later he had decided to dispose of all
his possessions and revenues, with the exception of those
that came from the Monastery of La Trappe and his
Priory at Boulogne, at which last place he intended to
use his right of residence. In 1660, when he was occu-
pied with the settlement of his affairs, he lodged with the
Oratorians in the Rue St. Hbnore', close to the Louvre
and therefore close to Bossuet's abode,* Bossuet had
constant relations with the Oratorians, and the immense
alteration in Ranee* disposed of the barrier of fundamental
disagreement which had formerly made friendship be-
tween the two an impossibility. For both of them,
in differing ways, the future was undecided, but long life
awaited both, and the alliance of mutual love and rever-
ence, founded between them as youth developed into
maturity, was destined to continue unbroken while life
lasted.
In his sermons of 1661 and 1662 Bossuet dwells
specially on the necessity of penitence and on the practical
change in conduct without which penitence is ineffec-
tive.f During those years such a living exposition of the
practice of penitence was unfolding itself before his eyes
as must, by force of contrast, have robbed the lukewarm
methods of prudent persons of all semblance of reality.
44 At first," said Ranc, looking back on his conversion,
44 my intentions went no further than a harmless life
in the country : but God showed me that more was
* Serrant: op. a'/., p. 62.
f See especially sermon for first Sunday in Lent, No. 4 (CEuvres,
vol. ii, p. 57).
The Message of La Trappe 73
required of me, and that a calm and peaceful life such as
I pictured was not suited to one whose youth had been
abandoned to the spirit of the world and its evil doing." *
The real key to his strange history lies in the phrase
" God showed me." His example was not one to be up-
held for imitation in its detail, his experience was in-
dividual to himself, yet his theory of life might safely
be applied to all conditions, for he held that to those who
honestly desire it God's direction is made clear, and that
a man who hears the Divine Command has no further
possibility of choice.
La Trappe,f of which monastery he was secular
abbot, had been founded in 1140. He had enjoyed its
revenues for nearly thirty years and had never disturbed
himself about its condition. According to the custom
of the time he was not blameworthy on this account ;
such posts had long been sinecures, granted by royal
favour, and many a priest living a good and useful life
of service to the Church depended for subsistence on
a religious house which he never visited. But the
Monastery of Notre Dame de la Trappe had become a
centre of brigandage and evil living and an open
scandal in the neighbourhood, and rumour regarding it
became so insistent that its abbot was forced to leave the
austere retirement of his Priory at Boulogne and embark
upon a personal inquiry. He went there in August 1 662,
and he found conditions which justified the most sensa-
tional of tale-bearers.
There are some great leaders of the Church of whom
it can be said that they were marked for the priesthood
from their cradle : of such are St. Francois de Sales,
St. Vincent de Paul, and Bossuet himself. It is im-
possible to think of them as fulfilling any other vocation ;
all their endowment of gifts and qualities tends towards
the one object. But Armand de Ranee* belonged to a
wholly different type. Nature had equipped him to be
a soldier and a sportsman, and his natural tendencies
* Sainte-Beuve : Port Royal, vol. iv, ch. v.
f In Normandy, between Mortagne and Aigle.
Dubois: op. cit., vol. i, p. 212.
74 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
continued to express themselves in his methods and
actions through all the years after his conversion till his
death. The situation at La Trappe gave scope for
capacities which had long been lying fallow, for it de-
manded courage, initiative, and swift decision. The
little company who inhabited the ruinous monastery
were in league with the band of outlaws in the surround-
ing forests, and it might have appeared a somewhat
hopeless enterprise for a single individual, coming
suddenly upon the scene, to insist upon obedience to
monastic rule. Ranee* was evidently quite indifferent
to threats of personal violence, and among those with
whom he had to deal such indifference was a most
valuable asset : he refused offers of assistance and pro-
tection, and fought his battle in his own way with the
rebel monks, who legally owed him obedience, until he
won it. They recognized inVhim a recklessness that
matched their own, but it was a recklessness that had
been sanctified, and, eventually, they bowed before him.
Bossuet, under the same circumstances, would un-
questionably have taken the wiser and more certain
course towards the achievement of his desired object,
and have laid the case before the proper authorities in
Paris. Ranee* staked credit, authority, and life itself,
and, if he had lost, the position would have been far more
difficult to deal with by reason of his attempt at inter-
vention.
When the battle was won its results needed consolida-
tion, and there was no further question of a future of
monastic quiet at Boulogne ; the ruins of La Trappe had
to be made habitable and monks of the same Order
established in community with the repentant rebels to
institute the observance of the Rule. The way of the
reformer was not a smooth one, but the original contest
had aroused all the natural ardour of his temperament
and his zeal increased with every difficulty. In his
vision La Trappe was to be restored to the position which
it had held in bygone times as a perpetual witness to the
power of the Religious Life at its purest, and he himself,
having done his part, was to live under its shadow and
The Message of La Trappe 75
share in the blessing on the life of prayer maintained
within its walls. Obviously the vision was incomplete.
It may be arguable that a section of the human race is
set apart by Nature to fill the office of spectator towards
the rest, but Ranee had no place within that section.
Perhaps if he looked back to the hour of his conversion
and realized that every possession or employment which
was then dear to him had been renounced, it may have
seemed that the command to do violence to himself had
been fulfilled. He had had at all times an exaggerated
shrinking from the habit of the monk and all that it
implied,* and in his questionings as to the future that
God intended for him he had seen this repugnance as a
bar to the regular life of the cloister. He had, in fact,
intended to achieve the serenity of the Religious Life
without accepting its discipline. But the call that came
to him through his Abbey of La Trappe was not an
uncertain whisper : it was one of those claims which
are, for those who have the courage and the grace to
admit them, a direct gift from God. Armand de Ranee*
heard it and quailed before it, but, having recognized
from whence it came, he obeyed promptly and un-
reservedly.
To carry out the purpose which grew more and more
distinct in outline before his mental vision, it was necessary
that he should obtain the King's permission to become a
monk without relinquishing his authority as abbot.
The abuse of these abbatial appointments was very con-
venient to a sovereign who wished to recompense a useful
servant or please a favourite, and any suggestion savour-
ing of protest with regard to them was not well received.
But Ranee secured the good offices of the Queen-mother
and was prudent in the statement of his case. He came
to Paris on this errand in the late spring of 1663, and in
the summer of that year he had entered the novitiate of
the Benedictine Abbey at Perseigne.
As this spiritual drama gradually assumed definite shape
Bossuet was permitted to have intimate knowledge of it.
For more than thirty years after the great reform at the
* Dubois : op. fit., vol. i, p. 155.
76 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
Monastery of La Trappe his closest friendship was
given to Armand de Ranee", and the ties between them
must necessarily have been formed during the period
when they were both in close intercourse with the
Oratorians in Paris. In the violent measures which
Ranee* thought advisable he had no supporter more loyal
than Bossuet. The great theologian and controversialist
was distinguished for his moderate and prudent dealing,
and, until self-control grew tremulous beneath the fret and
toil of seventy years of life, he maintained this reputation.
Perhaps the contrast between the fiery and restless zeal
of the Trappist monk and his own inherent deliberateness
accounted for the mutual attraction in which friendship
originated, but such a friendship could not have
endured without certain potential capacities in Bossuet's
nature which were never fulty exercised. The stream
of active and successful living bore him along too swiftly
for the true development of his interior being, and, as the
years passed and the vast importance of his work for the
Church and for the nation became more and more evident,
his life was marked increasingly by hidden failure. The
work that seemed to lie within the possibilities of his
accomplishment was so huge in its proportions that it
absorbed him ; one claim upon his intellect followed
another, each one demanding for itself a concentration
of his learning and literary skill, and the pace only
quickened as his age advanced. But his unwavering
devotion to Armand de Ranee", his unfailing interest
in all that concerned La Trappe, must be recognized as
an expression of those unsatisfied cravings of his nature
which had been so evident in the earlier stages of his
career. There is a measure of truth in the adage that a
man may be judged by his friends, and the strongest
friendship in the life of Bossuet goes far to prove that he
clung constantly to the high ideals and visions of his
youth, and fell from them only with self-reproach
and honest sorrow. La Trappe was a perpetual
witness to the power with which the Voice of God
can speak directly into the hearts of men, and the
remembrance of it was an abiding refuge for a mind
The Message of La Trappe 77
tarnished by political compromise and distracted by
controversial struggle.
In the winter of 1662 Bossuet preached the funeral
sermon for Pere Bourgoing, Superior of the Oratorians.*
At that time Ranee was still questioning his own vocation,
but its summons even at that stage was based upon a
poignant realization of eternity, and the Trappists of the
future were taught by him to regard their life as a pre-
paration for death. It was on this thought (which had
dominated his first written Meditation) that Bossuet
dwelt especially from the pulpit of the Oratorians, and
his words seemed to hold an echo of the battle that was
raging in the solitude of the Norman forest. " When I
think of my own life and then of eternity, and of that
awful moment when its doors will open to me, all I can
do is completely out of proportion to that which God's
justice must require of me." f Thus had the future
Trappist written, and Bossuet, giving other form to the
same thought, showed how Francois Bourgoing had
been able to meet death.
" By privation of delight he so loosened the chain that
bound him to his body that no violence was needed to
free him from it. A man such as this, who cares nothing
for the present and has fixed his hopes completely on the
future, sees nothing cruel or inexorable in the approach
of Death ; instead, he welcomes her with outstretched
arms. ' O Death,' he cries, ' thou canst not harm me,
thou art taking nothing that is dear to me, thou art
claiming only my mortal body and I have been striving
all my life to loose its hold upon me. O Death, I thank
thee. Here is no interruption of my plans but their
accomplishment.' '
The picture that Bossuet painted is full of suggestions
of monasticism, but the Oratorians, of whom Bourgoing
was Superior, were not monks, and it is possible that
Ranee, face to face with his terrible decision, was so much
the subject of the preacher's thoughts and prayers that
he had his influence on the sermon. For himself Bossuet
* (Euvres, vol. xii, p. 643.
t Ranc< : Lettres de PiM, No. vii.
7 8 Jacques Benigne Eos suet
did not pretend, even in that early time when the illusions
and uncertainties of inexperience still remained to him,
that he should choose the dying life, nor was there ever
a moment when his grasp on the plans and labours he
had made his own was loose or easy to detach ; but he
had the power of projection into the souls of others and
could draw knowledge from their experience. We find,
in the sermon with which he opened his Lenten course *
in the Carmelite chapel a few months later, the outline of
those spiritual events which transformed the Abbe* de
Ranee", the favourite of the Paris salons, into the humblest
of Benedictine novices. The two stages are given
vividly. The first when the man who chooses sin without
denying God stifles his fears by relying upon the im-
mensity of Divine mercy. The second when, coming to
himself, he can see only the immensity of Divine justice
and his own deserts. It was a portrayal of the drama
that had been enacted in the castle of Veretz by one who
" did nothing by halves." Within those walls levity
had reigned supreme until it was driven out -by a
despair no less undisciplined and perilous. Bossuet
made it his mission to study and to clear away
misconceptions that obscured the Faith in many
directions, but the creed of the vague believer was even
harder for his intellect to grasp than definite heresy,
and it was here that Ranc, by the remembrance of
personal experience, could enlighten him. In this
Lenten course he denounces tolerance towards sin as
a suggestion from the Evil One, yet he insists that realiza-
tion of the justice of God must not be divided from the
remembrance of His mercy. This was just the lesson
that the world to which Ranee* had belonged could not
assimilate. One party grasped tolerance too readily,
the other made life and death a dream of terror by
visualizing justice. Among the well-dressed persons
who thronged the fashionable churches there was a
tendency to swing to and fro betwixt the two extremes,
finding consolation in the one and novelty and sensation
in the other. Bossuet, coming among them from a world
* (Euvres, vol. ii, p. 402. Cf. Ibid., p. 216.
The Message of La Trappe 79
which was not theirs and striving to confront them with
reality, was not the most popular of preachers.
In the letters of counsel and direction which belong
to a later period he never appears as the advocate of
violent external mortification, and his penitents are
treated with invariable patience. Yet it is evident that
the purest admiration of which he was capable was ac-
corded to one who had chosen deliberately to renounce
all enjoyment, and who carried the idea of the dying life
so far as to declare that his monastery should be regarded
as his tomb. " Jesus Christ only showed one way by
which mankind might reach the joys He holds for them ;
it is the way of difficulty, the way of the Cross " such
was the Trappist's New Year greeting to Madame de
Guise,* the daughter of his former patron, Gaston
d'Orleans. Or again, in a letter to a monk, we find his
summary of a Christian's duty stated yet more incisively:
' The first point is to keep before you unceasingly the
severity of God's judgment, and, side by side with that,
His promise of eternal happiness to those who are His
servants. Those who have this double vision learn to
despise themselves and to have that holy hatred taught
in the Gospels, and, having learnt to regard themselves
as naught and of no more account than dust and ashes,
they are eager to cast themselves beneath the feet of other
men and to suffer quietly with patience whatever is
hardest and most unwelcome. Nothing will seem too
much to bear if you are sufficiently constant in your
remembrance of the reward that God has promised to
obedience." f
The direct simplicity of Ranee's teaching cannot be
surpassed ; in his mind the thought of eternity ab-
sorbed all other considerations, he saw this life as a
preparation for the next, and any duties that had no
immediate relation to the practice of mortification were
ignored. Those who were drawn into the solitudes of
La Trappe advanced, in the wake of their leader, further
and further into the extremes of austerity. The quality
* Quoted Dubois : op. '/., vol. ii, p. 497.
t Ranee: Lettres de Pittt, No. 5.
8o "Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
and quantity of the food were reduced until it was barely
sufficient to sustain life, the silence became more com-
plete, the manual work more arduous. War to the
knife was waged against all natural human instincts, for
Armand de Ranee* had never been moderate in his use
of any of life's gifts and he was excessive in renunciation.
But he found followers as zealous as himself. To modern
eyes there is a savage element in the practices of the
great Trappist and his disciples, and it cannot be main-
tained that their life interpreted the teaching of their
Master. The mission to which Ranee" and his followers
were called must be regarded as special to themselves
claimed of them by the generation to which they be-
longed. And it must be judged in relation to the other
side of the picture, with remembrance of the nature and
frequency of the sins for which, on behalf of others as
much as for themselves, the Trappist monks continually
did penance. " A miracle is required to enable a man
to live like a Christian in the world " * so wrote the
Abbe de Ranee", pronouncing his considered judgment
on that world of the rich and educated which was
intimately familiar to him. His intention for his
monks and for himself went far deeper than any out-
ward austerity. He gave himself no quarter : " Al-
though I profess to live the life of poverty, although I am
actually poor, I have not approached that real destitution
which should be mine." f Written from the silence of
La Trappe by a man who had renounced every possession
and allowed himself nothing but the barest necessities
for the support of life, there is a terrifying suggestion
in the searching of heart those words imply. And he
had the power to infect others with his own spirit. The
novitiate was as hard an experience as he could make it,
for the novice was free to go, and he knew that only those
who shared his vision of the vocation of the Trappist
could persevere, and that for them no severity could be
too great.
Le Camus, another celebrated convert of that genera-
tion, who is said to owe his conversion to a visit to La
* Lettres de PiM, No. 30. f I6M-> No. 7.
The Message of La Trappe 8 1
Trappe,* and whose personal life, as bishop and after-
wards as cardinal, was austere as that of a monk,
recognized the value of the impression that La Trappe
produced, and paid his tribute. " Everyone sees the
marvel of it," he wrote to Antoine Arnauld, " and it
makes its appeal to each one according to his temperament.
I rejoiced in the silence there, but in that I found nothing
astonishing. To those who have ceased to listen to the
world and who are listening for the voice of God it can
only be pain to speak themselves. That which made
special appeal to me was the complete and unhesitating
obedience to the Superior. For he is very severe with
his monks and reprimands them sharply, and they accept
it readily. My own pride makes this seem to me the
hardest part for the natural man to bear." f
The natural man is disposed to ask why he should bear
continuous humiliations and discomforts invented with
the sole purpose of inflicting suffering upon him, and
his reason will not supply him with an answer. Yet all
the innumerable enemies that joined themselves together
to crush La Trappe were powerless against the spirit
that animated it. And while it is easy for the critic and
the general reader to fall upon the detail of the life that
was led there, and dissect it and heap contumely on its
exaggerations, it must be remembered that the detail
of the other life which provoked this savage protest is
familiar only to the student. We may think that the
human race is no nearer to dominion over sin than it was
three hundred years ago ; we may shrink from the vice
that is rampant everywhere to-day : yet our understanding
of that bygone time is inadequate because we do not
realize the prevalence of black iniquity in every social
grade. To enlarge on this subject would not tend to
edification, nevertheless a picture of the period bears no
relation to the truth if it fails to indicate the heavy
shadows of depravity, that brooded over the brilliancy of
the Court no less than over the taverns and gambling
dens of the city.
* Dubois: op. '/., vol. i, p. 454.
t Ingold: Lettres du Cardinal Le Camus, No. 51.
82 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
The men of his own generation could understand the
protest of Armand de Ranee* because they were face to face
with the conditions that evoked it, and Bossuet was not
alone in giving sympathy and'applause without an en-
deavour towards imitation. Le Camus in his mountain
diocese might emulate the austere practice of La Trappe,
but a Court ecclesiastic could find many arguments to
prove that mind and body should be maintained at the
highest point of competence. When Bossuet lived
hardly his incentive was intellectual rather than spiritual ;
it was not to conform to a^ny standard of asceticism that
he kept night-watches, but because his work demanded
it. Yet in his youth, before the world laid hold of him,
he had grasped the fallacy of human values as clearly
as did Ranee' at a later time : there is evidence of that
early gift of vision in his boyish Meditation and in his
letters to Alix Clerginet. Then he had seen life as an
episode and death as a goal. But his life grew full of
absorbing and productive tasks and the schemes, he out-
lined for the future took no account of death. And yet,
although the years that confirmed Armand de Ranee*
in his folly, gave him a stronger hold on this world's
wisdom, he had no moment of revulsion against La
Trappe and its grim practices. Until old age descended
on him he returned there when he could snatch an interval
of leisure, seeking the peace that was not to be found
in the midst of Court duties or controversial labour.
Chapter VII. The Court Preacher
IT was in 1662 that Bossuet received the royal com-
mand to preach Lent at the Louvre. The first mile-
stone of his march towards fame had been reached
on that autumn day in 1657, when Anne of Austria
came to the Cathedral at Metz to hear his panegyric of
St. Teresa. The famous Mission had been the imme-
diate and direct result, and from that beginning sprang
the conviction that Paris claimed his powers. Louis XIV
had married Maria Teresa of Spain in 1660, but the
Queen-mother had more influence than the Queen-
consort, and Anne of Austria, in the evening of her
turbulent life, found greater distraction in the hearing of
sermons than in any Court entertainments, and was a
good judge of the merits of a preacher. In 1662 it had
become evident to her perceptions that the atmosphere
of the Court was heavy with rumour of evil things.
She was then a spectator only, but she had acquired in
her many years upon the stage a keen eye for every
movement of the drama. She recognized sincerity of
righteousness in Bossuet, and, with a simplicity of faith
which is not without pathos, she turned to him. Probably
a priest of wider experience would have served her pur-
pose better, for Bossuet in those days was striving after
the example of Vincent de Paul to maintain mind and
spirit on a level above the developments of politics or
of scandal, and it was only by degrees that he gathered
knowledge of the evils which the Queen-mother desired
him to exorcise.
In March of the previous year (1661) Cardinal
Mazarin had died. The King, kept under tutelage
until then, had had leisure to study the autocratic methods
of the Minister, and he seized the opportunity to assume
the complete control which had long been vested in a
single individual. He had been married one year and
had attained the age of twenty-two. Events succeeded
each other swiftly. A few weeks after the emancipation
which he had achieved on the death of Mazarin, his
brother married Henrietta of England, sister of
Charles II, and she proved an able assistant in the altering
84 Jacques Eenigne Eossuet
of Court routine to afford greater facilities for pleasure.
It was the opening of a brilliant epoch in the history of
the country as well as of the Court. In the years that
succeeded, the army under the nominal command of the
sovereign, passed from victory to victory. After the
sensational downfall of Fouquet in September 1661
Colbert was given charge of finance, and because he
proved himself to be a financier of irreproachable in-
tegrity the benefit of his administration was felt through-
out the State. His efforts would have been unavailing,
however, if Louis hand contracted those lavish habits
whereby he brought ruin on his people at a later time.
In fact, the impression left by certain tragic hours had
endured. At the time of the Fronde and afterwards
the King of France may be said to have known penury,
and the remembrance of that experience, so long as it
remained vivid, taught him to value money. He had
also a high idea of his position. In the curious " Memoirs
for the Instruction of the Dauphin " composed by him
before his thirtieth year, he defines regal position very
clearly, and throws a certain light on the society he
dominated by declaring his own estimate of his claim to
domination.
" As regards himself the sovereign may be persuaded
of this," he wrote, " that by reason of his superiority in
rank over other men he sees everything that may occur
more clearly than they can do, and therefore he should
have greater confidence in his own impressions than in
any evidence that comes to him from without. There
are some branches of our calling in which holding as
we may be said to do the place of God we seem to
be given a share of His knowledge as well as of His
authority, in such things as reading of character, in the
assigning of offices, and in the granting of favours, these
being matters on which our decisions have more value
when we have reached them unassisted than when we
have sought counsel from others " * To this the
King, whose memoir in the main was intended for his
people and for posterity, appends a special note addressed
* MSmoires de Louis XIV. Edited C. Dreyss. Vol. ii, p. 238.
The Court Preacher 85
to the Dauphin. " What I have said here should claim
all the closer attention from you because there is no one
except myself who could discuss with you such an ex-
tremely delicate subject."
In his capacity as king, Louis believed that he pos-
sessed a measure of Divine Omniscience, as well as that
supreme authority which was the right of kings, and,
in part because of the success of those whom he appointed
to posts of high responsibility, he was able to impose his
belief upon his subjects. He was mindful of the public
interest also, and introduced reforms * in the conditions
of life in Paris, which were copied in the provincial towns
and earned him the gratitude of honest citizens through-
out the realm. In dwelling, as it is necessary to do, on
that side of life in which his abuse of power is so pro-
minent, the kingly qualities in Louis should never be
forgotten. To his subjects his sins and follies were
blurred by the glamour of royalty, and, even by the most
censorious, the temptations of his early years of freedom
must be acknowledged to have been overwhelming.
In the months before Bossuet received his first sum-
mons to the Louvre there was enacted, within half a mile
of his abode in Paris, an intimate drama from which
sprang a long train of events of historical and of spiritual
import. In the Rue de Bouloi stood the branch house
of the Carmelites, whither the Queen-consort resorted, far
too frequently, to assuage her boredom and homesickness
among the Spanish nuns.f A stone's throw further east
was the Hotel de Soissons, surrounded by its gardens.
Here, since her marriage, dwelt Olympe Mancini4 niece
of Cardinal Mazarin. She had been the first object of
the boy-King's adoration : she was the elder by some
years, and she believed that she retained some of the
* See Clement : La Police sous Louis XIV.
t Duclos: Madame de La Valliereet Marie Tkfrese d'Autric he, p. 205.
\ Important to English readers as the mother of Prince Eugene. The
date of her marriage is given as October 1663 by Voltaire (Sietle de
Louis XIV, ch. xviii);jby Madame de Motteville February 1657
(M/moires, vol. iv, p. 467).
Madame de Motteville : Mtfmoires, vol. iv, p. 417.
86 "Jacques Benigne Bossuet
power that had been hers during that childish episode.
An excuse was needed to separate herself from the Court,
and she found it in a quarrel * with Madame de Navailles,
the first lady-in-waiting and a favourite with the two
Queens. It was a propitious moment for intrigue :
absolute monarchy vested in a youth of twenty-two gives
scope for strange experiments, and Olympe Mancini
considered the position, with all the craft her great kins-
man brought to th$ affairs of State, and laid her plans
with a skill that equalled his. The sudden impulse that
will inspire the gambler to spurn the fruit of careful
calculations had made Mazarin's career dramatic, and in
this also his niece resembled him. Eventually her
fortunes came to shipwreck, but the success that attended
her first venture was quite sufficient to rob the Queen
of all her happiness.
It was her intention to establish at the Hotel de
Soissons a centre of society so attractive as to outbid the
Court itself and thus ensure the constant presence of the
King. Henrietta of England, to her eternal dishonour,
supported the scheme and so secured its success.f The
harm that resulted is impossible to measure, but in
extenuation of her guilt it may be urged that she was
herself only a girl, heedless and pleasure-loving, and her
prudish Spanish sister-in-law had failed to arouse either
her affection or her loyalty. While the young Queen
drooped at the Louvre in comparative solitude or sought
consolation among the Carmelites of the Rue de Bouloi,
a gay crowd, completely frivolous and irresponsible,
followed the King and Madame to the Hotel de Soissons.
Louis was declaring his independence of that authority
which his mother had striven to maintain over his private
life ; he defied convention in order to show that he claimed
absolute liberty of action, but, in fact, when he was drawn
into the net that Olympe Mancini had prepared for him,
he gave himself up to a slavery from which he never
escaped until his life's end. The intrigues of the Italian,
according to contemporary memoirs, appear to have been
* Madame de Motteville : Mtmoires, vol. v, p. 189.
f Ibid., vol. v, pp. 198-200.
The Court Preacher 87
excessively complicated, and her main object of gaining
personal mastery over the King's will was never achieved.
Yet for a time her little court was as potent an influence
as that of Madame de Rambouillet had been in the
previous generation, and she ruled over a circle which was
more representative of society than any that gathered
at the Louvre. The first essential for fellowship with
Olympe Mancini was repudiation of all accepted
principles regarding truth-telling and duty. It was under
her guidance that the King flung honour to the winds,
and eventually Madame de Montespan reaped where
she had sown. By a most singular irony of Fate, how-
ever, she herself missed all the profit of her labour ;
the great enterprise of the Hotel de Soissons failed, and
its mistress was defeated by a rival whose insignificance
placed her beneath suspicion.
In the days when the Abbe de Ranee was Almoner
to Gaston d'Orleans at Blois, one of the inmates of the
castle was a young girl whose gentleness and modesty
of demeanour had won special recognition from the
prince.* She shared the studies and infrequent amuse-
ments of the three princesses, her contemporaries in age,
and when Gaston died she went with them to Paris.
She was penniless and unprotected and, after the melan-
choly court at Blois had broken up, her future hung in
the balance until, by an unexpected twist of destiny,
she was given a place as maid-of-honour in the household
of the English bride, known to Court circles as Madame.
Not without reason did she feel herself a favourite of
Fortune, for she had little claim on so coveted an office.
She was not connected with any of the great families
who ruled society, she was slightly lame, and shy and
retiring in manner. Indeed, it would have been hard
to find another figure in the surroundings of the Court
so inconspicuous as hers. Her name was Louise de La
Valliere.
In judging the familiar story and its heroine it is well to
remember the background. The royal mistress, herself
* Brulart de Sillery : Vie Ptnitente de Madame de La Falliere, Intro-
duction, p. 5.
88 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
a girl of seventeen and utterly unfitted to be regarded
as leader and example to the group associated with her ;
the youthful Court, more dangerous because there were
as yet no open scandals to serve as warnings to the few
who were really innocent ; and behind it all, presiding
over the enterprise that tended most towards evil,
Olympe Mancini. It seems that Madame used her
maid-of-honour halloas decoy and half as shield in her
endeavour to establish a serious influence over the King.*
He sought the society of his sister-in-law because she
was beautiful and witty and high-spirited, and his Spanish
wife was not amusing ; and she cherished ambitious
visions of the power she might wield if she could make
herself indispensable to his contentment. Madame de
Soissons, as we have seen, had aspirations of a similar
kind, and to neither of the two did it occur that the
maid-of-honour, with her halting step and downcast
eyes, was anything more than a useful supernumerary
in the scenes that they devised.
It has been the custom amongst sentimental his-
torians to depict Louise de La Valliere as a victim ; she
is referred to as " a gentle lamb " and " a meek violet,"t
but these terms are misleading.^ It seems clear that
she allowed herself to fall in love with the King, and it
was only when an observant courtier guessed her secret
and divulged it that the attention of Louis was directed
to her. Tradition says, and probably it is true, that
her love was quite disconnected from the high estate of
its object ; || she desired the position that afterwards was
hers none the less, and became the mistress of the King
with hardly less deliberation than did Madame de
Montespan at a later time. And the evil of her
example was only the more insidious because it was
veiled with true and disinterested attachment. Insist-
* Madame de La Fayette : Me"moires, 2 me partie.
t Madame de SeVigne" : Lettres, vol. vii, No. 848.
$ See Lair, J. : Louise de La Falliere,
Anon. : La Vie de la Duchesse (1708), p. 92.
|| " Elle aima le roiet non la royaute" " (Madame de Caylus : Souvenirs,
P- 32)-
The Court Preacher 89
ence on the naked truth of her position is desirable
because the sequel of her career that sequel with which
Bossuet was so intimately associated loses its full
significance if the guilt of her years of triumph is dis-
counted. Throughout, her history is full of curious con-
tradictions. At first the favoured maid-of-honour had
to endure every difficulty and humiliation that the wrath-
ful ingenuity of Madame Henriette could devise, and
then she found support against them in the triumph of
her conquest ; yet later, when she was emancipated
from service and was leading the festivities at Court and
flaunting her glories before the Queen herself, she seems
to have flinched from all the shameful details of her
position. In fact, she had not the fibre of the successful
courtesan ; her happiest hours were snatched from those
precarious weeks during which her romance was hidden
from the world ; when she was at the highest pinnacle
of her success and had surrendered openly to all the
conditions of a royal favourite's existence she was fre-
quently the prey of remorse and dark forebodings.
The Queen-mother watched with dismay the rapid
growth of evil under the new regime and, seeing religion
as the only remedy, fixed all her hope on Bossuet's
eloquence. Certainly there was a dearth of immediate
or visible result, but the effectiveness of the preacher
cannot be measured by outward expression of response,
and his own belief in the possibility that sermons may
achieve spiritual miracles was unalterable. Indeed, his
faith in the supernatural powers of a preacher was in-
tense enough to communicate itself to others ; it was as
exalted as that of Louis XIV in the estate of kings.
" O God, give power to Thy word. O God, Thou
seest the place where I have been called to preach and
Thou knowest what may most fittingly be said. . . .
Sire, it is God that should speak from this pulpit ; may
it be that by His Holy Spirit He may do so ! " *
Thus on the first Sunday in Lent 1662 did the Abbe
Bossuet deliver himself in the presence of the King,
and, in those years before the meshes of the Court en-
* CEuvres, vol. ix, p. 56.
90 "Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
tangled him, there are tokens that he maintained himself
on a spiritual level which justified his claim to be, in this
direct and literal manner, the messenger of God. Pro-
bably among those whom he addressed there were very
few who scoffed at religion ; unbelief in those days was
rare, nor did the fever of excitement in which men lived
unfit them to receive a strong impression from an un-
expected quarter. It was not impossible that, from the
glowing reality of the preacher's faith, a ray of light
might pierce the slumbering conscience of one or another
among his hearers. The difficulties to be overcome
were grave ; the magnificent persons who gathered in
the royal chapel to listen to the new preacher were quite
aware that socially he was a nonentity and had no con-
nection with their world ; they would listen therefore
with reservations. And besides that barrier of rank,
which the tradition of that time and that country made so
particularly formidable, there was an actual and inevitable
lack of mutual understanding. Bossuet acknowledged
always that the sense of response from among his hearers
affected him, but there was little hope of response from
minds that were occupied with memories of wild revels
in the park at Fontainebleau, or with speculation as to
the newest excitement at the Hotel de Soissons. In such
an atmosphere it was a bold measure to insist that the
attendance at sermons had a sacramental aspect, and to
assure his auditors that if their lives bore no witness to
their hearing of the word of God they were guilty of
sacrilegious sin.* That was not a convenient doctrine
when his audience included the King and Madame and
the reckless throng that followed them, and it could not
be made to accord with accepted standards. Moreover,
in conjunction with actual events it was dangerously near
to the ridiculous, for everybody knew that the reason
of the absence of the King on one of the days of sermon
was his pursuit of Louise de La Valliere to a convent out-
side Paris where she had taken refuge.
That incident in itself was tawdry and discreditable.
The scorn and dislike of Madame for her maid-of-honour
* GEuvres, vol. ix, p. 1 1 6.
The Court Preacher 9 1
had combined with the despair of a lovers' quarrel to
make life intolerable,* and Louise had fled on foot by
the way that leads along the river's bank to Chaillot,
where an obscure convent allowed her shelter in an outer
parlour. Doubtless, in the midst of her agitation and
distress, she knew her power, and had no real doubt that
the King himself would follow and make her escapade a
nine-days' wonder. That he did so is a matter of history,
and thus a topic was provided for the Court that was far
more productive of reflection and discussion than any
of the suggestions of a Lenten preacher. The capacity
to maintain an undisturbed demeanour in the midst of
adverse influences is a valuable asset to a public man,
and Bossuet proved his possession of it on this occasion.
His tenacity regarding any belief he had once accepted
aided him, for his theory of a preacher's function had
become part of his faith in his own vocation.f The
indifference of his hearers did not lessen his responsibility
for the delivery of the message entrusted to him, and the
nature of that message is more important to his personal
history than any evidence regarding its results. He was
prominent as a preacher for a period which is small in
comparison to his length of life, and it is plain that his
contemporaries did not recognize his supremacy in
eloquence : Bourdaloue, and even Mascaron, made
stronger appeal to the public taste.:}: Nevertheless, the
study of his sermons is the surest guide to appreciation
of the greatness of his thought. As writer, as contro-
versialist, as politician, his pursuit of a fixed idea placed
him on occasions at a disadvantage, but as preacher he
used the means most adequate to the fulfilment of his
purpose. His great gift came to maturity during the
years in Paris. The sermons that belong to his period
of apprenticeship at Metz contain the exaggerations of
* Anon, : La Vie de la Duchesse (1708), p. 125.
t Cf. Lebarq : Hist. Crit., p. 357. " Tout sermon ("tait pour lui un
acte essentiellement sacerdotale"
\ For summary of evidence on this point see Hurel : Orateurs Sacr/s,
vol. i, pp. 206224. The refutation of Lebarq is inconclusive. See
op. fit., pp. 212, 330, 357, etc.
92 'Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
phrase and figure that are characteristic of youthful
ardour ; they show also that he was not wholly exempt
from the influence of that fashion of classical allusion
and quotation which in the earlier decades of the seven-
teenth century made pulpit oratory absurd.* It was
only when his life in Metz, and the many occupations
involved by his position there, were left behind that
he could concentrate on self-development. Not until
then does he seem to have realized his need of discipline
in the use of language and imagination. It is clear that
he owed nothing to his immediate predecessors ; f it was
on classic models that he desired to form himself. The
Memoir of Ledieu tells us ^ that in his youth it was his
practice to learn passages of Cicero by heart, and we have
his own testimony as to his methods, in that study on the
art of oratory which he composed in 1669 at the request
of the young Cardinal de Bouillon. ' Whatever I have
learnt of style," he says, " has come from books in Latin
and a little from the Greek . . . from Cicero, chiefly
from de Oratore and from the volume called Orator.
In this I find the examples of eloquence of greater use
than any directions it contains." Passing on from these
indications as to the choice of models, he discovers in a
phrase the secret of his own peculiar excellence. ' There
is nothing so essential to the mastery of style as complete
understanding of the subject treated and the possession
of wide knowledge. Cicero requires of his orator
multarum rerum scientiam"
When Bossuet preached, " the subject treated " was
always the doctrine of the Church in one or another of
its aspects. The practice of analyzing character and
exposing the ugliness of familiar sins, in which Bourda-
loue became so proficient, did not commend itself to
Bossuet as holding the promise of permanent result.
He said once, after many years' experience, that he had
* For examples see Vaillant : fitudes sur lei Sermons de Bossuet, pp.
148-152.
f See Gandar : Bossuet Orator, p. 1 1 .
% Ledieu : Mtmoires, p. 1 5.
Floquet : Etudes, vol. ii, pp. 515-524.
The Court Preacher 93
observed the readiness with which a man would acknow-
ledge his own resemblance to the sinner a preacher was
describing, and, having in this way admitted his mis-
doing, would feel the subject closed.* These studies in
human nature, coupled with a direct appeal to the in-
dividual conscience, were very moving and drew large
congregations, but Bossuet could not have made use of
them and remained true to himself. His own faith was
as a fire that burned within him and he sought to impose
the same conviction of the truth on the minds of others.
His diligent study of the Fathers during his years at
Metz served him in good stead, and the Bible was always
his constant and most familiar reading. No man since
St. Paul himself has " preached Christ " more em-
phatically or more assiduously, for no elaboration of
reasoning or flight of eloquence could draw him very
far from the actual sayings and example of Jesus.
Whether or no he was right in his aphorism regarding the
foundation of style, it is clear that for his own part he
united with his mastery of words and argument and
imagery, a familiarity with his subject that was the fruit
of long meditation : therefore as an exponent of the
doctrine of the Church he has no rival. It has been said
by a great student of his work that, while no one was
more thorough in giving proof of an assertion, he never
multiplied arguments ; those that he used were so con-
clusive that few were needed.f
It was a part of his strength that his faith was un-
wavering and unalterable, but, in a world where heresy
and indifference were so prevalent, it set him apart from
others and induced that sense of intellectual dominance
which proved so great a snare to him in later years.
While he preached in Paris, however, he was intent on
imparting those essentials of belief, which he regarded
as the sure foundation for conversion, to the heedless
throng gathered in church or chapel. He knew that
they had no desire for his teaching ; nevertheless he held
that the Grace of God might use some fragment of his
message against the intention of those who listened.
* (Euvres, vol. viii, p. 357. f Lebarq : op. a'/., p. 85.
94 Jacques Eenigne Bossuef
For many it may have been so ; the careless hearing that
they gave him may have borne fruit in after years, and
for some his words, recalled in a moment of revelation
or of disillusion, held a prophetic meaning. To Louise
de La Valliere, for instance, fresh from that hour of
triumph in the bare convent parlour at Chaillot, when
the most magnificent of kings had thrown aside/prudence
and state and ceremony for love of her, the story of the
Prodigal Son and the exhortation attached to it was a
subject very far off from interest or personal application.
Yet twenty years later, looking back to that Sunday at the
Louvre, she might have found her own strange experience
summed up in a single phrase of the preacher as he
described the Prodigal's return : " Plunged by unlawful
pleasure into an abyss of misery it was through this misery
itself that he found his way to the reality of happiness." *
As the days and weeks went on, his sense of each in-
dividual listener as a soul in need of saving grew stronger,
and a nebulous theory of the perils of the Court cry-
stallized into definite knowledge of actual sin. United
with his logic and his common sense he had the artist's
vision a power as precious in the spiritual as in the
natural world. He saw sin shadowing each one, and
he knew that the forms it was taking were not less loath-
some because the men were brave fighters and skilful
sportsmen, and the women as witty and accomplished as
any that the world produced. And as yet the glamour
of the Court had not dulled his ardour for the conquest of
individual souls. That year at Easter the King did not
receive the Blessed Sacrament, and his abstention, though
it was but a twisted tribute to the Lenten preacher, im-
plied an awakening to reality. Sin was not routed, but
it was revealed.
It is hard to form any true estimate of a character
without knowledge of the influences to which it sur-
renders or gives battle, and ordinary historical reading
throws little light on the conditions to which Bossuet
had to adapt his energies and his ideals. " A miracle is
needed to make the life of a Christian possible in the
* (Euvrfs, vol. x, p. 20 1.
The Court Preacher 95
world," Ranee had said. Bossuet aspired to be the
medium through whom such miracles might come to
pass, and so was brought into close contact with a world
where vice was common and accepted. To exhort and
admonish sinners is a duty that may be performed with-
out danger ; but to live in their midst, to receive friendly
advances from them with respect and gratitude, to see
what they are while making an appearance of accepting
them as that which they pretend to be these things can
hardly be done with complete impunity, and it was these
things that Bossuet, in the later development of his
destiny, was called upon to do.
In the Advent of 1665 and in the succeeding Lent,
a period shadowed by the illness and death of the Queen-
mother, Bossuet preached again at Court. This second
opportunity of winning the King's approval and assuring
his future fortunes was not used with greater prudence
than the first. His sermon for the first Sunday in
Advent (which at its close was addressed directly to
the King)* was a warning of such solemnity that the
idlers, obliged by etiquette to share in religious exercises
patronized by the sovereign, had just cause for resent-
ment. His insistence on the folly of spiritual somnolence
savoured of personal attack, and his daring carried him
so far beyond the limits of propriety that rank was no
protection. The King himself was warned that all his
recent triumphs would bring no lasting glory if the need
for personal well-doing was ignored. And the King,
in the insolence of his magnificent youth, had imposed
his conception of himself upon society until his sins,
being royal, had part in the admiration accorded to him.
If, as tradition says, society failed to accord to the
audacious orator the appreciation that he merited, the
reason is sufficiently obvious.
Yet by a curious chance society itself, from its inner-
most circle, furnished an illustration of an uncomfortable
truth which should not be unduly emphasized within
hearing of well-bred ears. On the third Sunday in
Advent there was no sermon in the royal chapel because
* (Euvres, vol. viii, p. 92.
96 Jacques Benign e Bossuet
His Majesty had given the Abbe* Bossuet permission to
obey a call to the bedside of a young courtier, a victim
of smallpox and at the point of death.* The dying man
was Gaston de Foix, duke and peer of France. To con-
sole him in his last hours Bossuet braved the peril of
infection and missed an occasion of filling the coveted
position of Court preacher. His absence and the reason
for it should have served the purpose of a sermon and
have given new force to his message when he reappeared ;
there is no evidence, however, of any awakening of
sleeping souls in answer to his summons.
If he hoped to strike at the conscience of the fair-
haired girl who at that moment represented the reign
of open immorality at Court, he failed signally ; triumph
was dominating shame in her just then, and the hour of
her awakening was still far distant. Yet each one of the
series of his sermons before these infatuated triflers was
so charged with the most solemn appeal, that the hidden
work begun in the Lent of 1662 went on. And there
was one among them, at any rate, who did not find it
easy to evade the challenge of which Bossuet was the
bearer. Henrietta of England, that imperious rebel,
had very few rivals in wit and understanding, and the
magic of perfect diction and flawless argument is more
effectual with vigorous minds than with the duller-witted.
She listened unwillingly to the eloquence of this bourgeois
priest to whom her mother-in-law had given such un-
necessary prominence, but her intellect could not refuse
response to his, and when Advent and Lent were over
his name did not fade from her memory, in spite of the
manifold schemes and disappointments which occupied
her. For it was destined, in her case as in that of Louise
de La Valliere, that he should play the 'leading part in the
scene that was the climax of her life, and the immortality
of her name is chiefly due to him.
At this period a vehement attack on sin in high places
was giving scope to that fighting spirit in him which
later was absorbed by controversy. There were times
when his words seemed to denote a zeal so fiery that all
* Levesque de Burigny : Vie de M. Bossuet, p. 63.
The Court Preacher 97
false splendours must perforce be shrivelled by it. And,
as he knew, lurking behind the splendour, there were
evil things ill-suited for exposure.
" There is a God in Heaven who is able to punish a
people for their misdoing, but most surely does He punish
kings who sin against Him. It is at His bidding that
I speak as I am doing, and if Your Majesty will but
listen for His Voice it will reveal that which men are not
allowed to say." * Only the daring of an immense con-
viction could have framed such words for the hearing of
Louis XIV, and the man who could speak them was not
careful of his own interests.
For more than three years after this Lenten course
in the royal chapels Bossuet had no direct or official
connection with the Court, and a considerable portion
of his time was spent at Metz. The death of Anne
of Austria in January 1666 lessened his chances of
important preferment, and it is noteworthy that he
received no invitation to deliver either of the official
Funeral Orations. The following January he preached
an anniversary sermon in the Carmelite Convent, Rue de
Bouloi, but this opportunity, so long after the event he
celebrated, did not call out his latent powers. His
fortunes at that period were by no means assured ; a
single pamphlet represented his literary output, and there
was a note of uncertainty in the admiration accorded to
his efforts as a preacher. This being so, it is not ex-
travagant to surmise that, if Marshal Turenne had re-
mained obdurate in adherence to his Protestant con-
victions, Bossuet would never have surmounted the
parapet of royal indifference which lay between his
projects of usefulness and their fulfilment. But he had
the credit of accomplishing that which the King desired,
and his reward, though it was not immediate, came to
him at length. He was staying with Dominique de
Ligny, Bishop of Meaux, on September 8, i669,f when
he received dispatches with the Royal Seal. They con-
tained his nomination to the bishopric of Condom and a
* GEuvres, vol. ix, p. 252.
f Reaume : Hist, de Bossuet, vol. i, p. 382.
98 Jacques Eenigne Eossuet
command to preach the Advent sermons before the Court.
It was vain to seek opportunities of public service without
the sanction of the King, and it was Bossuet's aim, within
the compass of his spiritual vocation, to be the servant
of his country ; therefore he welcomed this ttjken of the
King's approval. There was nothing dazzling in the
distinction, however. He was forty-two, and many men
with not a tithe of his capacity were in possession of im-
portant bishoprics at five-and-twenty. Nevertheless
Condom, though it was a distant diocese, gave him the
secure position which he needed, and thenceforward all
that he said or wrote acquired a new authority.
Ten years of work in Paris, without diminishing his
zeal, had modified his aim. Gradually the paucity of
triumphs in his crusade against the wickedness of the
world must have been forced on his perceptions, and in
his judgment of human questions he was eminently
practical. He had learnt that no open attack, however well
conceived or bravely carried out, would win success against
such forces of evil as were ranged against him ; he saw
the need for strategy, and by the adoption of new methods
he entered upon new conditions. His service did not
slacken, but his place in these new fields of labour could
not be reconciled with those austere ideals with which
St. Vincent had imbued him. In his last Advent
course before the Court there is evidence of the
change that had come to pass. The change does not
necessarily imply deterioration as a whole these sermons
represent his highest level as a preacher but it shows
the degree to which he could adapt himself to fresh
standards when there was sufficient warrant for read-
justment.
The scandals of the Court were black enough in the
Advent of 1665. In the four years that ensued they
grew tenfold blacker. The death of the Queen-mother
removed the only check upon the freedom of the King,
and, while he claimed to legislate for the lives of -others
and to decide on fashions and opinions, for himself he
recognized no law. In the days of that first romance with
Louise de La Valliere it was legitimate to hope that he
The Court Preacher 99
might still be touched by words of counsel and appeal.
Four years later all romance had been submerged in the
tide of open licence, and the arrogant defiance of the
King's attitude removed him beyond all human methods
of attack.
For Bossuet there was no solace save in pious hopes.
" God grant that at the Last Day our mighty King may
be beside St. Louis, who with outstretched arms will
draw him to his place. God grant that place may not
remain vacant " * His Advent series contains nothing
more personal to the King than this.
The main theme chosen for his last connected course
of sermons was the failure of professing Christians and
the spiritual incoherence from which such failure springs.
His thought has borne the test of time and is well worthy
of study in the present day. When he opened the series,
at the All Saints festival, he struck the solemn note which
called his hearers to consider the sacramental nature
of his office and their own. " It is I who speak to you.
It is I who warn you. It is I who claim your attention ;
but in secret the voice of Truth is speaking in my inmost
being and equally to you ; if this were not so all my words
would be but a vain beating of the air. Outwardly I
speak and you listen, but inwardly in the secret of our
hearts you and I alike are listening to the Truth which
is speaking to us and teaching us." f He had never
before approached them with the same intimate touch.
In fact, four years had increased his knowledge and he
had learnt that sympathy might serve his purpose better
than denunciation : '" You spend your life at Court, and
without attempting to enter upon the details of that
condition I will assume that life seems to you a pleasant
thing ; but presumably you are not so unmindful of the
tempestj by which these waters are so often lashed, as to
rely absolutely on the continuance of your happiness.
There is nothing on earth in which we place our trust
which does not hold the possibility of failing us, which
may not turn into unalleviated bitterness. Pleasure !
where will you lead us ? How far must we go in forget-
* (Euvres, vol. viii, p. 130. f Ibid,, p. 36.
ioo "Jacques Eenigne Eossuet
fulness of God and of ourselves ? What disaster and
downfall lie ahead ? "
In the month between All Saints and the beginning of
Advent Bossuet was frequently at St. Cloudy the palace
of Philippe d'Orle'ans, at the invitation of Madame.
One of the advantages of association with this gifted
lady and her circle was the intimate knowledge that it
gave him of the Court. Hitherto it had not been easy
for him to obtain such knowledge, yet it was essential
to the full usefulness of a Court preacher. At that
period the most interesting part in the social drama was
sustained by Madame de Montespan. To the initiated
she was known as the rival of Louise de La Valliere, to
the world in general she appeared as a favourite com-
panion to the Queen. And as the qualification indis-
pensable to a favourite of the Queen was religious fer-
vour,* Madame de Montespan displayed unflagging
ardour in the practice of the Catholic Faith.f
Bossuet, enlightened by Madame, regarded demon-
strations of piety at Court with new understanding.
The result of his observations was a sermon on Hypocrisy
on the first Sunday in Advent. Dexterity was needed to
avoid alienating his listeners at the outset, and he began
by picturing the peril incurred by unbelievers. Thus he
secured the sympathetic attention of an audience whose
orthodoxy was unimpeachable and could launch the
warning that applied to them. When he denounced hypo-
crisy he was denouncing the men and women of polite
society : " They believe that God exists, but they regard
Him as so unimportant that they are heedless of their
conduct when He alone is witness."
From the falsehood of loose profession he passed to
that of minute observances which drew superstition into
indissoluble alliance with hypocrisy. Among rich and
poor alike he had seen the tendency to use prayer as a
charm : an attempt to force God to conform His will
to that of mankind. " We bargain with the saints as
* Madame de Se'vigne' : Lettres, vol. ii, No. 143.
f Marquis de la Fare : MSmoires, p. 164 (Petitot, 2 me se"rie, vol. 65).
^ (Euvres, vol. viii, p. 119.
The Court Preacher 101
with ordinary people, whose favours we expect to win by
paying them regular attention and doing little services
for them continually. . . . The need of religion is so
firmly fixed in the heart of man that the Enemy of the
human race cannot uproot it. Therefore he seeks to
divert it from its natural growth and transform it into a
dangerous pastime, assuring us that by these little tricks
we are fulfilling the solemn claims that our religion
makes upon us." *
And here, face to face with the shams lurking among
pious practices and the effrontery of open wickedness,
the tone of calm remonstrance, with which Bossuet began
his course, is shaken. It was John the Baptist whom he
evoked in the two sermons which conclude his career
as Court preacher. It was the clarion voice of a prophet
that was needed to proclaim the certainty of God as
Judge and Saviour ; he recognized that the disease had
gone too far for his learning or his oratory to check its
progress. " Sin is the greatest and the most fatal of all
troubles. Assuredly we are deceived at the outset if we
imagine that the spirit of penitence can survive in the
midst of this eternal rattle of the Court to which we
abandon our whole existence." f Such was his con-
cluding warning, and it implies that salvation might
not be found at Court. Logically it needed to be
qualified, for all men cannot retire from the world ;
but in fact, as he well knew, there was little danger that
his hearers would carry their zeal to any uncomfortable
extremes. ' We do not care as much as that about
salvation ; we do not set as high a price as that upon our
souls." \
That note of irony, rare on Bossuet's lips, is the one
on which his utterance as Court preacher ceases finally.
Before another Advent season a new employment had
claimed him, and that vocation which for sixteen years
he had regarded as peculiarly his own was forced into
the background of his life. We do not know what
valuation he set upon his own achievement during that
* CEuvres, vol. xi, p. 60. j* Ibid., vol. viii, p. 210.
\ Ibid., vol. viii, p. 230.
IO2 'Jacques Benigne Bossuet
period. Reading in these days the record of his spoken
words, his countrymen accord him a pre-eminence as
orator that admits no rival. But it was the" vigour of
his fight against the Protestants which had earned for
him the favour of the King, not his distinction as a
preacher. The discourse of men less gifted won fuller
measure of applause from his contemporaries.
Chapter VIII. The Priest at Court
A FEW days after Bossuet's appointment to the
See of Condom the Court went into mourning
for the widow of Charles I. Henrietta Maria,
daughter of Henri IV, had taken refuge in France when
she escaped from the rebels in 1647, and, with only one
interval, had remained there in seclusion ever since.
Henrietta of England, afterwards known as Madame,
her youngest child, had been brought up under her
personal supervision, and the mother and daughter were
on terms of real affection. The widowed Queen had
found consolation in religion. She was staying at the
Visitation Convent at Chaillot, of which she was the
foundress, when she received the news of the execution of
Charles I,* and it was at this convent that Bossuet came
in touch with her. On July 2, 1660, the special Feast
Day of the Order, he was invited to preach at Chaillot
in her presence. Throughout his life the enterprise of
St. Francois de Sales and of Ste. Chantal made strong
appeal to him, and he showed then how fully he had
entered into the spirit of the Visitation.")- After that
sermon the Queen was numbered among those who
recognized his genius as an orator, and this recollection
so influenced her daughter's choice that he was invited
to deliver a Funeral Oration at Chaillot. The invitation
did not imply any immense advance in the esteem of the
great ones of the earth. It was a compliment to be asked
to preach on the occasion of the death of a princess of
France, but many sermons were preached on such
occasions and the ceremony in the convent chapel at
Chaillot had slight importance.
Fortunately Bossuet did not proportion his use of
energy and power to the outward significance of his task.
He seems to have possessed that rare species of simplicity
which accepts each claim as it occurs, and makes of it
the one thing vital to existence, without calculation of
values and results. We have seen that the ideal he set
before him was that of a person who does " all things with
energy because it is the will of God that nothing should
* (Euvres, vol. xi, p. 193, note. f Ibid. t vol. xi, p. 196.
IO4 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
be done listlessly ; moreover, he carries out all under-
takings as Divine Commands and not to give satisfaction
to himself or others." * Doubtless he would have pre-
ferred to be the special preacher at Notre Dame or St.
Denis, but he was not less careful in preparation because
his words were to go no further than the limits of the
little convent chapel at Chaillot.
The custom of commemorating by an elaborate
panegyric was not one which he approved, f and when he
complied with it he was always careful to obtain an
authentic outline of the life which was his appointed
theme4 On this occasion Madame de Motteville,
who was the confidante of so many august personages,
supplied him, and his summary of the chequered career
of the ill-fated Queen was drawn from her memoir.
' These panegyrics seem to have been instituted mainly
out of ostentation and frivolity, and this is the reason they
are difficult. . . . They demand from an orator all his
art and all the powers of his eloquence, otherwise he
fails in his undertaking and disappoints the expectations
of his hearers." This is the criticism of one of the most
successful of Bossuet's predecessors, || and to a disciple
of Vincent de Paul the difficulties were deeper. A
Funeral Oration which was not susceptible to the re-
proach of artificiality was an impossibility : it was of its
very nature artificial in idea and in method. Neverthe-
less it was the Funeral Oration for Henrietta Maria in
the chapel of the Visitation nuns, which first made Bossuet
famous as an orator. It secured for him also the con-
fidence of Madame, and his association with her was of
infinite importance to the moulding of his fortunes.
Fate was unkind to Henrietta Queen of England,
but it dealt more cruelly still with her daughter and
namesake, Henrietta Duchess of Orleans. If the testi-
mony of innumerable contemporaries can be accepted,
* See p. 48. f CEuvres, vol. xii, p. 666.
$ Revue Bossuet (1902), p. 30.
See A. Hurel : Orateurs Sacr/s, vol. ii, appendix vi (original memoir
in Archives Nationales, Paris).
|| Ogier : Actions Publiques, preface (1652).
The Priest at Court 105
the English princess was endowed with very unusual
gifts of personal charm and beauty, in addition to the
keen intelligence which promised to make of her the
heroine of diplomacy. But she was wedded at seventeen
to a prince whose unworthiness increased as his age ad-
vanced, and plunged into an atmosphere that poisoned
all who dared to breathe it freely. The natural tendencies
of the great-grandchild of Mary Stuart, who was also
grandchild of Henri IV, were not in the direction of
self-restraint, and for some years she lived dangerously,
acknowledging no law save that of her royal dignity.
It was an aggravation of her peril that she had a bishop
as adviser, confidant, and devoted friend. Of Daniel de
Cosnac, Bishop of Valence, Almoner to Monsieur,
Saint-Simon says that " No man was so fitted for intrigue
or had keener vision, unscrupulous withal and infinitely
ambitious." * With a high-placed ecclesiastic always in
attendance her spiritual opportunities were peculiarly cir-
cumscribed. If it had not been for a violent crisis in the
miserable history of her life with her husband, which
resulted in the exile of Cosnac, the place that Bossuet was
to fill would not have been left vacant. Nevertheless,
despite his cunning and his cynicism, the Bishop of
Valence was probably the most trustworthy adviser
that Madame could have chosen from her immediate
circle,f for his attachment to her was stronger than
self-interest, and he knew the world in which her lot
was cast as a better man could not have done. In fact,
the moral corruption that was prevalent had so forced
itself upon her personal knowledge that she shrank
from it in horror, and it was championship of her at a
dark moment in her history that brought Cosnac to
disgrace. At the most perilous moment in her relations
with her husband he was exiled.
It is needless to pursue that grimy history in detail :
' The princess wept very often," says her chronicler4
During the period of ceremonial mourning for her
* Saint-Simon : M/moires, vol. viii, p. 277.
f Princess Palatine : Correspondance, vol. i, p. 243.
$. Cosnac : MJmoires, vol. ii, p. 214.
106 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
mother she sent for Bossuet.* Until the close of that
year he visited her constantly at St. Cloud, an^l when she
moved to the Palais Royal in the spring of 1 670 he went
to her every week. In the desolation of bereavement
and solitude she was craving knowledge of the other
Kingdom which, four years earlier, when he had pressed
the actuality of its existence upon an unresponsive
Court, had seemed so lacking in attraction. How far a
desire for novelty, and for the intellectual stimulus of
conversation with Bossuet, prompted her inquiries it is
impossible to judge. They were interrupted by a visit
to England as the guest of her brother, Charles II, on
which she acted as secret envoy from the King of France,
and proved her skill in statecraft. She returned to the
prospect of a life such as she had coveted in earlier days ;
a life full of possibilities of influence and of visible favour
with the King.f A fortnight after her return she was
seized with sudden illness and died in a few hours.
" If she has found mercy with God it must be by His
very special grace " was the comment of Le Camus,
who had shared as a Court ecclesiastic in the wild plea-
sures of her circle " for her way of living made her
conversion difficult." Bossuet's vision of her, how-
ever, was less sombre. He had been waiting till the
untoward distraction caused by her journey became less
engrossing, and she should once again stretch out a
groping hand to him, for guidance towards the goal
which she had begun dimly to perceive. Instead, from
the throes of an agonizing death she called to him.
" She was the only person of her rank who knew how
to recognize real merit " such was the lament of a
courtier when she died, and the claim she made on
Bossuet was proof that to him she accorded something
more definite than vague approval. She had, indeed,
discerned those qualities that give support when life's
foundations crumble. She must have been present
* Ledieu : MSmoires, p. 128.
f Marquis de k Fare : Mtmoirfs, p. 177.
$ Ingold : Lfttres du Cardinal Le Camus, No. 1 3 .
Marquis de la Fare : MSmoires, p. 182.
The Priest at Court 107
many times when he had threatened the indifferent with
the vengeance of an offended Deity, but, however violent
might be the ardour of his warning, he was insistent
always on the certainty of mercy from a Heavenly Father
to a repentant child. And she had dire need of that
assurance. She was at St. Cloud and he in Paris when
she was taken ill, and her attendants summoned M.
Feuillet, a Jansenist preacher who was near at hand.*
The Jansenist did not spare her. Her protest that the
pain was beyond endurance provoked the celebrated
comment : " You have been sinning against God for
twenty-six years and you have only begun your penance
during the last six hours."
If the coming of Bossuet had not been hastened by
the King the grim tragedy of Madame's end would be
unrelieved, for her body was racked by extremity of
pain and there was no promise of comfort for her spirit.
He arrived in time, however. " Madame, take
courage," he said as he drew near.
She turned her head towards him as she answered :
" It does not fail me. I am ready to die. I surrender
to God. I desire whatever He wills. I hope in His
mercy."
Bossuet, kneeling down, bade her join in his prayer
for pardon by the Blood of Christ. He reminded her
that if God insisted on justice we could expect nothing
but Hell, but she could be assured of mercy if she put
all her confidence in her Saviour.
" My heart knows it is so," she whispered.
' You see " he said " you see what the world is
worth ; you see it for yourself, are you not fortunate
that God is calling you away from it ? "
And those who looked on realized that Madame, by a
miracle of grace, could follow and assent.
He was gentle with her pausing lest he should weary
her, but she wished him to continue. As he gave her
the Crucifix he said : " Here is Jesus Christ holding
out His arms to you, Madame ; here is He Who can
* See Hurel : op. tit., vol. ii, appendix vii (description of death of
Madame written by Feuillet from MS. Bib. Nat.).
io8 Jacques Eenigne Eos suet
give you eternal life and will raise up the body which
rf i i %P *
has suffered so intensely.
And she answered, " Credo, Credo ! "
As the last agony approached he spoke again :
" Madame, you believe in God, you hope in God, you
love Him ? "'
Her last words were clearly audible : " With all my
heart." *
There were many spectators, but the actors in that
scene soared above drama it was child-like in its
simplicity. The extraordinary capacity for concen-
tration which was so strong an element of Bossuet's
genius was his in his spiritual function. He shared the
last hours of the dying woman : while they lasted the
unknown future that awaited her was near to him, he
felt the approach of death as he knelt beside her bed,
the thought of her possessed him to the exclusion of all
other ; and she was comforted.
But there is the suggestion of anti-climax in the sequel.
The death of Madame struck at many of those who were
near to her as a summons from the voice of God. Bossuet
was fully alive to the possibilities of its effect. He
describes in a letter, f which probably was addressed
to his brother, his interview with the King at Versailles
the day of the tragedy. " The King had tears in his
eyes and was ready to seek a lesson for himself in this
terrible occurrence. I made the suggestions that should
come from a priest under such circumstances. M. le
Prince (Conde') received what I said to him very warmly,
and told me that the King was greatly impressed and the
whole Court had been edified. I have received an order
from His Majesty to preach the funeral sermon at St.
Denis."
The passage is disconcertingly professional. His
ministration at the deathbed of Madame had been a very
real spiritual experience, but the obligations of a Court
ecclesiastic were closing around him rapidly. It was his
burning faith that had brought comfort to the dying
* Cosnac : MSmoires, vol. i, Introduction, li-liii.
f Correspondence, vol. i, No. 38.
The Priest at Court 109
woman at St. Cloud : that power of vision which turns
men into fanatics and helps them to be martyrs. But in
Bossuet it was balanced by other powers, and, in his
connection with Madame before the world, it is these
other powers which are memorable. Seven weeks later,
in obedience to the King's command, he preached the
sermon at her funeral at St. Denis.*
It was at this moment that he may be said to have
achieved assured and permanent celebrity. He, the son
of a lawyer in a provincial town, with nothing to commend
him to public notice save his astounding capacity for
thought and speech, was the chief figure in a ceremony
that was memorable throughout France and beyond its
borders. He chose this opportunity to appear for the
first time with all the state permitted to a bishop, pre-
ceded by heralds, omitting nothing that might exalt his
dignity. On his finger there shone a magnificent
emerald, and those who had inner knowledge of the
Court whispered that Madame had left it to be set for
him before she sailed for England, and even on her death-
bed had remembered her intention. There is much to
suggest that Bossuet on that great occasion was mindful
of effect and by no means forgetful of himself. Perhaps
the impression he desired to produce was unattainable
by other means. It is interesting to observe the diverg-
ing characteristics which he displayed in his brief con-
nection with Madame and which are immortalized in the
Funeral Oration delivered from the pulpit of St. Denis.
The stately panegyric with which it opened is the work
of Bossuet in his character as courtier. To comply
with the demand of custom he set aside his knowledge,
shared with the majority of those whom he addressed,
of the tormented, feverish career which had just ended.
But he had skill to use the figure he had fashioned
which never did and never could have lived at St. Ger-
main or the Tuileries in the picture which it was his
aim to set before the mourning Court. He knew the
last scene might be relied on to present reality, for no
invention could be more poignant in appeal than the
* (Euvres, vol. xii, p. 474.
1 1 o "Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
truth as he had witnessed it. And it was on the note of
sincerity that the sermon reached its climax, and there
the preacher, with the true instinct of an orator, changed
his tone. He had paid his tribute of lamentation, and
his theme had other aspects less obvious yet equally
important. The life that had just ended was as full of
secret failure as it was of external glory. He had showed
them the princess endowed with every grace and quality
that inspires admiration. It remained to him to
show the dire peril that had shadowed her until her
death and was then threatening each one of the living
throng who filled the Abbey Church on that august
occasion.
" Self is the sole consideration, thou sayest in thy
heart I am and none else beside me.* When that is
so is life anything but peril ? Is not death a deliver-
ance ? " And with that momentary touch upon the
truth the old ardour of his vocation took possession of the
preacher and he spoke boldly, as he ought to speak.
" Christians, as we pray for her soul let us give a thought
to our own ! For what is our conversion waiting ?
We must be hard of heart if such a catastrophe, which
should have stirred us to the depths, proves to be merely
the sensation of a moment. Are we waiting until God
shall raise the dead to teach us ? It is not needful that
the dead return : the truths of eternity are on a firm
foundation. If they fail to gain hold on us it is because
we find the world absorbing ; it is because we are en-
tranced by pleasure ; it is because we are enthralled by
the present moment. How great is our blindness if,
while we move onward unhaltingly to the end, we wait
for our last moments before we accept those values
which the remembrance of death should have made
familiar in every hour of our lives ? "
He had kept his audience spellbound, and the most
censorious could not withhold their admiration. The
progress of his fortunes seems to have awaited a visible
triumph. Judged by the world's values this was the
first great moment of his life. Yet triumphant oratory
* Isaiah, ch. xlvii, 8.
The Priest at Court 1 1 1
may fail where humbler efforts are successful. One
listener at least waited in vain for that which her soul
craved until the sermon was very near its close. Louise
de La Valliere, Duchess of Vaujours and mother of
children acknowledged by the King, was in dire spiritual
need. She had tried to evade those long-past warnings
and appeals but they were not easy to forget, for Bossuet
had had the power to fix an impression on an unwilling
mind. She found no parallel to her own experience
in that of Mary Magdalene. She had made no choice,
had never dreamed of voluntary surrender, but had
waited while glowing warm delight faded by slow degrees
into grey ashes. And it was by way of a veritable " abyss
of misery " * that she was coming to sue for pardon.
In the story of the Prodigal she saw herself.
We have watched the girl whom the King chose to
honour rising from insignificance to a prominent place
at Court. At first she was concerned only with her
devotion to her lover ; her surrender to magnificence
and luxury was a gradual process. A surrender of this
nature, however, be it never so reluctant, must ultimately
become complete. Once she had begun to accept the
good things that appertained to the position of royal
favourite, no glamour of romance or royalty could screen
the inherent sordidness of her position. In 1666 Bossuet
had preached the Lent sermons before the Court and
Louise de La Valliere had listened without heeding.
The following autumn her daughter, known in girlhood
as Mile, de Blois, was born, and * little later the King
bestowed on the young mother the estate of Vaujours
and the title and rank of duchess. Before the world she
appeared to have reached the highest pinnacle of favour
and good fortune: to herself, however, these outward
glories were the intimations of that downfall of which her
heart had long been warning her. And at this point
distress broke through that reticence which, long before,
she had accepted as a defence against the chatter of the
world. She selected Madame de Montausier, the
mistress of the Queen's household, as the recipient of her
* See p. 94.
J
112 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
confidence, and to her she made it plain that she saw
her elevation as a portent.
" It is customary among well-disposed persons when
they are changing servants to warn them of their dis-
missal by the payment of their wages or by some other
reward for past services." * Thus did the King's
favourite receive the honours that it pleased him to confer
upon her. These words of hers give so vivid a picture
of her state that comment is superfluous. For three
years she continued to struggle desperately against her
doom. It was her chosen friend and companion,
Madame de Montespan, who had supplanted her in the
King's favour, f and it was the King's will that their
companionship should continue. She had learnt to de-
pend on luxury, and she had no life outside the artificial
life of the Court (the care of her children having been
entrusted to Madame Colbert, wife of the Minister of
Finance) $ therefore the prospect that unfolded itself
before her offered no possibility of solace. She was the
mistress of whom the King had wearied, no more, no less,
but she had given her heart to him so freely that she could
not take it back.
Early in the year of Madame's death Louise de La
Valliere was seized with sudden illness. That threaten-
ing vision of eternity, which Bossuet had striven so often
and so vainly to force upon the perception of his auditors,
took definite form for her, and she realized, trembling,
that she had not used the years that lay behind her as a
preparation for that, unknown future which seemed so
close at hand. In the first stage of her conversion, as in
the case of Armand de Ranee", the fear of Hell seems, to
have been the compelling factor, but with her this was
only a transient condition ; three years of agonizing
humiliation had prepared her for the message that grew
clear when Death shadowed her, and she surrendered
thankfully to a summons that proceeded from the Source
of mercy.
* 24 mai, 1667. See Matter, A. : Lettres et Pieces rares incites,
p. 320. f Princess Palatine : Correspondance, vol. ii, p. 90.
^ Mile, de Montpensier : Mtmoircs, vol. iv, p. 62.
The Priest at Court 1 1 3
'* Thus He strikes at the spot that is most sensitive.
He pierces to the quick, till, forced by the irresistible
power of His hand and by the dominion of His will, at
last I yield my will to His, and in so doing I find health
and life." * They are the words of Bossuet, but they
might have been spoken by La Valliere. In her days of
convalescence she wrote the " Meditation on the Mercies
of God," which is so strange a record of her conversion,
and, as we read, some of the seeds that Bossuet had
scattered broadcast spring up before us. The problems
which the necessities of her condition presented to this
unhappy woman seemed insoluble. It is the natural
instinct of the penitent to sweep away the hindrances
and stumbling-blocks to altered conduct and to start on
a fresh path, but La Valliere remained the titular favourite
of the King, and as the King's will was law her own sense
of conversion could not express itself in the disposition
of her daily life.
Eventually the influence that Bossuet gained over her
tyrant was the chief instrument in her emancipation,
but in the spring of 1670 there was nothing to fore-
shadow their connection, and it is impossible to imagine a
situation less propitious for the practice of the devout life
than was hers. The death of Madame and the events
that supervened were of assistance to her. At the be-
ginning of September President Perigny, tutor to the
Dauphin, died, and Bossuet, at that moment high in
fame and favour, was appointed as his successor. This
meant the introduction of a righteous influence at Court,
but La Valliere had never had any pretensions either to
wit or wisdom, and it was only the few who cared for
learning and serious discussion who cultivated his
society. At first she was indifferent to his coming.
In the spring of 1671, just a year after her illness and
her conversion, her endurance failed her and she fled to
the Visitation Convent at Chaillot.f Although she
covered the same ground on both occasions the escapade
of the maid-of-honour nine years earlier was a very
* CEuvres, vol. xi, p. 280.
f Madame de Sevigne : Lettres, vol. ii, Nos. 134, 136, 140.
114 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
different affair from the retirement of the duchess.
Both were prompted by the impulse of an ill-balanced
nature, but on the first occasion a passionate girl staked
high with little risk of losing, on the second a weary
woman made a despairing effort to escape from bondage.
The King loved her no longer, yet he needed her because
it was convenient that Madame de Montespan, the object
of his new attachment, should live with her : fresh
scandal was thus avoided. Her personal distaste for the
curious office assigned to her was not regarded as worthy
of consideration. The Duchess of Vaujours remained
at Chaillot for twelve hours, and during that time three
emissaries from the King appeared in the convent
parlour. First, for the purpose of persuasion, Lauzun,
then Bellefonds, and last, armed with the King's com-
mand, Colbert, in whose coach the unhappy woman re-
turned to her former slavery. The world looked on and
sneered. Madame de SeVigne* was daintily amusing
in a letter to her daughter over the histrionics of the
former favourite, and the prudent arrangements of the
King were continued undisturbed.
One of the messengers to Chaillot, however, was not
content with the result of that day's business. Bernardin
de Bellefonds, Marshal of France, held high office in
the King's household, and therefore had known La
Valliere since she came to Court. He was a man of forty,
a gambler and a spendthrift, who had but recently
distinguished himself by a wild feat of horsemanship
for a wager far beyond his means.* But he was also the
friend of Bossuet and of Fldchier and a frequenter of
La Trappe.f His sister was Prioress of the Carnxel in
the Faubourg St. Jacques, and his personal follies did
not prevent his comprehension of the privilege of the
Carmelite. He was to be the link between Bossuet and
La Valliere, but at the first stage of the renewal of her life
the worldly experiences that he shared with her opened a
way of communication that would have been closed
against an ecclesiastic of Bossuet's reputation. And
* Madame de SeVigne" : Lettres, vol. ii, No. 1 16.
f Ibid., vol. ii, No. 146.
The Priest at Court 115
Bellefonds himself stood at the parting of the ways.
Not long after his confidential friendship with La Valliere
was established he was banished from the Court.*
For him disgrace " struck at the spot that was most
sensitive," and its effect was to crystallize the aspirations
that had long been growing, into a living faith that
dominated all his future conduct. He had pointed the
young duchess to the hard way of entire sacrifice, but
he doubted her strength of purpose, and he turned to
Bossuet as being the wisest counsellor to whom he could
confide her. Thus it came to pass that the Dauphin's
tutor coupled the office of spiritual director to the King's
discarded mistress with his duties in the royal school-
room. The intimacy between Bossuet and La Valliere
began in the late autumn of 1673. From the fact that
she had been a frequent guest at the Carmel Convent
for two years it may be assumed that he had knowledge
of her spiritual awakening long before that date.
" No barrier is insurmountable to real determination.
. . . We can do all things in pursuit of fortune ; we can
do all things for the sake of pleasure. But if there is a
question of offering our penitence in expiation of our
offences, if links that are precious to us must needs be
broken, capacity fails at once. We are unable ! " t
It was not unusual for a preacher to aim at an in-
dividual, and Bossuet had often done so. This passage,
from a sermon preached at St. Germain before the Queen
and Court, may well have been addressed directly to
La Valliere, for it indicates the vacillation which Belle-
fonds resented, and suggests a remedy for the discourage-
ment that was one of the most serious hindrances in her
way. At the moment of Bellefonds' exile she had
reached a point when she needed more skilful and ex-
perienced guidance than he could give her. While they
talked together she might feel herself inflamed by a zeal
equal to his own, and agree with him to cast aside the
trammels of the world without delay, but when the
poisonous realities of life closed in again upon her, and
* See Marquis de la Fare : M/moires, p. 1 84.
f (Euvres, vol. x, p. 345.
1 1 6 'Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
she saw herself the chattel or the King, her courage failed.
Bellefonds upbraided her instability ; she accepted his
reproaches humbly, and continued to give occasion for
them. It was left to Bossuet to examine and to deal
with those barriers which loomed so portentously in
front of her.
The task he had accepted was one demanding extreme
delicacy of treatment. There were dangerous elements
connected with it and no possibilities of advantage ;
and when he undertook it he had had more than two
years' experience of Court, a length of time that was quite
sufficient to imbue him with the prevailing theory that
favour with the King was the one good entirely desirable.
The claim of La Valliere ran counter to his worldly
interests ; moreover, the degree to which he was affected
by the personality of Louis XIV is evident at many points
in his career.* He was not only violently royalist on
principle and by family tradition, but he bowed before
the tremendous force of individual authority which the
King had arrogated to himself. Also, once he had taken
office his whole future hung on the King's approval.
Nevertheless, when this clear call reached him the thought
of his own advancement did not weigh against an oppor-
tunity of spiritual service. His first interview with
Louise de La Valliere seems to have been at the end of
November 1673. She wrote to Bellefonds : " I have
seen M. de Condom and opened my heart to him. He
marvels at the greatness of God's mercy towards me
and urges me not to delay in obeying the Divine Will :
he is of opinion that I shall be able to do this sooner than
I imagine." f
A little later a letter from Bossuet shows that he had
applied himself to mastering the case as a lawyer might
have done, and had seen that the direct methods which
commended themselves to Bellefonds were not likely
to bring it to a successful issue. " A stronger character
would by this time have advanced further," he wrote,
* See Arnauld, A.: Lettres, vol. vi, p. 162. "II if a pas le courage dt
rien representer au Rot"
f Brulart de Sillery : Fie PMtente de Madame de La Valliere.
The Priest at Court 1 1 7
" but it is no use to force more upon her than she is able
to bear."* He explained that Madame de Montespan
was vehemently opposed to any change until the de-
parture of the Court from Versailles, and that her victim
had given in to her so long that a sudden experiment in
defiance might bring about the collapse of the whole
plan. ' When one has to deal with an absolute monarch
the way of obedience is the shortest road " says the con-
temporary biographer of the duchess,t and it was plain to
Bossuet that she would never reach her goal by any other
way. The knot that Bellefonds would have cut it was
his business to untie, and he gathered together all his
resources to aid him in his task. Before long, however,
he became aware that the real barrier to the retirement
of La Valliere was removed. The world knew that the
King had another favourite : she was no longer required
as a screen to Madame de Montespan. In the midst of
reporting to Bellefonds on the situation he refers un-
expectedly to Turenne. The Marshal had just arrived at
Versailles " very pleased with the King and the King with
him. Madame de La Valliere insisted that I should pro-
pound the question of her vocation to Madame de Montes-
pan. I have said what required saying, and, as far as I was
able to do so, I pointed out the responsibility of hindering
her in her good desires. There is no strong objection to her
retirement, but the Carmelite idea seems to cause alarm.
In so far as was possible it has been covered with ridicule.
I hope that the event will have a different effect. The
King knows all about this conversation, and His Majesty
having made no reference to it to me I have maintained
silence also until now. I urge Madame la Duchesse to
decide matters as quickly as possible. She finds it very
difficult to speak to the King and puts it off from day to
day. M. Colbert, to whom she has appealed about
her money matters, will not hasten over their settlement
until she herself shows more decision than she has done
hitherto." \
* Correspondance, vol. i, No. 88.
f Anon. : La Fie de la Ducheae (1708), p. 173.
% Correspondence t vol. i, No. 88.
1 1 8 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
In writing to an intimate friend Bossuet set down his
thoughts as they passed through his mind, and as he
entered on an adventure which so intimately concerned
the King, his courage was renewed by the reflection that
Turenne was at Versailles and might, merely by the
reminder of his presence, turn the scale if favour was
hanging in the balance. No explanation of such a view
was needed, for Bellefonds knew the Court and must
have realized the peril of the shoals and quicksands with
which La Valliere and her pilot were surrounded. She
was fortunate in the friends that her distress raised up
for her, but it is doubtful if either of them really under-
stood her. Bellefonds was both impatient and obstinate,
and it is likely that he had impressed his own conclusions
upon Bossuet. To his mind the weakness of her
character was proved by her acceptance of the dis-
honouring conditions that had been imposed upon her.
On the day of her Profession, however, she acknowledged
that for three years she had endured the sufferings of a
soul in Hell, because as she had sinned before the world it
was right that she should suffer before the world, and
accept contempt and ridicule. She added that she de-
sired deliberately to offer all this to God in expiation
of her offences.* Probably a wise priest would never
have sanctioned such a penance ; quite certainly a
woman of weak and vacillating nature would never have
fulfilled it. Fortitude of no common order was needed
to maintain that difficult resolve in defiance of all opposi-
tion. Madame de SeVigne* tells us what was said by
wagging tongues. At the end of November La Valliere
lamented, in a letter to Bellefonds, that -the news of her
retirement to a convent had been scattered broadcast.
On December 15 Madame de Se'vigne' wrote to her
daughter : " We hear no more from Madame de La
Valliere of her retreat ; it gets no further than talk ;
her lady's maid cast herself at her feet to implore her
to remain who could resist such persuasion as that 1 " f
To such a temperament as hers a covert sneer was more
* Princess Palatine : Correspondance, vol. ii, p. 120.
t Madame de SeVigne" : Lettres y vol. iii, Nos. 357, 380.
The Priest at Court 119
to be dreaded than abuse, and many sneers had been
provoked by her conversion and its complicated sequel.
Indeed, the malice of the Court pursued her for a time
even after the convent doors had closed behind her.
Bossuet's support never wavered, and, as his personal
knowledge of her grew, he referred to her with increasing
reverence. " The world is constant in afflicting her
and God is constant in mercy. I trust that He will
prevail and the time will come when we shall see her far
advanced in saintliness." * And a week or two later :
" Her intention remains fixed and she seems to me to be
pushing forward with her plans, in her own way, gently
and quietly. And, if I am not very much mistaken,
the power of God is upholding all she does and the
purpose of her heart will carry all before it." t By that
time the consummation of her purpose was drawing very
near.
Beneath the magnificent apparel that the King re-
quired her to wear, there beat the heart of a Carmelite,
yet even the more serious minds at Court were in-
credulous of her true purpose. Madame de Maintenon,
many years afterwards, recounted a scene that was
characteristic of them both4 She, who made it her
business to give good advice, cautioned Madame de La
Valliere against the risk of a sudden change from luxury
to hardship. ' You are now shining in cloth of gold
and then you will be clad in homespun." The reply,
given with complete simplicity, which revealed that this
magnificent lady of the Court wore a hair-shirt and slept
upon the floor, made a deep impression upon her com-
panion. In fact, the austerities of Carmel had no terrors
for Louise de La Valliere. It was the long series of ex-
planations that her journey thither demanded of her
before which she quailed. In the last months she
followed Bossuet's counsels step by step. ' What he
tells me is my law," she wrote to Bellefonds. Yet she
* Correspondance, vol. i, No. 89. f Ibid.^ vol. i, No. 90.
Lavallee : Madame de Maintenon Education des Filles (Entretiens,
No. 35).
Brulart de Sillery : op. cit., letter v, p. 105.
I2O Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
faltered before her last ordeal. The King knew of her
intentions ; the assistance of Colbert in her business
arrangements implied his acquiescence, but she had
never spoken to him of her vocation, and the farewell
interview, without which she could not leave the Court,
held possibilities of agony from which her whole nature
shrank.
Bossuet had been quick to grasp the finality of her
resolve, and he did not press her to make this last sur-
render till she felt herself ready for it, but Bellefonds,
less experienced and less trustful, suggested that after all
she was finding her links with the world impossible to
break.
" I must needs speak to the King ; that is my sole
distress," she answered. " Ask God to give me the
strength that I must have to do it. It is not a sacrifice
to leave the Court for the cloister. But to speak of it
to the King ! Ah ! that means torture ! " *
" The love of Madame de La Valliere for the King
was an absorbing passion," wrote that keen observer
the Princess Palatine ; " in all her life she had no love
save for him only." f
The strength she needed was given her in time.
Before the King left Versailles she had done that which
it cost so much to do, and she was free. Bossuet had
stood by her, loyally and patiently, through the poignant
suffering that marked her last months in the world, and
there is no episode in his life which does him greater
honour. Nevertheless, his debt to Louise de La VaHiere
was heavier than hers to him, and he was ready to ac-
knowledge it. On April 6, 1674, he wrote again to
Bellefonds, a letter which it is well to read in full.
" I send you a letter from Madame la Duchesse de La
Valliere, in which you will see that by the grace of God
she is about to carry out the purpose which the Holy
Spirit has put into her heart. The whole Court is
amazed and edified by her calm and by her happiness,
which increases as the time of accomplishment draws
* Brulart de Sillery : op. cit., letter ix, p. 113.
f Princess Palatine : CorresponJance, vol. i, p. 307.
The Priest at Court 121
near. In truth there is something so holy about her
state of mind that I can never think of it without thanks-
giving ; and the mark of the Hand of God upon her
is the strength and the humility which is evident in all
her thoughts : it is the Holy Ghost working in her.
All her business affairs have been settled with extra-
ordinary ease : penitence is now her sole concern ;
and far from dreading the austerity of the life upon which
she is embarking she is so intent upon the object of it
that she is heedless of its trials. I am filled with delight
and with confusion. I talk, and she acts. The words
are mine, the doing hers. When I reflect on all this
I have only one desire, and that is to go into hiding
and be silent ; with every word that I speak I seem to
condemn myself.
" I am very glad that my letters have been of use to
you. God has used me for you in that way, and it all
means more to you than it does to me, who am only the
wretched channel through which the waters of Heaven
pass ; only a drop here and there stays on its course.
Pray for me constantly and ask God really to touch my
heart." *
A fortnight later Bossuet left Versailles and took his
part in the royal progress southward to Burgundy.
The King, when it was his pleasure to participate in a
military campaign, required that the Court should follow
and remain within convenient distance. He wished to
be able to return to his ordinary recreations whenever
the military situation left him free, and Bossuet, as tutor
to the Dauphin, was obliged to go wherever the Court
went. When the great procession had started from
Versailles Louise de La Valliere looked her last at the
gardens and the palace, mounted for the last time into
her coach, and was driven into Paris. In the monastic
quarter of the Faubourg St. Jacques, near Val de Grace,
near Port Royal, near the Visitation, stood the convent
known as the Great Carmel. Its doors had been open
to her ever since Bellefonds had offered her his help
three years earlier ; when she entered on that April
* Corre s^ondance y vol. i, No. 93.
122 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
afternoon they closed behind her for ever. Her clothing
as a Carmelite novice took place at the beginning of
June, and Bossuet did not return to Versailles till the
end of that month ; but a year later, when the day of her
Profession came (June 4, 1675), he was able to fulfil
her wish and to preach the sermon.
The Queen and Court and all the fashionable world
were there. " From time to time," says the Preface *
to the Meditations of Louise de La Valliere, " it has
pleased God to raise up prodigies of penitence to remind
sinners that He is a God of mercy." But this sensational
aspect of the story is its weakness rather than its strength.
It is not as the centre of a most dramatic scene in the
chapel of the Great Carmel that the figure of Louise de la
MiseVicorde is memorable ; it is as the religious, with-
drawing further and further from the echo of the world
until, in the last years of her life, the records of inter-
views or correspondence cease. Thus by slow advance
she approached fulfilment of the Carmelite vocation. f
On the day of her Profession she had told the Princess
Palatine that she deserved congratulation and not the
pity that was being bestowed upon her, because her
happiness was only just beginning ; and Bossuet,
preaching for this great occasion with all the chatterers
of the Court straining their ears that they might hoard
his telling phrases, left them unsatisfied, and spoke to her.
This sermon in the form that has come down to us is
one of his triumphs. He expressed the thought, that
was so often with him, that the preacher's power de-
pended on his listeners, but the listeners behind the
grille were in his mind : Mes sceurs^ and not Mesdames.
It was two days after Whitsunday, and his theme was the
gradual transformation of the human soul of which the
Holy Spirit had possession ; the note to which it is
attuned is one of extreme austerity. The Court with
its low standard, its easy bargaining between vice and
* Attributed to Bossuet printed in early editions only,
t She died June 6, 1710, after thirty-six years in religion.
$ Princess Palatine : Correspondence, vol. ii, p. 120.
(Euvres, vol. ii, p. 563.
The Priest at Court 123
religious practice, faded from before the eyes of the
preacher ; instead he saw only the vision of the Carme-
lite who had been Louise de La Valliere, and the years of
experience and growing wonder that lay before her.
" Let your life be as much hidden from yourself as from
the world ; escape from yourself and aim so high that
there will be no rest for you save in the Presence of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."
' You will be surprised to hear," wrote Madame de
Sevigne to her daughter, echoing the verdict of the great
world, " that M. de Condom did not achieve what was
expected of him "* and passes on in the same para-
graph to other items.
But at the Great Carmel they were not dissatisfied.
* Madame de Sevigne : Lettres, vol. iii, No. 404.
Chapter IX. The Contest with the King
THE relations of Bossuet and Louise de La Valliere
had another aspect besides that of director and
penitent. Even while she looked to him for
guidance and accepted his authority, she was observing
him with the keen discrimination which was the fruit
of her bitter experience of men and manners. He was
her senior by more than fifteen years and was equipped
with many kinds of knowledge, but all her reverence
for him did not blind her to the fact that, when he accepted
place at Court and became tutor to the Dauphin, he
entered on a path that for him was full of pitfalls. And
it was the conditions of his absence from Paris on the
occasion of her clothing which she lamented rather than
the loss to herself. Her last letter to Bellefonds from
Versailles contains this passage concerning Bossuet :
" For his cleverness, his goodness, and his love of God
he is admirable. I shall not fail to urge him to go on
writing to you, but you on your part must persuade him
to have as little as may be to do with certain dangerous
people. You will understand what I mean. He is now
absolutely pure in intention, but, indeed, he will need
to be so if he is to steer straight. It is the thought of the
journey that lies before him which makes me say this.
At Tournai, as you know, one is obliged to be at very
close quarters, and he cannot be too much on his guard."*
It was a proof of this woman's surrender of herself
that she was not self-concentrated ; she could look back
at the world she was leaving and picture in its familiar
scenes the man who had been her guide and support
in some of her darkest hours ; it is proof also of the
balance of her mind that she could see the dangers that
surrounded him. At no other period does he himself
appear so conscious of them ; as time passed, perhaps
apprehension was stilled by custom, but it is evident
that association with the experiences of Louise de La
Valliere brought home to him the sharpness of contrast
between vision and reality : " The words are mine,
the doing hers."
* Brulart de Sillery : op. a'/., letter li, p. 1 20.
The Contest with the King 125
In his letters to Bellefonds he harps continually on
the same chord : the rot and hollowness of the world's
prizes. And the thought of La Valliere haunted him.
" How greatly God loves the simple heart that trusts
in Him and loathes itself ! For real self-knowledge
must go as far as loathing. It is not the truth or reality
of things that we seek. When caprice has led us into a
choice, or when we have drifted into a line of action,
we find every sort of reason to justify ourselves. We say
we are prudent when in fact we are only lazy. We label
cowardice as self-restraint, and confuse pride and self-
assertion with courage. We do not attempt to acquire
any one of these virtues, but only to appear to have them
in the eyes of others. . . . Indeed, I tremble to the very
marrow of my bones when I consider the lack of depth
in myself : I am frightened at the thought, yet when my
mind is diverted from it if anyone were to suggest that
I was wrong in anything I should defend myself with any
number of arguments. My self-loathing vanishes at
once. I am again full of self-esteem, or rather it be-
comes evident that I have never lost it for a moment.
Ah ! when shall I make it my business really to be some-
thing and leave off striving after appearances either in
my own eyes or in the eyes of others ? When will God
be my sole desire ? Wretched man that I am to desire
anything apart from Him ! When will the time come
that I shall know no other rule except His will, and that
I shall be able to say with St. Paul : ' We have not
received the spirit of the world but the spirit which is
of God ' ? The spirit of the world spirit of vanity and of
sham ; spirit of frivolity and of pleasure ; spirit of
mockery and of dissipation ; spirit of self-interest and
of ambition. Spirit of God spirit of penitence and of
humility ; spirit of charity and of trust ; spirit of
simplicity and of gentleness ; spirit which hates the
world and which is hated by the world, but which over-
comes the world : may God be pleased to grant it to
us ! " *
Thus Bossuet, Bishop of Condom and tutor to the
* Correspondance, vol. i, No. 92.
126 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
Dauphin, in the midst of all the glories of Versailles,
faced the hidden problem of his life. In the eyes of
others he went upon his way surrounded by the respect
that he had earned ; a dignified figure, always sedate,
sometimes a little pompous, with nothing about him to
suggest the possibility of an inner conflict, of a being
torn betwixt aspirations that soared heavenward and
ambitions social and intellectual that chained him fast
to earth.
" Pray for me, I implore you ! And also, once and for
all, never make these references to my innocence and do
not be so generous in your regard for a most worthless
sinner. I say this in all honesty because I want to avoid
adding hypocrisy to my other offences." * Such words
as these, written to a layman whose sole claim to the
friendship of a man of Bossuet's standing was the reality
of his conversion, are significant. No doubt the absolute
domination of one human will over all life at Court en-
gendered misgivings as to the possibility of real obedience
to a higher law, but it was more than intellectual argument
that was working upon Bossuet ; it was the force of
example. In a sense, the thought of La Valliere rankled.
Armand de Ranee* also had made the same choice in the
spirit that denies the possibility of an alternative. And
during his ministry of preaching in Paris there had been
another of these remarkable regenerations in the person
of Le Camus, that clever and dissipated abb who was
stopped abruptly in his career at Court and, on be-
coming Bishop of Grenoble, had adopted the most austere
practices of the Religious Life. " Some day it would be
well to follow him on the path of penitence," wrote
Bossuet.f And clearly Le Camus was quite as impres-
sive in the eyes of his contemporaries as Ranc<? or La
Valliere. He said of the Court that " it was a bog from
which it was very difficult to extricate oneself," $ and he
left it behind him for ever when he went to his distant
diocese. For those whose feet were still stuck fast
his free advance was a disconcerting spectacle. " God
* Correspondance, vol. i, No. 90. f Ibid., vol. i, No. 119.
% Ingold : Lettres du Cardinal Le Camus, No. 34.
The Contest with the King 127
gives us a great example in M. de Grenoble ; if we
cannot succeed in rivalling his giant strides we can at
least follow his progress with our eyes" ;* so wrote
La Valliere while the King and Madame de Montespan
still held her at Versailles.
When he allowed his thoughts to dwell on either of
these familiar figures, who had passed out of the sight of
their fellows that they might not be hindered in their
search for God, Bossuet became the prey of deep-seated
spiritual discontent. But he had much to occupy his
mind during his sojourn at Court, and ample justification
for the belief that his vocation kept him in the world.
It was as a priest at Court that he had served Louise de La
Valliere ; it had been an office that involved danger,
but it was one that brought its own reward, and all that
was purest in his nature had been roused by the claim
it made upon him. But when La Valliere had been safe
for many months within her convent walls, his position
brought upon him an ordeal of so extraordinary a nature
that beside it all earlier experiences seemed flat and
insignificant.
At Easter Madame de Montespan, with the astonishing
effrontery that characterized her, proposed to receive the
Blessed Sacrament, and made her confession to one of
the priests at her parish church.f He was unversed in
the -rules of religious practice peculiar to the Court and
he refused to give her Absolution. Breathless with
indignation, she laid her complaint against him with the
cure, M. Thibaut, only to find that the cure upheld the
decision of his audacious colleague. The situation is
one that the English mind cannot grasp, without con-
siderable effort, and in fact it belongs to a period as
much as to a race. The desire for the practice of the
Catholic faith, in spite of all revolt political or intellectual,
is ingrain in the French nature even when such nature
seems to be permeated with immorality ; but, at the
Court of Louis XIV, where this practice in its external
forms was difficult to separate from ceremony and
* Brulart de Sillery : op. cit., letter vii, p. 1 1 1 .
t See Floquet : Bossuet, Prhepteur du Dauphin, p. 486.
128 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
etiquette, the misuse of spiritual privilege had become so
common as to escape comment. The real subject for
wonder is not that Madame de Montespan, in the midst
of deliberate and mortal sin, should have asked for
Absolution but that she should have been refused it.
And the marvel becomes far greater when we find the
King himself hesitating to condemn the insignificant
priests who had dared to withstand the will of Madame
de Montespan.
It is easy to sum up the shams and the hypocrisy of the
Court religion of those days in a few contemptuous
phrases, but by so doing we deny recognition to one of
the determining factors of actual life. The instinct
which moved Louis XIV in that spring of 1675 to cnec k
the angry vituperation of his mistress, to apply his mind
gravely and seriously to the point at issue between her
and an unknown confessor, and finally to seek advice
himself in connection with it, was as real an element in
his complex nature as the self-will which swept away every
obstacle to the indulgence of his passions. He chose
two advisers, M. de Montausier and Bossuet, the
governor and the tutor whom he had chosen for the
training of his son. By his choice he proved himself
to be completely in earnest, for Montausier had a reputa-
tion for austerity which it was essential to him to main-
tain, and Bossuet had proved very recently in his dealings
with La Valliere that his position as a courtier was sub-
servient to his vocation as a priest. It had not been
pleasing to the King that the mother of his children,
the maid-of-honour whom he had favoured, the young
duchess whom he had created, should spurn her honours
and hide herself beneath the veil and the coarse gown of
a Carmelite. Bossuet knew that the responsibility for
this was laid on him ; nevertheless, he added a second
offence to the first without flinching. The King's inter-
rogation gave him an opportunity, and he seized on it
with the same power of concentration on the welfare
of a soul that had made him the ideal companion for
Henrietta of England in her last hours. He showed the
King what his sin meant, and the impossibility of true
The Contest with the King 129
reconciliation with the Church while he persisted in it.
It may be that the story of La Valliere had made its
impression upon Louis; certainly, at this point, a wave
of self-reproach swept over him and he determined,
before he joined his armies and faced the danger of a
new campaign, to put away his sin and reconstruct his
life. He required Bossuet to give him direction in his
endeavour, and to be the bearer of his command to
Madame de Montespan to leave Versailles.
The separation lasted for more than three months,
yet exceptional optimism was needed to maintain hope
in its endurance. The optimism of Bossuet survived
the test. He had an honest admiration for the King
which blinded him to much that was visible to others,
and he was quite ignorant of the wide range of expedients
which are at the disposal of a really resourceful woman.
He seems indeed to have been singularly guileless in his
dealings with Madame de Montespan ; and above all
he had immense faith in the power of grace. He has
been accused of dissimulation in his connection with this
celebrated episode in the life of Louis XIV, of maintaining
an austere appearance while he countenanced intercourse,
at any rate by letter, between the King and his mistress ;
and of justifying laxity on the plea that a sudden severance
of so strong a tie was too much to ask of human nature.
His' own words are the best refutation of the charge
because they were written in such evident ignorance of
the possibility that it could be brought against him.
At this period it was to Bellefonds that he opened his
heart most freely. Their common interest in La Valliere,
their common experience in the life of the Court, their
common persuasion of the overwhelming importance of
the truths of religion in the midst of the challenging
allurements of the world, drew them together very
closely. That which Bossuet wrote to Bellefonds was
that which he was trying to impress upon himself :
it was self-study far more often than exhortation, and
because of its obvious sincerity on other occasions it may
fairly be accepted as evidence here.
On June 20, the King being still with the army and
130 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
Madame de Montespan in her country-house at Clagny,
Bossuet wrote from St. Germain : * " How often I have
longed for you among all the things that have been
happening, and what an immense help it would have been
to have had half an hour's talk with you. I have wanted
to write to you a hundred times over, but besides the risk
that is run by committing anything to letters it is always
an imperfect method of expression. Pray for me, I do
entreat you, and ask God either to relieve me of the
heaviest charge that can be laid on any man or that He
will extinguish all that there is of self in me that all I do
may be His doing. I thank God that thus far I have not
throughout this business considered my place in the
world : but that is not enough ; it is needful to be like
St. Ambrose, a real man of God, a man whose life is not
here, from whom nothing proceeds that is not prompted
by the Holy Spirit, whose whole conduct is of Heaven.
God chooses the things which are not to bring to nought
things that are ; but it is needful to be nothing, that is to
say, nothing in one's own eyes, emptied of self and full of
God "; and the letter closes with references to the
newly professed Carmelite Louise de la Mise*ricorde
and to Le Camus.
This close intercourse with the King was an astounding
experience to Bossuet, yet he was more oppressed by the
responsibility than uplifted by the honour of it. He felt
himself insufficient for the task placed in his hands, and
his sense of inadequacy expressed itself in aspiration
towards a standard higher than that which he was touch-
ing. The letter to Bellefonds is that of a visionary, not
of a hypocrite ; the worst accusation to which he is
liable for his action in this crisis is that he was not suffi-
ciently far-seeing or practical. In extenuation it can be
urged that his office at Court demanded of him the re-
pression of his natural inclinations. He had devoted
his youth to the cultivation of the skill of the orator
and he found himself debarred from its exercise. When
he preached at the Profession of La Valliere he reminded
his listeners that he was breaking a silence of years, and
* Correspondance, vol. i, No. 119.
The Contest with the King 131
we find him, five months beforehand, corresponding with
the prioress * on the theme of his discourse, a striking
indication of the importance which he attached to this
isolated opportunity for speech. The artist nature
checked in its legitimate expression is prone to violent
development if it is subjected to strain. Bossuet, philo-
sopher, statesman, and scholar though he was, had the
artist nature, and under " the heaviest charge that can
be laid on any man " he became a dreamer. For dealing
with Madame de Montespan the qualities of a detective
would have been more useful, and she defeated him ;
in dealing with the King he allowed his judgment and
his sense of probability to be misled by the intensity of
his desire. Unquestionably Louis had been moved by
an impulse of remorse, and the spasms of penitence that
developed from it were not necessarily insincere because
they were short-lived. It is due to the faith and ardour
which Bossuet brought to the encouragement of a gleam
of good intention, that the King made his dramatic pause
in a progress of self-pleasing.
From the Easter when Madame de Montespan was
rebuffed by the parish priests at Versailles until he joined
his armies early in May, the King shut himself off from
his ordinary companions. Bossuet saw him daily, and
composed for him an Instruction " on the love of God as
the principle of life." It contains frequent references
to the exalted state of the reader for whom it is intended,
and a Rule which would be suited only to a King ; the
instruction itself, however, might be used by any beginner
at a very elementary stage of religious knowledge.
Bossuet, referring to it long after, recalled the comment
of the King : " I never heard of this before ; no one has
ever told me of it."f Many celebrated orators, including
Bossuet himself, had, in fact, expounded these truths in
the presence of the King, but the most skilful of teachers
wastes his words on ears that will not hearken ; it was
the royal desire to be taught that gave Bossuet his oppor-
tunity. As he grasped it the courtier in him was routed
* Correspondance, vol. i, No. in.
t Ledieu : Journal, vol. i, p. 202.
132 Jacques Benigne Bos suet
by the priest, and he saw his sovereign only as a soul in
need.
" There is no question here of long prayers, of reading
which wearies those who are unaccustomed to it, or of
any practices of this description. One can pray as one
comes and goes, by turning to God in spirit. If the King
will be in earnest over his ordinary prayers that will be
quite enough. And nothing else need be altered except
only the sin that distorts life, makes it false, disturbs it,
and brings down upon it a visitation of God both in
this world and the next." *
" Except only the sin ! " To Bossuet it seemed so
obvious that the realization of sin would lead in natural
sequence to its rejection. Otherwise, why had that
realization come to pass ? While the King remained at
St. Germain he was assisting him, and Madame de
Montespan also, in their preparation for Communion
at Whitsuntide. He visited the favourite firs^ in the
house on the outskirts of Paris where she had taken
refuge, and afterwards at Clagny and was not very well
received. She accused him roundly of supplanting her
with the King from ambitious motives. f He accepted
her reproaches with meekness that was worthy of Vincent
de Paul, and when they ceased, and she became friendly,
he attributed it to the work of grace. The change might
seem miraculous, yet such a miracle was in accordance
with the faith that he preached and that he believed.
He never suspected that Colbert, more deeply versed in
knowledge of their master, was already negotiating with
Madame de Montespan for the resumption of her former
position at Court. She had ascertained that Harlai,
Archbishop of Paris, was ready to come to terms over
the situation, and that Pere La Chaise, the King's con-
fessor, would give tacit assent. Thus the religious
scruples of the King would cease to be a serious stum-
bling-block, and her experience suggested that his
fervour was likely to be transient. Under these circum-
stances she could be gracious to Bossuet without effort.
* Correspondence, vol. i, No. 115 bis.
f Floquet : Bossuet Prtcepteur, p. 491.
The Contest with the King 133
By the end of May her confidence in the future was
assured. The King's money was once more at her
command and she spent it royally ; there are letters
from Louis to Colbert ordering that her desires should
be carried out at any cost, and her desires were very
costly. She required terraces and fountains and orange
trees on her estate of Clagny,* and she had them. The
date of a letter from the King to his Minister f on this
matter is anterior to one from Bossuet to the King
which assumes his perseverance on the path of re-
nunciation.
' Whitsuntide draws near," wrote the director, " the
season when Your Majesty is resolved to make your
Communion. I am certain that the promise made be-
fore God will be observed, but as I was commanded to
remind Your Majesty this is the time that I must do so.
Remember, Sire, that there is no true conversion without
the effort to banish not merely the sin itself, but the
occasion of it. True conversion is not satisfied merely
to crush that which the Scriptures call fruit unto death,
which means sin ; but it goes right down to the root
because fresh growth is inevitable if the root is left.
This cannot be accomplished in a day, but the longer
and the more laborious the task promises to be the greater
is the call for energy. Your Majesty would not regard a
rebel city as subjugated until the leader in rebellion was
disgraced. In like manner God can never gain posses-
sion of your heart so long as it continues to be dominated
by the passion which has separated you from Him.
And, Sire, it is for your heart that God is asking. Your
Majesty has seen the terms on which He asks for our
complete surrender. I have shown them to Madame de
Montespan and they have cost her many tears. And
truly, Sire, there can be no better cause for weeping than
the discovery that the heart which God was claiming was
fixed upon one of His creatures. How hard it is to
withdraw from this most fatal snare ! Nevertheless,
* Bought by the King in 1665. Eventual cost over 2,000,000 liv.
See Colbert : Lettrei, vol. v, p. 364.
t Ibid., vol. vi, p. 327.
134 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
Sire, it must be done or there is no hope for your salva-
tion. Jesus Christ, Whom you are about to receive,
will give you the force to accomplish that which He has
already taught you to desire.
" I do not ask you, Sire, to extinguish so vigorous a
flame in a moment that would be to demand the im-
possible : but, Sire, strive little by little to diminish it ;
beware of giving it encouragement. . . . All the world
is talking of the splendour of your troops and of all that
they may accomplish under so great a leader ; and I,
for my part, Sire, am musing in my inmost self on a much
more important battle and a victory far harder of achieve-
ment which God requires of you. Reflect on these
words of the Son of God, Sire ; they seem to have been
written for great kings and for conquerors : * For what
is a man profited if he shall gain the whok world and
lose his own soul ? Or what shall a man givein exchange
for his soul ? ' of what use will it be to you, Sire, to
appear to be victorious and triumphant if inwardly you
are defeated and enslaved ? " *
The note of apprehension is evident, yet, except for the
one passage where vision becomes dim and resolution
wavers, the letter is that of a director to a penitent rather
than of a courtier to a King. Except for the one passage
but by reason of it, the whole letter bears the stain of
failing faith. " I do not ask you, Sire, to extinguish so
vigorous a flame in a moment 1 " Bossuet was receptive
to impressions ; he had visited Madame de Montespan
very recently, and it may be that, as he wrote, 'the scene
grew vivid in his mind, and the royal favourite, majestic,
arrogant, violent even in her tears of repentance, was
once more before him and his hand trembled. He had
come to Versailles in middle life, and its glitter dazzled
unaccustomed eyes ; even to men and women of high
degree the magic of the Court was so potent that the
vices of royalty appeared as a fine assertion of inde-
pendence. It is well to remember that the Queen
herself was on friendly terms with Madame de Montes-
pan, and Bossuet, in maintaining his protest against
* Correspondance, vol. i, No. 115.
The Contest with the King 135
notorious sin, had to withstand that strong pressure of
general opinion which we now term atmosphere. If in
those days there had lived a saint and he had been
director to the King, denunciation might not have
wavered before a mental picture of Madame de Montes-
pan. But Bossuet was not a saint ; he was a man of
simple aims in the midst of complicated conditions,
groaning under a responsibility too great for merely
human capacity. And though he failed to prove himself
intrepid he did not play the coward.
Except his letter to Bellefonds we have no evidence
regarding his state of mind during those summer weeks ;
probably he hoped against hope and fought misgivings
as though they were temptations. On July 10, in
obedience to a command, he wrote again to the King *
advising him regarding his duty to his people. The
only allusion having any relation to Madame de Montes-
pan is to a great conquest over self which has become an
accomplished fact. It is hard to explain the royal desire
for these directions. Less than a fortnight after they
were written Bossuet learnt that Madame de Montespan
was returning to Versailles to receive the King. The
tidings can have caused no surprise to experienced
courtiers who had watched the proceedings of the
favourite. To them there had been sufficient presage
in her return to her pleasure-house at Clagny from the
dreary abode in the outskirts of Paris, where she had
taken refuge when the King's concern regarding the
security of his soul had caused so dire an upheaval of
her comfortable and assured position. The King's ad-
visers had come to the conclusion that she would return
eventually whether they opposed her wishes or not,
and prudently they facilitated what they could not pre-
vent. Bossuet had been approached with care and
circumspection. He was assured that the old relations
were not to be resumed ; that Madame de Richelieu,
mistress of the Queen's household, would always be
present at any interview between the King and his former
favourite, that Madame de Montespan held office at
* Correspondance, vol. i, No. 121.
136 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
Court and that her banishment involved injustice, that
for many reasons a moderate course was wisest. He
replied that such an arrangement was inconceivable, that
it invited temptation, that it was directly contrary to all
the laws of the Church.*
With that the matter ended so far as he was concerned,
and the sequel came upon him with a shock of astonish-
ment. He must have known, when he heard that the
favourite was returning to the palace, that his cause was
lost, but for more than three months it had been the
engrossing subject of his thoughts and prayers, and he
did not relinquish it without a struggle. Ordering his
coach in haste he set out to meet the King on his home-
ward progress. He found him at Luzarches, eight
leagues distant from Versailles, but his skill in argument
and in persuasion was allowed no scope. Loufci received
him coldly ; his mission was obvious and it was un-
acceptable : " Words are wasted, monsieur," he said,
" I have given my orders, and they will be carried
out."t
The episode, with its immeasurable significance to the
mind of a priest, was over, and defeat could hardly have
been more absolute. A few months later, when the
palace at Versailles was complete and the royal owner
was allotting its accommodation, he gave twenty rooms
on the first floor to Madame de Montespan and sixteen
on the second floor to his Queen. Undoubtedly that
curious interlude of penitence strengthened the dominion
of the favourite and she had no more to fear from Bossuet.
His failure served as a warning to others, and her reign
continued without molestation from the Church. Princes,
statesmen, and ecclesiastics bowed to her will, and her
downfall might never have been accomplished but for
the courage and resource of another woman.
Madame de Maintenon had mocked at Bossuet's
attempt.^ She had the experience in which he was
* Antoine Arnauld : Lettres, vol. vii, p. 320.
t Floquet : Bossuet Prtcepteur, p. 511.
^ Cldment : Madame de Montespan et Louis XIP, p. 45.
Floquet : Bossuet Pr/cepteur, p. 483.
The Contest with the King 137
lacking, for she was guardian and governess to the
children of Madame de Montespan and the King.
Her position offered special facilities for gaining intimate
knowledge of the favourite, and she regarded spiritual
weapons as useless in an attack upon her. Yet her scorn
of Bossuet's credulity was not so great that she could
not turn his failure to account. One lesson learnt from
her observation of his experiment must have helped her
materially in securing her ultimate supremacy. In her
gradual ascent she never fell into the error of trusting
either her sovereign himself or her rival in his regard ;
yet for sixteen years after the attempt at which she scoffed
she was never absolutely secure of her own victory. It
was not until 1692 that Madame de Montespan asked
permission of the King to retire from the Court. Her
apartments at Versailles were given immediately to her
son, M. du Maine,* beloved of Madame de Maintenon,
and the protracted struggle between the mistress and the
morganatic wife concluded.
These sordid episodes in the life of the King were
momentous to the career of Bossuet, not only at the time
of their occurrence, but in their bearing on his after
reputation. The accusations levelled against him with
regard to his intervention between the King and Madame
de Montespan are especially damaging, because they
appear to rest on contemporary evidence. Madame de
SeVigne was provoked to mirth : "It is very funny that
all that is most righteous is on the side of the plans and
interest of Quanto (Madame de Montespan) and that
M. de Condom gives her advice which is just the same
as that given to her by her friends." f Madame de
SeVigne did not write to make or mar reputations for all
time, however. She set down the impressions of the
passing moment in letters that were the substitute for
speech with one she loved. She chronicled the gossip
of the day without any endeavour to verify it, and laughed
with real enjoyment over the absurdities of serious
people.
* Clement : op. cit., p. 151.
f Madame de Sevigne : Lettres, vol. iii, No. 413.
138 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
Madame de Caylus,* another of the witnesses against
Bossuet, is constantly inaccurate. She speaks sarcastic-
ally of the celebrated parting and the subsequent re-
conciliation " which reflected so much credit on M. de
Meaux, Madame de Montausier, and other virtuous
persons at Court," f but she gleaned her knowledge from
Madame de Maintenon, and that lady was absent at a
health resort with M. du Maine when these events
occurred. Moreover, Madame de Montausier had died
two years earlier. The malevolent charge against
Bossuet has no evidence of fact behind it and may be
confuted by the testimony of his own conduct, and the
position which he maintained in the esteem of persons of
high integrity. Also it should be observed that if
as M. Chateaubriand and others have suggested he
obeyed expediency at the cost of principle Re made an
exceedingly bad bargain.:): In other conflicts he showed
unusual skill ; he could calculate probabilities and use
his weapons to the best advantage, and he was never
openly defeated. If he had intended to avail himself of
his intimate relations with the King to secure a continu-
ance of favour there is no reason that he should have been
unsuccessful. Instead he gained nothing ; he continued
his ungrateful task of forcing undesired knowledge on a
dull-witted child, and had no security that, when his task
was concluded, a reasonable provision would be made for
his future. In fact, he never received any considerable
token of favour ; his future offices in the household of
Madame la Dauphine and Madame la Duchesse de
Bourgogne were natural results of his tutorship, to the
heir to the throne, and his bishopric at Meaux was
meagre preferment. Possibly he suffered from his mis-
use of early opportunities. As a Court preacher he had
been outspoken ; his championship of La Valliere was
imprudent, and his interference with Madame de
Montespan confirmed his reputation for independence.
* Cousin of Madame de Maintenon, brought up under her care.
Born 1673, died 1729.
f Madame de Caylus : Souvenirs, p. 44.
$ Chateaubriand : CEuvres, vol. v, p. 383 (ed. 1835).
The Contest with the King 139
" M. de Condom is clever enough," wrote Madame de
Maintenon, " but he does not understand the spirit of
the Court." This was a true verdict at the time when
it was given. He was a courtier inasmuch as he gave
the King a species of adoration which accords ill with
his ordinary sobriety of thought, but in that he belonged
to the times in which he lived. He was not heroic in
conduct: he did not, when his master returned deliber-
ately to sin, eschew his service. To have done so would
have been to close the doors of public usefulness against
himself for ever. He chose instead to maintain the
even tenor of his way, seeking solace from the searching
disappointment he had undergone in books and in the
conversation of learned men. He had nearly reached
the age of fifty at this time, and had been tutor to the
Dauphin for five years. In the eyes of the world his
appointment and his title of bishop secured for him
considerable distinction, and, after the conflicting claims
and anxieties of the preceding period, the chain of his
employment suggested a measure of repose. To a man
of Bossuet's calibre repose in the ordinary sense was im-
possible ; to him leisure meant merely the opportunity
to choose the object of his labour, and it can hardly be
said that his conscience allowed him even such leisure
as this in the intervals of his attendance upon the
Dauphin. In fact he gave his spare time to the study
of subjects which he had not regarded as necessary to a
preacher and controversialist, but which were part of the
equipment of the ideal instructor of a great prince.
It may be said of Bossuet that he revived the medieval
office of taster to the Dauphin, though in his case its
functions were limited to food for the intellect, and in
that direction the prince's appetite was quickly satisfied.
And, undeniably, there is an element of the grotesque
in the application of his magnificent capacities to school-
room drudgery. Nevertheless, his ten years of tutorship
were rich in intellectual profit to himself, and his place
in the royal household secured for him a recognition in
learned circles, which might never have been accorded
if the achievements of his brain had had no interest to
140 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
support them. In May 1671 he was elected to the
French Academy, and the honour was one to which he
was by no means indifferent. Only on rare occasions
did he express anxiety regarding the adequacy of his
work, yet the Address * that he was to deliver when he
took his seat was enclosed to Conrart f for criticism and
correction, with a letter that suggests the diffidence of the
literary novice. His theme was " Style and the French
Language," and Conrart, besides holding the office of
perpetual secretary to the French Academy,:}: was a
survivor of the distinguished inner circle of the Hotel
Rambouillet ; therefore his approval could be accepted
as a certificate of excellence on such a subject, and if any
advice were needed none could be more valuable. But
Bossuet had already won his spurs as orator and master
of language with the Oraison Funebre for Madame,
and only extreme respect for the august body of which
he was to form a part could have prompted his evident
misgivings regarding his Address.
A position at Court had many uses, and he contrived
to turn it to account in an enterprise which had more
direct connection with the Church than any of the
labours of the French Academy. From his schoolboy
days at Dijon Bossuet had been an eager student of the
Bible, and, as soon as he became a recognized influence,
he urged all priests to be ceaseless in their study of it
and to have the New Testament always within reach.
During his sojourn in Paris the question of Scripture"
study had been brought into prominence by the publica-
tion of the translation of the Bible 'known as the Mons
Edition, for which Arnauld and his colleagues were largely
responsible, || and later by the Critical Study of the Old
Testament, by Richard Simon.
When he was liberated from his schoolroom duties the
Dauphin's tutor sought the society of kindred spirits
* CEuvres, vol. ill, p. 700.
f Correspondance, vol. i, No. 50.
$ Pelisson : Hist, de lAcadtmie Frartfaise, p. 18 (ed. 1700).
Ledieu : Mtmoires, p. 46.
|| Noailles : Hist, de Madame de Maintenon, vol. i, p. 260.
The Contest with the King 141
with whom he might discuss the topics that were near
his heart. There was an avenue in the park at Versailles
which became known as the Alice des Philosophes
because Bossuet was in the habit of walking there with
a group of learned friends. It was possible in such
company to get very far from the Court and its perilous
excitements, even while remaining within ear-shot of its
festivities,* and the subjects on which this little company
conversed were not treated superficially. The Port
Royal translation and the experiment of Richard Simon
spurred them to an enterprise which, under the name
of " The Little Council," became celebrated. At the
invitation of Bossuet, and in his rooms, there were
constant meetings for study and comment on the Bible.
The first was held in December 1673, an d they con-
tinued for nearly eight years.j" Bossuet was president,
the Abbe Fleury secretary, and among the associates were
famous scholars such as Mabillon, Huet, Renaudot,
Pelisson, and the young Abbe* de Fenelon. A few
laymen, of whom Bellefonds was one, were admitted,
but the enthusiasm with which the scheme was sus-
tained suggests that membership must have been limited
to eager students. The ardour of Bossuet was sufficient
to vitalize every discussion, and the undertaking of a
complete Commentary on the Scriptures came within
the limit of his aspirations. It should be understood,
however, that anything approaching such investigation
as falls under the category of Biblical Criticism was very
far from his design. He believed that it was the privi-
lege of students to disclose to others the treasure con-
tained in Holy Writ, and the practical application of his
belief may be found in his Meditations on the Gospels,
written during his episcopate at Meaux.
These conferences served another purpose besides
that of study ; they were an encouragement to friendli-
ness among men whose ordinary avocation did not dis-
pose them to sociability. To Bossuet himself they were
* Bossuet considered that they gave too much prominence to " /V//-
gance naturelle de leur esprit" (Correspondance, vol. i, No. 103.)
( Correspondance, vol. ii, p. 102, note.
142 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
of immeasurable value. His letters to Bellefonds show
that, at times, the peculiar type of solitude implied by his
place at Court oppressed him, and the burden of it, in his
hour of disappointment, would have been hard to bear
without the possibility of escape to that world of study
and reflection which the Little Council represented.
That was his kingdom, and when he had sustained defeat
at the hands of Madame de Montespan he composedly
retired to it. He had been dazzled by the thought that
God was calling him to guide his royal master. In his
eyes such a responsibility was the highest that a man
might hold, and his letters show the degree to which the
vision of it had absorbed him. The prospect vanished,
with uncompromising abruptness, and he appeared to go
upon his way unmoved. If in his calm acceptance of
defeat he may have seemed to fail in heroism, at least
the manner of it did not lack dignity.
The last years of Bossuet's life at Court, when the full
sunshine of royal favour had been withdrawn from him,
must be regarded in relation to the Little Council, and
to the progress of his development as man of letters.
So judged, their fruitfulness is evident.
Chapter X. The Dauphin
THE position of Bossuet at the Court of Louis XIV
is the subject of much dispute and criticism. It
would be interesting if we could discover what
would have been the choice of St. Francois de Sales
under similar circumstances. In his later years the
Bishop of Geneva had no liking for the ways of life in
Paris, and won for himself uncomfortable experience
of the standards and the practices prevailing in the great
world ; nevertheless, he recognized the call to an en-
deavour to leaven society rather than to hold aloof from
it. The world with which Bossuet became familiar
half a century later had not raised its standard. Because
the greatness of the King was so incessantly proclaimed
by those about him, the public mind became unbalanced
and lost discrimination. No man could hold a post in
the royal household if he refused to accept the courtier's
creed ; yet for priest or layman to avoid the Court was
to renounce those opportunities of widespread influence
which good men may legitimately covet. Bossuet as
temporary preacher to the Court had been bold in de-
nouncing wickedness in high places ; as tutor to the
Dauphin his loyalty forbade all criticism ; if his eyes still
beheld the stains on his master's shield his mind refused
to dwell on them. The personal fascination of the King'
helped him to quench misgivings ; in the royal presence
he could always forget the experience of La Valliere, and
when he strove against Madame de Montespan it was
she who represented sin ; apart from her the King
remained worthy of respect and admiration. And once
he became imbued with this leading sentiment of the
courtier (and his intercourse with Henrietta of England
had helped him to its acquisition) there could be no
question of his readiness to accept the post of tutor to the
Dauphin.
At the present time the suggestion of applying great
powers, such as Bossuet possessed, to the tuition of a child
would be inadmissible, but the majesty which surrounded
the cradle of the Dauphin in the eyes of the world made
any office connected with him a mark of high distinction.
144 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
" It is hardly possible that in the whole course of history
a prince has been born to equal eminence " ; so wrote
Madame de Motteville in her faithful chronicle of the
sayings and doings of the Court.* In 1670, when the
tutorship was vacant, there were one hundred applicants
for the post. Bossuet was not among the competitors,
but when the office was bestowed upon him he regarded
it as a great and welcome honour. In September 1670
at the royal palace of St. Germain-en-Laye he pledged
himself by solemn oath before the King in person :
" To devote myself and all my powers to the training
of the King's son in the love and fear of God and in the
principles of good conduct, and to cultivate his mind by
knowledge of the literature and science worthy of a very
great prince."t The very great prince was then nine
years old and Bossuet, at forty-three, was well-equipped
for a career as scholar or ecclesiastic and altogether
ignorant of childish interests and pursuits. Yet four
years earlier his name had been considered for this
office. The King's choice fell instead on Pe*rigny,
a man of humble origin (he was the grandson of a
tailor known in Paris as Peau de Loup fl who
had raised himself by solid capacity and dexterous
solicitation to the position of reader to the King and
also to membership of the Parlement of Paris. Fortune
had favoured him. The King needed a diligent and
trustworthy scribe to aid him in the compilation of the
Memoir to which he applied himself during the Dauphin's
infancy. While he was reader to the King Pengny
appears to have taught the little prince to read, and to
have given him lessons before he reached the age when
a regular tutor was considered desirable.^ He was
nominated publicly as official tutor September 1666.
A year later the period was reached when the child
was to be removed from the care of women (he was then
six), and Montausier received the appointment, of all
* Madame de Motteville : MSmoires, vol. v, p. 248.
t Floquet : Bossuet Prtcepteur, p. 29.
i Gui Patin : Lettres, vol. iii, p. 296, December 10, 1660.
Dreyss : MSmoires de Louis XIV, vol. i, p. Iz.
The Dauphin 145
others at Court most to be coveted, of governor to the
Dauphin. At that time the organizing of the new
household did not appear to concern Bossuet, yet, as it
was destined to be the background of his life for ten
important years, each detail of its formation was, in fact,
momentous to him. And it may be said, in considering
the appointments of the Dauphin's household, that the
evil humours prevalent at Court were as inimical to the
unhappy child who was its centre as to his mother.
Madame de Montausier, who had reigned over the
Hotel Rambouillet in her youth, learnt after marriage
to use the gifts that made her the queen of cultivated
society for a less charming purpose. She became the
most skilful of courtiers, and the high moral code which
had been so strong a part of the influence of the cele-
brated salon was altogether forgotten. She was ap-
pointed gouvernante to the royal children before the
birth of the Dauphin. Thirty years earlier, at the risk
of her beauty and of her own young life, she had shut
herself up with her brother, a child of eight, who was
dying of the plague, and tried to save his life,* but that
celebrated act of devotion belonged to the youth she
had left behind, and the earliest years of the little prince
were not guarded with motherly solicitude. We hear of
a fall from his cradle at Versailles, and of his head nurse,
Lacoste, beating him violently in the royal palace at
Fontainebleau.f The palace intrigue that summoned
Madame de Montausier from the royal nursery to sup-
plant Madame de Navailles ^ as head of the Queen's
household, was a merciful dispensation for him, and for
a brief period he had experience of tenderness under the
care of Madame de la Motte, whose grandmother had
been gouvernante to Louis XIV. She is reported
to have been over indulgent with him, and before he
attained the age of seven Montausier became his governor.
For that ill-omened appointment his father's sins are
* Petit, N. : La Fie de M. le Due de Montausier, p. 41.
j" Dubois de Lestourmieres : Journal (1663), p. 410.
\ Madame de Motteville : M/moires, vol. v, p. 321.
See Druon : L 1 Education des Princes, vol. i, p. 223.
K
146 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
directly responsible. Madame de Navailles was dis-
graced because, as guardian and duenna in the Queen's
household, she had refused to recognize the claim of her
royal master to absolute monarchy. She would not
confound loyalty and licence. Madame de Montausier
was prepared to be more complacent ; indeed, her con-
sideration for others was so great that she gave hospitality
to Madame de Montespan in her own apartments and
braved the violence of her guest's ill-mannered husband.*
As reward for her devotion Montausier was given the
highest mark of the King's esteem and confidence.
The portrait of Montausier f shows a strong face,
intellectual and also cruel. He was very well known
for his brusque manners and discourteous speech. Bred
under the most austere Huguenot conditions, he became
a hardy and a valiant soldier, and contrived to acquire
sufficient literary knowledge to maintain a place in the
cultured circle of the Hotel Rambouillet during the
fourteen years that he was courting Julie d'Angennes.
In his maturity he owed his share of happiness and of
success to the cultivation of his mind, but in boyhood
he was so averse to any form of mental application that
his own education had been literally beaten into him4
" He was far more calculated to crush a child who was,
like Monseigneur, naturally of a lazy and a gentle dis-
position and somewhat obstinate than to inspire him
to become what he ought to have been." Such was the
testimony of Madame de Caylus. But the Dauphin
had no one to protect him, and it was the King's will to
deliver him over to Montausier. The governor was
to have complete authority over the work and play of his
pupil, and might reprove, scold, and punish him. All
other offices in the household were subordinate to his,
and no arrangement was to be made except under his
orders and after consultation with him. Montausier is
the Misanthrope of Moliere's play. When he embraced
* Mile, de Montpensier : MSmoirei, vol. iv, p. 154; and Spanheim :
Relation de la Cour de France, p. in.
t In Musee Carnavalet, Paris. % Petit, N.: op. '/., p. 14.
Madame de Caylus : Souvenirs, p. 73.
The Dauphin 147
the Catholic faith he abjured none of the sternness which
was regarded as characteristic of the Huguenots.*
Perigny trembled before him, and is said to have been
so eager to fulfil his exacting demands that he died of
fright and overwork.f
Bossuet was the King's choice as Perigny had been.
There were certain drawbacks from the governor's point
of view in the appointment of a bishop, even though
he was not of noble birth ; moreover, the hapless
President de Perigny by his lack of learning had exalted
the intellectual status of Montausier. To set against
this, however, there was the fact that Perigny had de-
clined to accept a partner in his service to the Dauphin,
being well aware that his reputation as a scholar would
not gain by the comparison involved, whereas Bossuet
welcomed one who was selected by Montausier Pierre
Daniel Huet,^: afterwards Bishop of Soissons, and one
of the most noted classical scholars of his day. The
governor had indeed every reason to be satisfied with the
provision for the improvement of the prince's mind, and
in Bossuet and Huet he had men of goodwill of whose
reasonable loyalty he was secure. The cultivation of the
prince's character and manners he seems to have regarded
as his own concern, and so far did his Huguenot con-
science carry him that the child was, almost literally,
never out of his sight. " He slept in his room, was
present at his levee and his prayers, followed him to
Mass, sometimes shared his studies, and never left him
in playtime because he believed that it was at such times
that children showed their real selves."
There is no reason to believe that Bossuet was dis-
tressed by the conditions that he found when he entered
the Dauphin's household. Tradition says that he was
himself a solemn, studious child with a great sense of
responsibility, and it would have been natural for him
* Petit, N. : op. cit., p. 88.
t MS. Bib. Nat., ff. 4333 ; quoted Revue Bossuet, December 1905.
Born at Caen, 1630. " De tous Its hommes qui ont existe" jusqu'ici,
c'est Huet qul a peut-etre le plus lu " (Sainte-Beuve : Causeries, 3 juin,
1850). Petit, N. : op. cit., vol. ii, p. 14.
148 Jacques Eenigne Bos suet
to assume in the King's son far higher qualities than had
distinguished his own youth. But the Dauphin, at nine
years old, did not regard his vocation of rulership with
the seriousness that was expected of him. Even in the
nursery he had been confronted by a magnificent theory
of the King's majesty, for adulation of Louis XIV was a
recognized weakness in Madame de la Motte. A strong
nature would not have been hindered in its development
by that overshadowing erection, but the Dauphin was
the child of the sensitive misdirected woman who had
the ill-fortune to be Queen of France, and he had in-
herited her disposition. A firm hand, with love to guide
it, might have led him on to worthy manhood. It had
pleased Madame de Montespan, however, to entrust
him to Montausier.
The governor, when he accepted office, declared that
he was no longer his own man and had no more personal
choice.* The tutor was no less devoted in intention,
and for him the sacrifice involved may have been more
severe. Thenceforward the exercise of the gift, to which
he had devoted years of training, was subordinated to his
duty to the child on whom the future fate of France
depended. No doubt the imaginative faculty which is a
part of the orator's equipment aided him in his self-
dedication. He had in view, clearly, the outline sketch of
a perfect pupil, whose inherent quality and gradual growth
should furnish a model to the youth of the kingdom, and
for a time he was able to retain this vision. He was
installed in the royal schoolroom in the autumn of 1670 ;
in June 1671, at his reception to the French Academy, f
he was able in all good faith to make the following
reference to his charge : " One who is now growing up,
gentlemen," he said, " will be your great supporter.
If our hopes are fulfilled and our endeavours are success-
ful the day will come when the prince will be more than
a mere name mentioned in your deliberations ; he will
be able to admire their vigour, to enjoy sharing in them,
and to pay his tribute to their result." And in September
1672, after two years' experience, he shows his mind
* Petit, N. : op. fit., vol. ii, p. 1 1 . f (E-uvres, vol. xii, p. 700.
The Dauphin 149
with those revealing touches that are especially charac-
teristic of his letters to Bellefonds.* " I must tell you
something of Monseigneur the Dauphin," he wrote ;
" It seems to me that I see in him the beginnings of great
things : simplicity, sincerity, kindliness, a perception
of the Sacred Mysteries in spite of all his carelessness,
a something that recalls him to God in the midst of any
distractions. If I repeated to you the questions he asks
me and the real desire for the service of God which
shows itself in him you would be altogether delighted.
But the world, the world, the world, its pleasures, its
evil communications, its bad examples ! Deliver us,
O Lord, deliver us ! In Thy grace and loving kindness
is my hope ! Thou didst deliver the children from the
fiery furnace, but for them one of Thine angels was sent.
And I, alas ! what do I lack ? Humility, self-abasement,
holy confidence, perseverance, untiring labour, patience
and then complete surrender to God, striving to live as the
Gospels teach with this word perpetually in mind :
' But one thing is needful ' '
Thus far he is concerned only with the Dauphin, but
before the letter closes there is a sidelight on himself,
humorous in intention and innocent of any suggestion
of self-pity. " I should never come to an end if I did
not force myself to do so. I do not talk here, and so it
comes to pass that I write, and that I write, and that I
write. There ! For a great preacher, is not that a fine
specimen of style ? Laugh at me if you will for keeping
a youthfulness which still seeks after amusement. And
pray for my child and for me ! "
In his thoughts he was tender enough towards " his
child " ; unfortunately in his vision of him he per-
mitted himself to forget the reality of daily experience.
A vivid picture of the Dauphin's household is provided
for us in a fragment of the Journal of Dubois de Lestour-
mieres, groom of the bedchamber. Earlier pages give
an account of the death of Louis XIII, of incidents in the
boyhood of Louis XIV, and of happy childish experiences
of the Dauphin himself before he was overshadowed by
* Correspondence, vol. i, No. 64.
150 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
the grim presence of Montausier. Another witness tells
us how charmingly and childishly he danced before the
Court at the age of five.* In July 1671 Dubois, who
was over seventy, entered on his term of service at St.
Germain. That month was made memorable by the
death of the King's younger son, Anjou, after a long
illness. His parents, knowing his danger, were on their
return journey to Versailles, and it was the duty of
Bossuet to meet them at Luzarches with the melancholy
tidings.f This was on July n, 1671, and it was the
first occasion probably when he was closely associated
with his royal master. It is quite clear that he was
susceptible to the personal fascination of the King.
This weakness was one of his bonds of sympathy with
Bellefonds, to whom, condoling on his exile, he wrote :
" It is not the Court for which you care, but only for the
King himself." ^ It aided him also to understand the
struggles and the sufferings of La Valliere, and brought
him closer to the thought and spirit of his age, but it did
not assist him to an unbiassed view of the Dauphin and
the conditions of his training. He came from the royal
presence at Luzarches with a new incentive to fulfil the
King's will in all things, and it chanced that evil days for
his pupil were imminent.
Dubois' Journal gives us their history : " August 4,
Tuesday, 1671, at Fontainebleau. M. de Montausier
struck the dear child four or five times with a cane, so
sharply that he was almost crippled. The afternoon-
was worse. No pleasures, no going out. In the even-
ing, when he was saying his prayers and there were many
people present, he missed a word in the Lord's Prayer.
M. de Montausier threw himself upon him, striking him
with his fist till I thought he would kill him. M. de
Joyeuse said, merely : ' Eh 1 M. de Montausier ! '
After this he had to begin again, and the dear child re-
peated just the same mistake. M. de Montausier seized
his two hands in one of his own and dragged him away
* Olivier d'Ormesson : Journal, p. 204.
t Dubois de Lestourmieres : Journal (167 3).
$ Correspondence, vol. i, No. 58.
The Dauphin
to the room where he does his lessons ; there he caned
him five times on each hand with all his force. The dear
child's screams were terrible to hear."
Probably the little prince had been extremely naughty
the fond old servant omits all mention of his misdoing
and Montausier's violent temper may have been irri-
tated till it became ungovernable. The culprit was only
ten years old, however, and Dubois asserts that the scars
and bruises he received were visible a month later.
Montausier had received his absolute authority from the
King, and Bossuet was only one among many who were
witnesses, but to the consent implied by silence he added
active effort to persuade the child not to complain to the
Queen. The Dauphin was good-natured, also he may
have feared the immediate result of laying information
against his tyrant, and Montausier's apprehensions were
laid to rest. There is no record of another scene of this
kind, nor is there, on the other hand, a suggestion of any
effort to soften the fear and hatred implanted in the mind
of the little prince. When the royal schoolroom was
once more at Versailles, we hear of the governor taking
leave to spend a few days in Paris and the pupil allowing
his delight to show itself. If Dubois is correct Bossuet
himself immediately recalled Montausier, and the
Dauphin received three strokes of the cane to moderate
his joy. Incontestably Montausier abused his power,
and turned the wilfulness of childhood into rebellion,
sullenly conceived under the constant correction of the
cane, and stubbornly carried out when manhood brought
liberty of action.
It is hard to judge whether Bossuet might have inter-
vened and failed to do so. Dubois and another member
of the household approached him with the hope of in-
ducing him to make a protest against the violent treat-
ment from which the child was suffering, but they could
get no satisfaction from him. Deference to authority
was a principle that he did not set aside lightly, and his
own office implied acceptance of the governor's authority.
Even if he had been as much distressed as the old valet
by his pupil's plight it does not follow that he could have
152 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
altered it, but, in fact, there is no vestige of evidence that
it did distress him. He was not in any degree respon-
sible for the abuse of authority which he was forced to
witness, and such blame as may attach to him for the
lamentable methods adopted in the training of the
Dauphin is due solely to his indifference. In the next
generation F^nelon, occupying a similar position towards
the Dauphin's sons, was on terms of affectionate intimacy
with Beauvilliers, their governor, and the children
flourished in the kindly atmosphere of family life.* But
Bossuet was kept at a distance by Montausier and re-
quired to confine himself strictly to his own department.
For the tutor, as well as for his pupil, those years in the
schoolroom were years of discipline. In the after-period
of his episcopate at Meaux he was noted for the patience
and the ease with which he adapted himself to the hum-
blest intellects, and probably he would have acknowledged
that the Dauphin helped him to acquire this capacity.
He learnt in other directions also. At Metz he had been
immersed in the study of the Fathers, but it was profane
rather than sacred literature with which the King's son
was to be made familiar, and therefore he plunged into
the classics and found a new joy in life. It has been said
that for him the call to teach meant before all else the
call to learn, and without doubt his style as a writer ac-
quired a strength and grace of which it gave no promise
before his years of tutorship.
The office of a schoolmaster cannot lightly be under- *
taken by one who has attained to middle life, and 'the
standard towards which Bossuet aspired was a high one.
It seemed to him that a beginner approaching Latin
grammar should learn the rules in his own tongue,
but all the primers of that day were written in Latin.
A difficulty of this nature did not daunt him in the
slightest ; if such a book as he required did not happen to
exist he lost no time in composing one himself. When the
subject was the history of the world he resorted to the
same expedient. The child whom he was teaching was
to have a part in the history of the future, therefore the
* Druon : of. cit., vol. i, p. 266.
The Dauphin 153
history of the past was essential to the storing of his
mind. To Bossuet's vision of the knowledge necessary
to a King's son we owe his Histoire Universelle, and, it
may be, the first revelation to the literary mind of France
of the philosophy of history.
These undertakings witnessed to a sense of high
responsibility in his task which may appear over-weighted ;
but, in fact, he was only sharing the general idea of its
importance. It is significant that the Pope intimated
his wish for an account of Bossuet's method of education.
In replying, Bossuet gave a picture which represents the
scheme that existed in his mind rather than the actual
experiences of the royal schoolroom. The subject of his
letter to the Pope is a studious boy hungry for knowledge,
and bearing but small resemblance to the sluggard
Dauphin. Such passages as these, for instance, verbally
accurate and written in all good faith, convey a false im-
pression :
' We did not think it desirable to give him the work
of great authors piecemeal ; one book of the Aeneid,
one book of Caesar by itself. We have read each work
right through, at one draught as it were, so that he should
by degrees accustom himself to see the purpose of the
whole and the connection of all the parts. . . . Among
the poets those which give most pleasure to Monseigneur
le Dauphin are Virgil and Terence, among historians
Sallust and Caesar. He regards the latter as an ad-
mirable guide towards greatness. ... I can hardly
estimate the amount of amusement and instruction he
has found in Terence or the variety of the living pictures
of human nature that have grown vivid to his mind as
he read. ... All the notes we have made on each author
would fill a thick volume.
" At the same time we take geography as if it were a
game, pretending to travel, sometimes by way of the
great rivers, sometimes skirting along the coasts, stopping
in the towns and the great ports, and looking closely at
everything.
" And then we teach him history. And because this
is the guide for individual and national life^we have ap-
154 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
preached this subject with particular care : but we have
been most concerned that he should know the history
of France, which is his own history. We have not re-
quired him to study books, except some of the finest
passages of Philippe de Comines and Bellay ; we have
gone to the original sources ourselves, and taken from
recognized authorities whatever was most likely to be of
service to him. We have taught him verbally and made
him repeat the lesson from memory : he writes it out
in French and then translates it into Latin ; thus it is
useful as an exercise, and his French as well as his Latin
is corrected. On Saturdays he goes straight through all
he has done in the week, and, as the amount increases,
we divide it into books which he is required to reread
frequently. He has been so diligent over this study that
he has come down to recent times, and we have almost
the whole of our national history written by the prince
with his own hand in Latin and in French." *
Knowledge of the boy who was heir to the throne of
France was the Pope's desire, and it must be admitted
that, when he had read the summary of education just
quoted, his desire remained unfulfilled. The letter sheds
no light upon the pupil ; its interest concerns the tutor
only. Many years before Bossuet had pictured the pro-
gress of the ascending soul " Carrying out all under-
takings because it loves to follow the will of God : doing
all things with energy because it is the will of God that
nothing should be done listlessly." Bossuet the tutor"
kept that ideal before him, and was prone to lose con-
sciousness of actuality in his vision or his office, in out-
line and detail, as held directly under God Himself.
With such an incentive to diligence it was possible for him
to forget poverty of material or feebleness of result, but
the Dauphin himself might have been happier had his
tutor's views been less transcendent. It was supposed
to be a pleasant and easy method of impressing his day's
work upon his memory to arrange a species of competi-
tion between himself and his two pages f during the
* CorresponJance, vol. ii, No. 192.
t Vallon de Mimeurs and Desir< de la Chesnaye.
The Dauphin 155
process of undressing. They were to question each
other in the presence of their tutor on the subjects they
had studied; and in order of merit, according to the
intelligence and accuracy they displayed, their names
were set down each evening in a book kept for the
purpose.* This exercise, and the entry regarding it,
was continued every night for ten years with very occa-
sional interruptions, for there were no holidays in the
royal schoolroom, and Sundays brought only slight
variation of the daily round. And Bossuet, in all good
faith, regarded this as a diversion likely to be welcome
to his pupils, without a suspicion of the mental exhaustion
and the dull resentment that might be induced in un-
willing players by such a pastime.
There were times, however, when the scales fell from
his eyes and the naked truth claimed recognition from
him. A manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale f
preserves a lesson in dictation suggestive of a strained
relationship between tutor and pupil. It was composed
by Bossuet, written out in French, and afterwards trans-
lated into Latin by the Dauphin. The impression that
it leaves with us differs materially from that produced by
the letter to the Pope. Indeed, the hard fact of that
schoolroom tragedy projects itself through the well-
worded phrases of the lesson, and the chief actors in it
return to being as we read the prince, sullen and
mutinous ; the tutor, vibrant with that enthusiasm for
learning which is incredulous of intellectual apathy; and,
towering in the background, the grim figure of the
governor, with his pitiless strength and ever-ready cane.
" Do not think, Monseigneur, that it is only because
of your mistakes in grammar that we correct you so
severely at your lessons. No doubt a prince, who ought
to be accurate in all things, should be ashamed to make
such mistakes, but our indignation has higher grounds.
For it is not so much the mistake that we blame as the
lack of attention that is the cause of it. If you put words
in their wrong places now you will misdirect affairs
in time to come ; you will reward when you should
* Druon: op. cit., vol. i, p. 247. f (Euvres, vol. xxvi, p. 14.
156 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
punish, and punish when you should reward ; every-
thing, in short, that you do will be disordered if you do
not in childhood train your mind to be attentive and to
give serious thought to whatever you have in hand."
Bossuet then proceeds to show the peculiar danger to the
character of a prince incurred by yielding to the sin of
indolence ; the fatal ease with which, in his circum-
stances, honour and luxury and amusement were obtained
left no inducement to industry or effort. " But you must
not imagine that wisdom also is yours by nature. We
cannot infuse your mind with the principles of good
behaviour while you yourself are thinking of something
else." The ruler of a kingdom may be forced to deal
with conflicts within and without the realm ; plots and
intrigues in the army, in the government, in the palace
itself " You cannot control a horse of any mettle if you
leave the rein loose and let your attention wander, much
less a vast multitude swayed by differing interests and
by changing fashions. . . . Wake up, Monseigneur !
and regard the great monarch to whom you owe your
birth. In peace or war he directs everything himself ;
he replies to the envoys from foreign countries, he in-
structs his own ambassadors, he governs his armies, con-
trolling some in person and directing where others are
to go and all this weight of affairs does not divert his
attention from details. Train yourself also to be capable
of greatness. A life that ought to be so full of activity
must not open with laziness and inattention. Such a
bad beginning may dull the clearness of your brain ; you
were born with good capacity do not risk the loss of a
gift from God. Assuredly all the powers that you re-
ceived from Nature will be extinguished. If you refused
ever to dance again you would lose the capacity and for-
get how it was done ; in like manner if you will not use
your brain it will become torpid and sink away into a
miserable lethargy."
Bossuet intended, it is clear, to paint the results of
indolence as luridly as possible, but he had no suspicion
that he was depicting the future that actually awaited the
Dauphin. Each succeeding month found the luckless
The Dauphin 1 57
prince more deeply plunged in the morass of undesired
knowledge and more firmly resolved that no traces of his
immersion should adhere to him in after-life. Two
stories that survive are significant of his state of mind.*
In the early stage of his education he overheard a lady
bewailing her misfortunes. He interrupted her : " Are
you ever obliged to write exercises, madame ? " " No !
Monseigneur." " In that case you really do not know
what it is to be unhappy." And later, when the negotia-
tions for his marriage were complete and he was informed
of the new prospects that were opening out before him,
his first comment was this : " Now we shall see if I let
M. Huet teach me any more classical geography ! " f
" He knew a great deal, but he would never give
evidence of any knowledge at all. He directed all his
energy to forgetting everything he had been taught
because such was his good pleasure. No other explana-
tion for this course has ever been discovered. . . .
He would pass entire days without opening his lips,
lolling in a chair, a little cane in his hand with which he
flicked his shoes." Thus was his manhood described
by the Princess Palatine,^ the second wife of his uncle
Orleans ; and in justice to Montausier it must be con-
ceded that, in the boy whom he coerced and disciplined,
he saw the promise of just such a man as his contem-
poraries describe the Dauphin to have been. " Mon-
seigneur has plenty of brains," he reported to the King.
" M. de Condom, with closer knowledge of them, would
give the same assurance to Your Majesty. He can listen
and understand and remember very well indeed when he
wishes to do so, and this encourages us, but he does not
always wish to do so, and it is this which disheartens us.
If he does pay attention it is only for a very short time ;
he hates taking trouble, and resents anything that is in
any way serious and is not mere amusement. Con-
versation, even though it be of the lightest kind, wearies
* CorresponJance, vol. i, No. 51, note.
f Description of Dauphin's incapacity is confirmed by the Dutch
Minister, Spanheim : Relation de la Cour de France en 1690, p. 115.
$ See Druon: op. cit., p. 354.
158 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
him ; he will not make any contribution to it himself,
neither will he listen to a word that is said by others
because he prefers to play at games that are too childish
for his age."*
All conversation in which Montausier took part may
have been distasteful to the Dauphin because it was im-
possible to find a topic from which maxims for the im-
provement of his mind or morals could not be twisted.
When he took his first ride outside the palace grounds,
and made some childish comment on a peasant's dwelling,
he was bidden to dismount and to go inside. ' This
miserable hovel," said the governor, " houses a whole
family who work unceasingly for the gold with which
your palaces are glittering and who starve that your table
may be supplied with luxuries."t Such ponderous
object-lessons were not calculated to encourage a timid
boy to open his mind freely, nor to give zest to his hours
of recreation. To Bossuet the use of leisure was to find
new material for thought, and to Montausier the desire
for amusement was a symptom of depravity. It must be
conceded to them that by their united efforts their charge
was preserved from the temptations of a frivolous youth.
" He is allowed only as much play as is necessary for
health ; study is the only thing suited to his age."$
So runs the report written for his royal father when he
was thirteen.
It is clear that all the conditions of the Dauphin's
training were abnormal. In himself he was merely a
tiresome, indolent boy of a type that is familiar to every
generation. From such material heroes and saints have
been moulded by the processes of life, but in his case
human intervention thwarted the sane developments of
nature. At five years old he rode at the head of his own
regiment in a review, at six he was provided with a
model army which cost thirty thousand livres,||at ten
Bossuet reported to Daniel Huet that Monseigneur had
* Petit, N. : op. cit., vol. ii, p. 96. f Ibid., vol. ii, p. 39.
\ Ibid., vol. ii, p. 87.
Dreyss : MSmoires de Louii XIV, February 8, 1666.
|| Druon: op. fit., vol. i, p. 310.
The Dauphin 159
slain a boar,* and a few months later the King expressed
his satisfaction to Montausier that his son showed so
much skill as a sportsman and had succeeded in killing
such a large quantity of game.f And when the Court
travelled in the provinces, with all the pomp in which the
King delighted, the Dauphin and his suite had a special
place in the procession, and he was reminded constantly
of his own importance as a personage. Exceptional
balance of mind was needed under such circumstances to
preserve any sense of proportion in his regard for men
and things, for, even while he cowered under the domina-
tion of Montausier, he was never permitted to forget the
tremendous fact of his father's greatness and his own
inheritance, and this paradox in his daily life imposed a
strain upon his reasoning powers. A student of child-
nature might have seen his peril and found some means
to deliver him. Bossuet never understood that child-
nature offered material for study. He had adapted
himself to the instruction of a child when he took office,
and he was completely faithful to his purpose, but the
child that his imagination had constructed, and for whom
he wrote his books and prepared his lessons, bore no
resemblance to the Dauphin.
The prince was confirmed at Versailles by the Arch-
bishop of Paris when he was in his twelfth year, and
during the fifteen months that followed Bossuet prepared
him for his First Communion.:}: The instructions written
by the greatest theologian of the age for his royal pupil
have been preserved, and are well worthy of study.
Had it been possible to wake that sluggish nature to real
anticipation of a great experience and opportunity
Bossuet's words were calculated to do so. We find again
the uncompromising teaching of his sermons, the in-
sistence on the logical consequences of the Faith that was
so generally and so lightly held. ' What hope is
* Correspondance, vol. i, No. 51.
f Ibid., p. 51, note.
%. Gazette^ 4 avril, 1674 : " Le Dauphin refoit la Communion de son
Prtcepteur"
(Euvres, vol. xxvi, pp. i- 5.
160 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
there for a man if he be in no wise altered when he has
received Jesus Christ ? How can anything ever touch
him ? After Communion we must so live as to make it
clear that Jesus Christ is within us. And if so great a
mystery is to have its true effect great preparations are
needed." His doctrine is wholly at variance with the
easy methods of the Court confessors. The fashionable
penitence, by which each year at Easter the world was
reconciled to the Church and by Whitsuntide had re-
sumed its former practices, appeared to him to be more
dangerous than infidelity. ' The true effect of Com-
munion," he told the Dauphin, " is to make us love Jesus
Christ and all that He is. ... He who receives Jesus
Christ should live entirely for Him. . . . Jesus Christ
should be the joy of his life, and should possess him soul
and body."
And the Dauphin, who strove to forget the secular
knowledge imparted by his teacher, did preserve some
remembrance of this other form of teaching. In after
years the occasions when he resisted the King's will were
very rare, but in 1694 he refused to make a concession
to custom which involved him in spiritual insincerity.
It was not his intention to alter his way of living, and
he would not pretend to do so at the bidding of Pere
La Chaise, of Bourdaloue, or even of his royal father.
He owed obedience to the King in all else, he said, but
in that which touched his conscience he must rule him-
self.*
The pupil of Bossuet, when he made that stand for
honesty, demonstrated that there had survived within him
some hidden principle which could overrule the habit
of sloth, both physical and mental, by which he was en-
slaved. The holy fear that had been a part of Bossuet's
teaching on the Sacrament possessed him, and he would
not be persuaded to compromise, even when compromise
was so plainly the way of least resistance. Very early in
their connection Bossuet had discerned in him " a per-
ception of the Sacred Mysteries in spite of all his careless-
ness . . . simplicity, sincerity, kindliness." There the
* Quesnel : CorresponJancc, vol. i, p. 300 (a Vaucel, 14 mai, 1694).
The Dauphin 1 6 1
priest rather than the schoolmaster is speaking ; it was
in spiritual qualities that his discernment was trained by
practice, and it was on the spiritual side that he read the
possibilities of the Dauphin's character aright. There,
and there only, could he seek hope and consolation ; all
his other projects for training intellect and taste were
utterly defeated. When the Dauphin was sixteen the
dismal facts had broken through all the defences of
Bossuet's optimism. " Monseigneur grows so old that
he cannot be under our care much longer," he wrote
to Bellefonds ; " there is a great deal to bear in dealing
with a mind so inattentive as his ; there is no visible
response, and one can only, as St. Paul says, ' Against
hope believe in hope.' Although his general tendencies
are satisfactory, they are so insecure that very little effort
would be needed to sweep them all away. I should be
more content if I saw a firm foundation anywhere, but
perhaps God will achieve what we desire without
us."*
The memoirs of the period cannot be trusted for
revelation of the Dauphin's inner history. Probably
development was arrested by terror of Montausier, and
fear of his father quelled any later impulse towards ex-
pansion. Thus the son and heir of Louis XIV began
life with a heavy handicap. And that which God may
have achieved in him was hidden. He died very suddenly
in the month of April, and at Easter he, to whom the
Sacred Mysteries were a reality, had made his peace with
God.f This was in 1711, seven years after the death
of his old tutor and a still longer time after the cessation
of any intercourse between them.
Bossuet left no record of his own view of that ten
years of labour in the Dauphin's schoolroom ; probably
they were more tolerable in retrospect than in actual
experience, and the bitterness of failure in regard to their
primary object was softened to his remembrance by
their fruitfulness for himself. It is not possible to form
any real estimate of the result to his intellectual develop-
* Correspondance, vol. ii, No. 156.
f Princess Palatine : Gorrespondance, vol. i, p. 130.
1 62 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
ment of that interlude in his ministrations as a priest.
For ten years he gave six hours daily to instruction, and
his day was divided by the morning, afternoon, and even-
ing lessons. During that period he was required to
move with the Court between the Louvre, St. Germain,
Versailles and Fontainebleau, and the use of his time
would hardly have been more restricted by the Rule of
the Religious. Moreover, the monotony of daily life
was not lessened by the magnificence of its background,
and it is proof of intellectual energy of no common order
that he was able to rise above the puerile contentions of
the royal schoolroom.
For the first half of his term of office there were human
and personal claims upon him in his capacity as priest
which occupied all the time and power that was not con-
centrated on the Dauphin, but after the retirement of La
Valliere and his own subsequent defeat by Madame de
Montespan, there was leisure and energy to spare. It was
then that his literary career began. In five years, be-
sides the Histories of France and of the World, he wrote
for the benefit of his pupil La Politique tiree de rEcriture
Sainte, which has aroused the wrath of so many critics,
and La Connaissance de Dieu et de soi-meme a treatise in
religious philosophy which has been studied by each
successive generation since it appeared. And when he
framed his Scripture lessons, and strove to instil into the
prince's mind a comprehension of the Church's teaching
simple enough and deep enough to survive the challenge
of the world's opinion, he laid the foundation in' his own
mind of the two volumes which gained for him high rank
among spiritual teachers : his Meditations sur les Evangiles
and Elevations sur les Mysteres. All this is evidence of his
eagerness to acquire knowledge and to impart it. It was
the excess of eagerness that defeated its own object;
in the forward rush of his own intellect he forgot
to smooth the path for the wayward, timorous child en-
trusted to his guidance.
4 You promised that you would give me as much help
as was possible, and you do not do it." That reproach
was addressed to him by a child and it was recorded by a
The Dauphin 163
valet,* yet in it lies the essence of his failure. The
eulogists of the great theologian can cite, as proof of his
devotion to his task, the schemes he made and the books
he wrote for the instruction of the Dauphin. But if
Bossuet had been less richly endowed, if the precious gift
of mental and spiritual vision had not been his in such
full measure, it might have been less easy for him to
forget the shrinking terror of the little prince before the
violence of Montausier. His disapproval, even if unex-
pressed, must have had effect in mitigating the treatment
from which his pupil suffered, but his thoughts were
engrossed by other matters. He dreamed of the perfect
training of a perfect prince, and his own great intellect
developed as he dreamed, but meanwhile the mind and
will of the boy, whose actual daily life he shared, were
crushed and twisted by the brutal hands of the governor.
And as a result of the great scholar's thought and
enterprise and care, a puzzled world beheld that type and
pattern of ineptitude the Elder Dauphin.
* Dubois de Lestourmieres : Journal, July 8, 1671.
Chapter XL The Court Eccksiastic
BOSSUET'S position with Montausier, and his
relation with Court personages generally, were
sensibly affected by the fact that he was a bishop.
In all memoirs that mention him after he entered the
household of the Dauphin the plebeian name with which
he was born is ignored and he appears as Monseigneur
de Condom. Condom is a little city in Gascony not far
from Villefranche and nearly four hundred miles distant
from Paris. The royal edict which conferred the
bishopric on the Abbe" Bossuet is dated September 13,
1669, but the Papal Bull required to confirm it was de-
layed by the death of Pope Clement IX and the intrigues
which hindered the election of his successor Clement X.
It was not issued until June 16, 1670. The months of
delay, unwelcome though they must have been, were
fully occupied with preparations. A citizen of Condom,
Be"gue Plieux by name, was in Paris on business in the
autumn of 1669, and, on behalf of himself and his
colleagues, he visited the bishop-elect and put it on
record * that he was the most genial and friendly of men,
that all his intentions towards his future flock were of the
kindliest, and that he hoped to appear among them before
Easter. During that winter his future honours and
responsibilities provided Bossuet with endless subject for
thought and speculation.
His experience at Metz had made him familiar with
the prevalent abuse of ecclesiastical patronage and its
results, and the tradition of the Bishopric of Condom
was on a level even lower than that of Metz. A century
earlier it had been held by Jean de Monluc, a very valiant
soldier who had never received even clerk's orders.
He was, however, a champion of the Church against the
Huguenots, and drilled the troops he had raised for the
suppression of the Protestants of NeYac within the walls
of the Cathedral of Condom.f Charles Louis de Lor-
raine, the son of the Cardinal de Guise and Charlotte des
Essarts, mistress of Henri IV, held the see immediately
* Plieux, A. : L' Episcopal de Bossuet a Condom, appendix.
f Plieux, A.: op. cit., p. 7.
The Court Ecclesiastic 1 &S
before Bossuet, and his appointment was more
scandalous than that of Monluc. In his youth his
magnificence had aroused the jealousy of Louis XIII,
and wild extravagance at length brought him to poverty.
Condom was worth sixty thousand livres annually, and
an income was necessary to him. He obtained the
bishopric in 1660, spent most of the following years in
Paris striving to wrest its revenues from his creditors,
and died at Auteuil in July 1668.* The royal edict f
appointing Bossuet declares that the King relies, for this
important post, on the government of such a bishop as he
is likely to become.
If the prospect of organizing and reforming a neg-
lected diocese stirred ambition the temptation was in too
austere a form to be a serious danger, and a loyal follower
of Vincent de Paul could cherish eager anticipations of
the labours awaiting him at Condom without neglecting
any of the maxims inculcated at St. Lazare. But, in fact,
whatever plans Bossuet may have made during the year
that succeeded his appointment were wasted, for it was
destined that he should never visit Condom. The death
of Clement IX in November imposed one obstacle, and
when, in June, he had received the Papal sanction and his
way seemed clear, the death of Madame and the royal
command that he should preach her funeral sermon
intervened. Before the excitement roused by that great
feat of oratory had subsided Perigny died, and Bossuet
was appointed tutor to the Dauphin.
It is plain that at first he contemplated directing the
affairs of the diocese from Paris. He was consecrated
bishop September 22, 1670, and he deputed his kinsman
Hugues Janon, Canon of St. Juste at Lyons, to take
formal possession of the bishop's throne in the cathedral
after a solemn entry into the city of Condom. Nearly a
year later he published his Episcopal Ordinances, as if his
authority was likely to be permanent, describing himself
as present with his people in spirit although his bodily
presence was withheld by the important claim of which
* Plieux, A.: op. cit., p. 8.
f Dated September 13, 1669.
1 66 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
they were aware.* His intention of governing his
diocese according to the rules recommended by Vincent
de Paul was not disturbed by his inability to visit it.
The organization of Conferences was the primary en-
deavour of the reformer of that period. The first-
fruits of the great Mission at Metz had been the estab-
lishment of Conferences by as many of the clergy in the
diocese as had been able to respond to the spirit of St.
Lazare. Unfortunately Condom had never been awakened
to that spirit, and the ordinance of the new bishop pro-
voked resentment. His use of authority seems, indeed,
to have been unduly vigorous. He divided the diocese
into districts, and the clergy, religious and secular,
were commanded to meet in a parish church once every
month for an address, and for discussion of such subjects
as faith, morals, the sacraments and the conditions of
reception and administration, the methods of spiritual
advance individual and in the guidance of others.
The meetings were to last two hours, and every priest
in the diocese was required to attend wearing a cassock.
Ostensibly the scheme was one for general edification
and the claim it made is in no wise unreasonable. But the
diocese of Condom had fallen on evil days ; there were
churches left unserved for which revenues were drawn,
and the priests and religious took little interest in the
topics chosen for the Conferences. It was a definite
enforcement of discipline to gather these persons together
every month, and if any one was absent he was required
to give very sufficient explanation. The new bishop
intended to deal severely with absentee incumbents, and
the ordinance respecting Conferences hid drastic pro-
visions under a mild appearance. The future adminis-
tration of Meaux, and the vigorous suppression of rebels
and malcontents that characterized it, was foreshadowed
by the experiences of the clergy of Condom under a
bishop whom they never saw. And the anomaly of his
position only became clear to Bossuet when he found that
* 2 OrJonnance, 16 juin, 1671, A Agen, chez Jean Goyau. For
account of Episcopal Government of Bossuet at Condom see Corres-
pondance, vol. i, appendix xi; and Plieux: op. cit.
The Court Ecclesiastic 167
his will was contested. He could not insist on conformity
with a principle which his own conduct did not uphold.
There was good reason that the Bishop of Condom should
remain in Paris, but he was as much an absentee as if the
reason had been frivolous, and therefore in October 1671
he resigned.
His resignation may seem to be a necessity of honour-
able dealing, but if he had retained his revenues and
governed from a distance he would not have been
criticized by his contemporaries, and his resignation left
him poor and without provision for the future. He did,
in fact, accept the Priory of Plessis left vacant by his
successor at Condom, in addition to certain other bene-
fices,* and by so doing he incurred the disapproval of
Bellefonds. But Bossuet had come to middle age with an
unblemished reputation ; in his life there had not been
the period of rebellion whose after effect is shown in
meticulous adherence to the letter of the law, and he was
content in such matters to abide by the tradition of his
generation. Bellefonds was the friend of Ranee and of
Le Camus, Bishop of Grenoble (when he left Paris he came
under the direction of the latter). These two had begun
by claiming the fullest licence that was permitted to a
priest even in those demoralized times ; then, after a
sensational experience of conversion, they had both
adopted the most rigid practice of asceticism. By their
standards Bossuet was deplorably lax, and Bellefonds,
who expressed himself with incautious openness to
friends and enemies alike, remonstrated. The reply that
he provoked is valuable as evidence of a capacity for
patient friendliness in the writer, and still more as an
expression of a great thinker's views on mundane matters.
' The abbey which the King has given me," wrote
Bossuet, " has delivered me from anxieties which dis-
turbed the peace of mind needful to me in my employ-
ment. Do not be afraid that my expenditure on worldly
* He held the Priory of Gassicourt and the Abbey of St. Lucien.
Correspondance, vol. i, p. 254, note. For the accusations brought against
him on this count see article by M. Re"belliau : Revue des Deux Mondes,
July 15, 1920.
1 68 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
things will be increased : luxuries of the table are as
alien to my taste as to my condition. My kindred shall
not be enriched from the wealth of the Church. I shall
pay my debts as soon as I can : they are incurred for
necessary expenses in ecclesiastical matters.
" And, after all, benefices are surely intended for those
who serve the Church. So long as I have no more than
is necessary to my position I do not know that I need
to be scrupulous about accepting them : I shall not take
more than that, and God is my witness that I do not
intend to advance my own fortunes. When my term of
service here is over I shall go without regret into retire-
ment or to new labour as God calls me. With regard to
the sum required to maintain me here it is difficult to fix
it exactly, for there are unforeseen expenses. As far as
I know myself I have no love of riches, and there are
many things perhaps that I can do without ; but so far
I have not found myself so good a manager as to make a
bare sufficiency suffice me, and more than half my wits
desert me if I am short of funds. Experience will teach
me what I can do without.
" I shall be very grateful to you if you will write to me
often as you have done in this instance. I will try so to
behave that what I do will not in the end bring dishonour
on the Church. I know I am blamed on some matters
with regard to which I see, more clearly every day, that
if I had acted otherwise I should have done no good at all.
I admire strictness of life, but there are some conditions
under which it is extremely difficult to observe rules
exactly. If there is a certain root of good 'intention
beneath all else, sooner or later it shows itself in action ;
everything cannot be done at once. M. de Grenoble
and I have often talked these questions over and are in
agreement in principle. I pray that God may give me
grace to follow him in holy practice."*
Here we get a clue to the reality behind the mask
of impressive reputation. Bossuet, as he appeared to the
world, was self-confident to the verge of arrogance,
assertive of violent opinions, combative when he deemed
* Correspondence, vol. i, No. 64.
The Court Ecclesiastic 169
it necessary ; but the real man as revealed in the rare in-
timacies of his life was always self-distrustful, fully aware
that while he understood the need for single-minded
service his own allegiance was only too frequently
divided. The meekness with which he took rebuke
from Bellefonds was not simulated ; there are many other
instances where he gives evidence of the same spirit.
Of him, as much as of any other man dwelling in the
midst of the distractions and difficulties of ordinary life,
it may be said that the austere elevation of his standard
of conduct was of very little assistance to him amid the
changes and chances of his actual experience. His
mental powers were of abnormal strength, but his
character was as much a medley of strength and weakness
as that of other men, and there were occasions when his
concentration on mental problems was in itself a hindrance
to the close consideration of hourly conduct which occu-
pied Ranee and Le Camus. At such times he was over-
ready to be content with " a certain root of good in-
tention."
The contradictory elements in his nature were dis-
played when he prepared himself for his consecration as
bishop in September 1670. Besides the new spiritual
responsibility, a plunge into the life of the Court awaited
him, and all the traditions of his youth made it natural
that he should choose St. Lazare as a place of Retreat
during the ten days preceding the ceremony. He had
the real intention of Retreat ; he meant to shut out the
world, and he wrote only one letter. But the destination
of that letter suggests his subconscious subjection to
the influence of the world even in his most serious
moments. For there is good evidence that it was ad-
dressed to Bussy Rabutin. It is a genial, friendly effusion
written with the personality of his correspondent clearly
in view and prompted by real gratification on the com-
pliments he had received on his Court appointment. But
despite its charm of easy sincerity it accords ill with the
austere surroundings he had chosen. Perhaps it was a
vein of intellectual vanity, latent but unacknowledged,
rather than the spirit of the world which had made
170 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
Bussy's congratulations so particularly flattering. For
Bussy represented a type of wit and culture which was
outside the sphere of a scholar and theologian. In his
early student days in Paris Bossuet had touched the
Hotel Rambouillet, and the legend of its delights was
still fresh in the minds of men. The student, however
much he may rejoice in his vocation, cherishes half
envious admiration for the wit, with his swift effects and
easy triumphs ; and the circle which had contained La
Rochefoucauld and Madame de Sable* and Madame de
SeVigne" and Julie d'Angennes (before matrimony and
ambition had corrupted her) had its own fascination for
the sober theologian. Bussy had the genius of a critic
when he chose to exercise it : he understood the art of
words, and Bossuet's masterpiece, the Funeral Oration
on Madame, had just been printed. They held in
common, therefore, something that was independent of
rank or calling or character, and the priest, pushing away
his resolution of Retreat, responded to the courtier.
Bossuet must have been aware of Bussy's reputation,
and that the imprisonment and subsequent exile which
he suffered were well-merited punishments for real
offences that he was cynical, vain, and entirely un-
scrupulous ; but fellowship in art, at that moment when
his life was in the melting-pot of change, appeared to him
as infinitely desirable. And thus it came to pass that
Bossuet, from the silence of St. Lazare, sent the greeting
of respectful friendship to Bussy Rabutin.*
The gradual ascent from the minor bourgeoisie to high
estate was calculated to implant ambition in the breast 'of
one not naturally disposed towards that failing. Bossuet
maintained his defences against it, however ; he wrote
always with an object and not to achieve literary success ;
he did not fret for riches or great appointments. " Ask
God on my behalf," he wrote to Bellefonds when his term
of service to the Dauphin neared its close, " that I may
really be as indifferent as I imagine myself to be regarding
the change in my condition that must lie ahead. "f Only
when the commonest of temptations assumed its most
* Correspondance, vol. i, No. 39. f Ibid., vol. ii, No. 156.
The Court Ecclesiastic 171
insidious guise did he become its victim. He could
master the natural longing for wealth or external honours ;
the desire to which he yielded was to stand well with
others and to see other minds accept the opinions that
had been matured within his own. And in the months
of uncertainty when his office at Court had ended no
accusation of intrigue for favour is brought against him.
If he failed to maintain the indifference he desired he
hid his failure from the world.
In March 1680 the Dauphin married Christina of
Bavaria. Bossuet was appointed to the office of almoner
in the household of the princess, and in company with
Madame de Maintenon, with Bellefonds recalled from
exile and with other great people of the Court, he went
to meet her in her own country and bring her back in
state. Madame de Sevigne, who seldom concerned her-
self much about Bossuet, observed that if this foreign
bride regarded her almoner as an example of average
French cleverness she would find disappointment waiting
for her.* At the moment, however, Bossuet was more
intent on learning the ceremonious duties of his new
office than on disseminating knowledge. For indeed he
was, at this particular stage, the Court ecclesiastic, and
outwardly he was nothing else. The discipline of the
Dauphin's regular routine was left behind, doubtless
with infinite relief ; his new appointment gave him a
reason for appearing at the Court, but it did not give him
an object upon which, even in theory, he could concen-
trate energy and power. For eighteen months he re-
mained in a position which was an anomaly considering
his extraordinary powers that of a bishop without a
diocese and without definite employment of any kind.
His birth hindered his fortunes. Those sees which fell
vacant were, traditionally, reserved for the nobility, and
Louis XIV was never disposed to overlook the claim of
noble birth ; not until May 1681 did he find at his dis-
posal a bishopric which fulfilled the necessary requirements.
Dominique de Ligny, Bishop of Meaux, died at the end of
April, and in May Bossuet was appointed his successor.
* Madame de Sevigne : Lettres, vol. vi, No. 781.
172 'Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
The King wrote to him that in the interest of
Monseigneur, of the Dauphine, and of himself it was
desirable that Bossuet should be kept within reach of the
Court : no diocese could be more suitable, therefore, than
that of Meaux. The bishop would be able to fulfil the
obligation of residence and yet, the distance being so
easy a one, would not be alienated from the Court, where
his presence would always be desired.*
At the King's command the appointment was an-
nounced as an important event by the Archbishop of
Paris at an Assembly of Bishops f gathered at his palace.
Even then Bossuet was destined by those in authority
for a task of great difficulty which could not fail to make
him one of the most notable figures in the Church in
France before the year was out. The change in his con-
dition was extremely swift : he had had two years of un-
certainty, and his letters during that period show him
to have been without any definite prospect for his personal
life. He had used his time in controversial labour ;
he was preparing his Traite de la Communion and was
writing his account of the Conference with M. Claude,
and in January 1680 he began his Histoire des Variations
des g!tses Protestantes. This great undertaking was seven
years in maturing, and the original scheme did not fore-
shadow a work of such depth and comprehensiveness as
eventually appeared.
Bossuet had become imbued with the true ardour of the
historian during his years as tutor, and this subject,
suggested to him in his first period of leisure, widened in
scope as he proceeded with it. He desired for himself
all the knowledge relating to it that was obtainable, and,
as we have seen, his office at Court gave him exceptional
opportunity for cultivating the society of learned men.
Many literary schemes were undertaken by prominent
scholars for the delectation of the young prince, and were
only abandoned because, while they were still in embryo,
it was discovered that the pupil for whose instruction
they were intended had grown into a man and eschewed
* Bellon, E. : Bossuet Directeur de Conscience, p. 104.
f Ledieu : MJmoires, p. 174.
The Court Ecclesiastic 173
all study.* These schemes were not wasted, however,
for they brought the theory of knowledge and its dis-
semination into prominence, and served as an incentive
to the zeal of a royal tutor who was also a man of letters.
It was on his literary side that Bossuet came near to
Mahillon and gained experience of a form of the Religious
Life which contrasted sharply with that practised by
Ranee. The reform of the Abbey of St. Germain-des-
Pre*s was consequent on the great Maurist reform of
French Benedictines in 1621.^ From that date until the
French Revolution the monks of St. Germain-des-Pres
represented the purest erudition to be found in France.
The whole movement sprang from the real desire of
Richelieu to encourage learning and strengthen the arm
of the Church by the most enduring of all methods ;
and the perfect background prepared for Mabillon, " the
typical Benedictine scholar," was a legacy from the
despotic cardinal. Mabillon came to Paris in 1664
from the provincial monastery where he had spent his
early years, summoned thither to labour at the prepara-
tion of new editions of the Fathers which had been en-
trusted to the monks of St. Maur. He was never a
celebrated figure in the life of Paris (he is ignored by
Madame de Sevigne and mentioned only once in the
Memoirs of Saint-Simon), and it is possible that he and
Bossuet met for the first time when the Bishop of Condom
was appointed tutor to the Dauphin. About the same
period Mabillon and his new edition of St. Bernard
awakened the interest and reverence of scholars, and it
became the custom for the learned of differing schools of
thought to assemble on Sundays, after Vespers in the
Abbey Church, for conversation. These reunions were
of the most serious kind ; nevertheless their inspiration
was similar to that which had brought the Hotel Ram-
bouillet into being. The attempt to level class-antagon-
* See Druon: op. '/., vol. i, p. 268.
f See Broglie, E. de : Mabillon et la Social de St. Germain-des-Pre";
(1888).
Butler, Dom Cuthbert : Benedictine MonacAism, p. 306.
Published 1667.
174 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
ism in the interest of culture made by the celebrated
Arthenice, corresponded to the achievement of Mabillon
in gathering together theologians of opposing schools to
sharpen their wits on questions outside the problems
that brought them into conflict. Possibly this form of
intercourse was even more stimulating to the mind of
Bossuet than that with which the meetings of the Little
Council provided him. It is hardly credible that even
his conception of the duties of a royal tutor could have
been the sole inspiration of such a work as his study of
the " History of the Universe." He composed it for the
use of the Dauphin, but assuredly his vision of its useful-
ness went far beyond the limits of the royal schoolroom,
and as a part of the literary adventure that marked his
time of tutorship, it owed much to the new associates
among whom he had sought relief from the atmosphere
of Versailles or Fontainebleau.
The power that had full fruition in the " History of
Protestant Variations " first declared itself in this study of
universal history. Its unique characteristic, according to
Voltaire,* was its successful application of the method
of the orator to the avocation of the historian. If Bossuet
did indeed achieve this combination the feat was entirely
spontaneous ; that which he said or wrote expressed the
convictions that possessed him, and the assertion made
by his secretary that no one of his books was undertaken
with a view to literary reputation has a just claim on
credence.f From the same source we learn that the
main object of the Universal History was to emphasize
the extreme importance of studying the Scriptures4
Obviously the writer had already saturated his memory
with the actual text ; if study and reference had been
needed for the immediate purpose of his book it would
never have taken form, and his awe and reverence for
the Bible equalled his knowledge of it.
* Siecle de Louis XIF, vol. ii, ch. xxxii.
f Ledieu : M/moires, p. 153. Ibid., p. 208.
As an example of his position as a Biblical scholar there exists a com-
plete translation of the Gospels into French drawn from his various
published works. See Wallon, H. A. : Les Saints tivangiles.
The Court Ecclesiastic 175
The scheme of this work is to show the Divine direction
of events as clearly in secular history as in that of the
Chosen People, and he declared that scepticism, if it were
honest, must inevitably surrender to his argument.
His peculiar quality of self-assurance may on occasions
have been lamentable in its effect upon his conduct,
but in his writings it stood only for force and vividness :
the open-minded reader can hardly fail to yield to the
vehemence of his conviction. Those were days of such
continual dispute on questions of theology that every
phrase demanded careful scrutiny lest it should contain
an unsuspected meaning, and to simple minds the broad
theory that Bossuet propounded must have been welcome.
God gave free-will to man, but He retained the power to
mould the effect of its misuse and so fulfil His purpose
for the universe ; that, briefly stated, was his thesis.
It may be found in his Funeral Orations, and it coloured
his view of life. His critics urge that his " History of
the World " leaves a vast portion of the globe unnoticed,
while his Funeral Orations omit such incidents as are not
in accordance with his scheme. The criticism may be
justified by facts without disturbing his claim to absolute
sincerity. When once his mind, moving by a process of
deliberate thought, became possessed by a great idea,
he found the proof of it reflected in every subject that
engaged him. Contradictory suggestions were not in-
tentionally evaded, but rather overlooked by eyes focussed
on a point above them. In this way he satisfied him-
self that the Faith might be proved by secular history,
whether of nations or of persons, and equally at another
stage he showed by the books of the Old Testament
that absolute monarchy was, by Divine ordinance, the
sole legitimate means by which a people should be
governed.*
It must not be assumed, however, that he was in-
different to the response of other minds ; once he had
given shape to his idea he was anxious for widespread
recognition. We find him writing to the Abbe Diroys
to suggest an awakening of interest in the " History of the
* La Politique tirte de I' Venture Sainte (CEuvres, vol. xxiii).
176 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
Universe " among the learned of Rome and Italy.* Ranee"
had declared that this volume made the power of God in
the ordering of the world so manifest that nothing had
ever been written which was so well calculated to en-
lighten the ignorant.f No doubt this was a sufficient
reason for making every effort to circulate it ; but there
are indications of another motive for the urgency of
Bossuet's request to Diroys. He does not disguise
the normal desire of an author that his work should
be known and applauded. Moreover, he seems to
have shared a weakness common to the craft and to
have looked askance at unsought criticism. His atten-
tion was directed to a manifest error in his book whereby
a warrior is represented as taking refuge in a neighbour-
ing village after he had been killed in action. The
critic was Boursault, the dramatist. $ He addressed
the bishop with elaborate expressions of respect and his
letter has survived,^ but it is not clear that it produced
any reply ; certainly the mistake remained uncorrected
in subsequent editions. When the book first appeared
it was received with a chorus of praise from those whom
Bossuet respected most sincerely, and episcopal state
combined with intellectual repute to place him on a level
far above that of his uninvited critic. And no doubt such
intrusiveness deserved to be ignored. Yet it is possible
that Francois de Sales, or even Le Camus, would have
been able to accept correction from such a source and be
grateful for it without derogation to their dignity. In
Bossuet, the man of letters, we touch those evidences
of the natural man which, in all the later phases of his
vigorous use of life, were never in abeyance for very long.
* Correspondance, vol. ii, No. 227.
f Ibid., vol. ii, No. 222.
^ His attack on Moliere won him celebrity. For detail of this con-
troversy see Des Granges : Moliere et Boursault.
CorresponJance, vol. ii, No. 220.
Chapter XIL The Qallican Crisis
IF Bossuet, at fifty, could have renounced all other
means of influence save only the power of his pen his
name would still be prominent in the history of his
time, and the gain to his permanent reputation by such
withdrawal from the feverish struggles of the moment
would compensate for the loss in immediate prominence.
Students of Bossuet, musing on his career after the
lapse of centuries, may be tempted into speculation on
such lines as these. Yet had he held aloof from
public life and allowed the storm of controversy on ques-
tions vital to the Faith to rage while he remained in
shelter, it would be necessary to form a completely new
idea of the personality which bears his name. The man
just as he was belongs to his country and his time to
France at a period of frenzied controversy and being so
whole-heartedly a Frenchman he was tenacious of the
opinion known as Gallican.
It is possible that Englishmen are growing vague as to
the doctrine that Gallicanism implied. It is true that the
questions connected with it were finally determined in
1870, yet that act of obliteration cannot diminish its
importance as a factor in the earlier development of the
French nation. The claim of the French Church to self-
government was made by St. Louis,* and in matters con-
cerning faith and morals the Gallican spirit tended
increasingly towards independence. Any assertion of
absolute and supreme authority by the successor of St.
Peter was met in France by determined opposition. No
doubt the presence of the Pope at Avignon helped to
consolidate the Gallican party, and when, after the Great
Schism, an (Ecumenical Council met at Constance
Gallican influence predominated. On this Council, held
in 1414, Chancellor Gerson was particularly active, and
its celebrated Declaration, which subordinates the Pope
to the decisions of the whole Church, is the chief bulwark
of Gallican doctrine.f
* Pragmatic Sanction, 1268.
f Bossuet insists on its extreme antiquity although public definition
did not come before 1415. See Defense de la Declaration, vol. i, p. 1 5,
and vol. ii, liv. vi, pp. 31730.
M
1 7 8 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
At that period of unrest the University of Paris was the
stronghold of Gallicanism, and its influence ruled the
life of the capital and extended far beyond the boundaries
of France. In process of time the Parlement became a
formidable rival to the University, but the one point, in
the midst of many contentions and jealousies, on which
they were always in accord, was the maintenance of Galli-
can privilege against all aggression from beyond the
Alps. If it had been otherwise, if the thunders of the
Parlement had been met by silent opposition from the
seat of learning, the Ultramontane faction might have
triumphed. Jesuit acumen perceived this possibility, and
in the years of chaos before the accession of Henri IV
the Jesuits made a bid for the capture of the University.
The attempt was far-reaching in effect, for the resistance
it provoked brought Edmond Richer into prominence
and was in part responsible for the Gallican crisis of 1 682.
Richer began his career as a disciple of Bellarmin,*
the great exponent of the Ultramontane theory, f who
had dared to stigmatize certain decisions of the Council
of Constance as " almost heretical."^: The uncertainty
which distracted the University and in which he had a
share was not of long duration, however. Henri IV, by
his munificence, secured the allegiance of the scholars,
and in the case of Richer the reaction against Jesuit in-
fluence was violent. A follower of Bellarmin had special
facilities for observing Jesuit methods of propaganda,
and Richer feared that Ultramontane opinion would gain
a hold on the unsuspecting. Therefore he clamoured for
a clear definition of Gallican doctrine for acceptance by
every Catholic in France. He had been Syndic of the
Sorbonne, and was an indefatigable student of Gerson,
whose works he had published ; these qualifications won
him the attention of the Parlement^ and in 1628 an attempt
* See Puyol, E. : Edmond Richer, p. 37.
f J. de Maistre declares that as theologian " Bellarmin n'a point de
suptrieur pas meme Bossuet." See Daudet, E. : J. de Mature et Blacas,
p. 154.
$ Bossuet r Defense, etc., vol. ii, liv. v, p. 217.
Jourdain : Hist, de /' University de Paris, p. 4.
The Galilean Crisis 179
was made, foreshadowing that of Louis XIV fifty-four
years later, to impose the profession of Gallicanism
throughout the realm.* His influence was not strong
enough, however, to bring his project to fruition. He
was opposed by Cardinal de Berulle, and finally defeated
by the intervention of Richelieu.f
The opponents of Richer appeared to have triumphed,
but, in fact, his ideas had been given a form that was
acceptable to other minds, and it would be hard to fix
the degree of his responsibility for the gradual stiffening
of Gallican opinion during the reign of Louis XIV.
Between 1628 and 1682 a series of affairs which
concerned the Church indicated that the spirit of
independence was becoming formidable.
Mazarin, most secular of cardinals, was constantly at
odds with Innocent X, and the young King made no
attempt to smooth the relationship with Rome when
power passed into his hands. In 1661 he was forcing
Alexander VII to humiliating concessions as atonement
for an offence against the French ambassador.^: Two
years later the Faculty of Theology, assembled at the
Sorbonne, was encouraged to formulate the tenets of
Richer in Six Articles definitely subversive of the doctrine
of Papal Infallibility.^ In 1665 it was directed to cen-
sure two volumes written to support the supreme authority
of Rome; and when Alexander VII condemned the cen-
sure, the Parlement passed an edict prohibiting the dis-
semination of the Papal Bull and decreeing that the
judgment of the Sorbonne doctors should be upheld in
places of education. 1 1 In 1667 Louis demonstrated the
independence of his kingship still further when he ar-
ranged the separation and remarriage of Marie of Savoy,
Queen of Portugal, without reference to Papal authority, 5
thereby repudiating the right of the Pope to intervene
in the alliance of royal persons. This point was reached
* Puyol, E. : op. cif., p. 155.
j" Baillet : Edmond Richer, ch. vii.
^ Legendre : Hist, du Regne de Louis le Grand, liv. 2.
See Appendix iv. || Jourdain : op. '/., p. 222.
5 Gerin : Louis XIV et le Saint-Siege, vol. ii, ch. iii.
180 Jacques Benigne Bos suet
while Louis was still new to absolute monarchy. In the
succeeding years he did not lessen in self-reliance, and
the degree to which opinion in the kingdom was swayed
by the individuality of the King should be distinctly
recognized.
In the Memoir written for the Dauphin he paints
himself in clear and impressive touches as the despot
convinced of his Divine right to despotism. Phrases that
would be exaggerated if they emanated from the most
careful of historians carry conviction when they spring
from the centre of royal consciousness. " He Who has
set kings over men requires that they should be obeyed
as His lieutenants, and reserves to Himself the right of
judging what they do."* In that pronouncement there
is infinite significance, as also in that other where the
monarch describes to his heir the occasions when " stand-
ing, so to say, in place of God " a king will find himself
endowed with the perceptions that are ordinarily re-
garded as Divine attributes. Many other passages
having similar burden might be cited to convey the posi-
tion which, in all good faith, the writer believed himself
to occupy.
To understand the events that at a later stage were
to have so profound an effect on the career of Bossuet
it is essential to remember the point of self-adoration
which had been reached by Louis XIV when he signed
the Peace of Nymwegen. The ministers, Colbert and
Louvois, who had built up his greatness, vied with each
other in exalting his will as a force above all law ; f
the lives as well as the fortunes of his subjects were
literally dependent on his personal decisions ; no form
of temporal power more absolute than his can be con-
ceived, and in the public mind the spirit of patriotism
was confused with a sentiment of worship for the person
of the King. France had at that moment attained to
greatness above all other nations, and in France the
* Dreyss : Me"moires de Louis XIV, vol. ii, p. 285.
f See Mtmoires d'Avrigny Sept, 1679. " Le Roi fut regarde" des Ion
commc le plus glorieux prince de I Europe et ses peuples commencerent cette
anne'c A lui donner le surnom de Grand " (vol. iv, p. 57).
The Galilean Crisis 181
King reigned supreme. That was the situation, and
it would have been a simple one enough if there had been
no Rome beyond the Alps or no Sovereign Pontiff
ruling there. But France was pre-eminently a Catholic
country, and her King bore the title of Eldest Son of the
Church ; moreover, Louis XIV was insistent on the
orthodoxy of his subjects, and requisitioned, for the sup-
pression of the theological opinions that differed materi-
ally from his own, the authority that he flouted when it
crossed his inclinations. It must always be remembered
that he regarded the Papacy as an integral part of the
scheme for the governing of the world ; but in that scheme,
as he viewed it, there was no level above that on which
he was himself enthroned, and the theory, sustained by
Bellarmin with such infinite ability, of a Papacy holding
the right to depose kings, appeared to him to be sub-
versive to all law and order. The antagonism roused by
Ultramontane suggestion made him the more rapacious
in his grasp on all ecclesiastical power that lay within his
reach, and there came at length a time when the assertion
of his rights no longer satisfied him and he passed be-
yond their limit. If a diplomatist had occupied the
See of Peter there might have been no crisis, but in
September 1676 Innocent XI became Pope. He was a
man of violent prejudices, saintly in personal life,* but
obstinate and headstrong in public relations.f He began
his reign with a grudge against France, and his hostility
swiftly became apparent He and Louis XIV had found
occasion for mutual discontent before he had been en-
throned a year.
" No King of France was ever more sincerely devoted
to the Faith of his fathers, but no King of France has ever
been the cause of so much consternation to the Pope as
Louis XIV " so wrote a faithful son of France and of
the Church,:}: and the contradictory intentions of the King
were responsible for the dilemma which confronted loyal
subjects who were also faithful Churchmen. Discord
* See account by Bishop Burnet : Tracts (1689), vol. i, p. 241.
f Legendre : MSmoires, pp. 38, 87.
$ J. de Maistre : (Euvres, vol. iv, p. 157.
1 82 Jacques Benigne Bossuef
first became manifest on a question concerning the
Religious Orders. Since Pope Leo X had bestowed on
Fran9ois I the right to appoint abbots and priors to
religious houses* the successive rulers of France had
regarded the various communities in their commercial
aspect. To Mazarin the revenues of a religious founda-
tion appeared to be specially provided as rewards for
those who deserved well of their sovereign, and this view
was transmitted to his pupil. Indeed, the abuse of
patronage in this direction had become such an established
usage that a King of France could not afford to indulge
in reflections on the real purport of Religious Life.
It was undoubtedly the appointment of secular superiors
that was mainly responsible for deterioration in Religious
Orders, but Louis XIV did not trouble himself about
their spiritual failure. A vow which pledged obedience
to a will other than his own derogated from the implicit
submission he exacted of all his subjects, and the system
that depended on such vows won no support from royal
favour.
In his Memoir for the Dauphin there is a note on the
uselessness of monks and an elaborate scheme for their
discouragement.f Yet he realized, even in his youth,
that the Religious Orders were too closely interwoven
with the fabric of society to be made the subject of high-
handed action : his aim was to keep them under his own
dominion he was too wise to attempt their suppression.
It was recognized that in this direction Colbert was far
less prudent than his master : to him the existence of
companies of persons who regarded the Pope as their
protector appeared as a grave menace to the safety of
the State,^: and when Innocent XI showed his intention
of reforming the Religious Orders his apprehensions be-
came acute. He perceived that the more closely the
monks adhered to the purpose of their rule the more
likely were they to become a force capable of opposition
to secular authority. Moreover, if the constitution of a
* Concordat, 1516.
f Dreyss : Mtmoirei de Louis XIV, vol. ii, pp. 223, 297.
% Grin : V Assemble du Clerge" de France de 1682, p. 285.
The Galilean Crisis 183
monastery was to be restored to the design of its devout
founders the vexed question of royal patronage must
inevitably recur.
Even if monasticism had supplied the only material
for dispute between King and Pope peace would have
been gravely threatened. Among the omens of the
coming struggle was an incident that roused an excitement
greatly in excess of its importance : * that of the Convent
at Charonne. A Superior was appointed by the King
and the Archbishop, and deposed by Innocent XI in a
Brief which the Council of State and the Parkment
pronounced to be null and void. The rights of the
question remained undetermined because creditors seized
the goods of the Community and the nuns were scattered,
but the course adopted on either side was significant
of the point in mutual animosity which had been reached.
There can be no question that Innocent XI in every
detail of his policy was governed by high motive, and in
particular his interference with the Religious Orders
domiciled in France sprang from a real desire to encourage
the life of devotion on which the spiritual vitality of the
Church depended. The purity and greatness of his aims
were against the maintenance of peace, however, for if
the contentions between France and Rome had been
solely political no abiding enmity need have resulted.
Unfortunately, sentiment became involved in them.
Righteous indignation was opposed by patriotic fervour,
and on either hand were forces that defied control.
A single glance at the situation is sufficient to reveal its
possibilities. Produce the theory of the Ultramontane
far enough and the loyalty of a subject to his King
even the safety of the King's person becomes dependent
on the pleasure of the Pope : maintain the doctrine of
Richer in its entirety and the Gallican Church repudiates
the supremacy of Rome. The issues involved being of
this nature it became the duty of all well-disposed persons
to avert such a catastrophe as open warfare between
Innocent and Louis. If any endeavours were made in
that direction, however, they proved inadequate.
* Legendre : MJmoires, p. 40.
1 84 Jacques Benigne Bos suet
The question which was directly responsible for setting
smouldering enmity ablaze concerned an ancient privi-
lege of the Kings of France, dating from the Council of
Orleans in 5 1 1 * and known as La Regale, by which when
a bishopric was vacant the revenues fell to the Crown,
together with all the patronage dependent on the see,
until the new appointment had been confirmed, and
registered at the proper court in Paris. Provence,
Dauphiny, Guyenne, and Languedoc were exempt, but
in 1608 the Parlement in Paris decreed that these pro-
vinces should be included under the same rule. The
clergy concerned protested, and the decree was allowed
to lapse until, in 1673, Colbert, inspired by the lust of
dominion on behalf of his master which with him was an
obsession, revived the declaration and insisted on
obedience to it. There were twenty-nine bishops affected,
and in two instances only was obedience refused. The
two rebels were, according to Voltaire, f " unfortunately
the two men in the kingdom who bore the highest
character " Pavilion, Bishop of Aleth, and Caulet,
Bishop of Pamiers. Pavilion died in 1678, and Caulet
was left as the solitary champion of a principle which he
held to be vital to the existence of the Church of France.
The decree was retrospective, and appointments not
registered were to become void. The King's officers
descended upon Pamiers and confiscated the bishop's
goods as well as his revenues ; Caulet had appealed to
Rome, but Papal authority was slow to move ; he was
reduced to penury and his supporters were persecuted by
the King's representatives with the rigour that springs
from perverted loyalty. In August 1680 he died. The
vehemence of his revolt, and the retribution that it
brought upon him, had given too much prominence to
his cause for it to perish with his death. And indeed
it was not the details of administration in the diocese of
Pamiers, or even the larger question of the extension
of the rights of La Regale, for which he had suffered ;
* Claude Fleury (Opuscules, vol. ii, p. 627) gives 1 147, but earlier date
appears to be authenticated.
f Sieclc de Louis Xlf, vol. ii, ch. xxxv.
The Galilean Crisis 185
it had been his fate to come to shipwreck on a rock that
loomed threateningly in front of those who guided the
destinies of nations. A bishop of the Gallican Church
had rebelled openly against the King, he had been ad-
monished by the archbishop of his province, and his
goods had been sequestrated by secular authority. The
Pope had approved his conduct and rebuked his judges,
and, while the members of his Cathedral Chapter were
punished for their loyalty to him by exile or imprison-
ment, the successors whom the King appointed in their
place were hindered in the performance of their duties
by the ban of Papal excommunication.*
The chaos resulting from this clash of authority was
plain to the eyes of all men, and the problem which the
wise had desired to keep in abeyance was suddenly pre-
sented to the world in all its native difficulty. "It is
very clear," says a shrewd observer f who bore an active
part in the ensuing battle, " that if the Pope and the
King had foreseen all that would result from this business
they would have taken care at the beginning not to let
it go so far." In fact the intervention of the Pope in the
diocese of Pamiers was regarded as an invasion on Galli-
can liberties, and the counsellors who had influence
with the King were more disposed to foster his resent-
ment than to allay it.
The Chancellor, Le Tellier, was saturated with the
political Gallicanism which had assumed so dangerous
a form among the lawyers, and his alliance in interest and
opinion with his son Louvois, Commander-in-chief of the
King's Armies, made him the more formidable.
Harlai de Champvallon, Archbishop of Paris, ranged
himself openly on the side of the King against the Pope.
He was a man of remarkable capacities, which he put to
most evil use. With the aid of Madame de Montespan
he had established himself in the good graces of Louis,
and his reputation debarred him from all hope of favour
from Innocent XL Therefore the greater the power in
the Church which his royal master could acquire, the
* Guillardin : Hist, de Louis XIV t vol. v, p. 63.
t Legendre : Mtmoires, p. 44.
1 86 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
greater the possibilities of advantage to himself. It was
his business to work out in detail and put into effect the
plans that Colbert sketched in outline, and in the fulfil-
ment of his task he showed himself to be an astute
diplomatist.* And here, as in certain other questionable
dealings, he had the support of Pere La Chaise, f the
King's confessor. The Jesuit lacked the intellectual
ability possessed by the Archbishop, but as a courtier
he was not less talented,:}: and at this period their interests
were identical. They were both eager to exalt the posi-
tion of the King and they were both equally indignant
at the defiance of Caulet, who had aggravated his offence
by his announcement that the extension of La Regale was
designed to increase the scope of Jesuit patronage.
As the extension did enormously increase the patronage
of the Crown, and as Pere La Chaise had absolute authority
at that time to assign all benefices that were at the disposal
of the King, the suggestion was not unwarranted.
It will be seen that personal rancour did much to con-
fuse the great questions at issue, and at times the whole
dispute assumed an aspect that seemed entirely political.
Yet however active princes and magistrates and politicians
might be in the affairs of the Church it was the clergy
who, ultimately, were most concerned. And in no
section of his policy as a ruler did Louis show himself
more dexterous than in his dealings with the secular
clergy. By a gradual process of aggression he fixed
his hold on every centre where the Church might or-
ganize her strength. 1 1 He suppressed councils of clergy
in the provinces, and there was no appeal against a royal
mandate that confined an offending ecclesiastic within
the limits of his diocese. And most effective of all his
regulations was that which prohibited direct communica-
tion between French bishops and the Pope : neither in
person nor in writing might they appeal to Rome without
* Cosnac : M/moires, vol. ii, p. 1 1 1 ; and Legendre : Me'moires, ch. v.
t See Bellet : Pere La Chaise.
if. Legendre : MSmoires, p. 178.
Lavisse : Hist, de France, vol. vii, part ii.
|| GeVin : Nouvelle Apologle t etc., p. 63
The Galilean Crisis 187
his sanction. The net had been so carefully manipulated
that it enclosed all classes of the clergy when the breach
with Innocent gave them as a body such great political
importance. The priest who claimed the right to form an
independent judgment on the relations between Church
and State required a strong will as well as a clear brain,
and when his claim was made he found himself suspected
by his neighbours and bereft of influence. Submission to
the Pope, as head of the Church, was still a duty, but the
Pope was in Rome and quite inaccessible to ordinary
persons, while the King had contrived to impose upon
the imagination of his subjects a vision of himself as a
presiding power against whose decisions there was no
appeal.
The ascendancy thus acquired served him in good
stead when he set himself to utilize theological opinion
for the achievement of a political purpose. The clergy
were between two fires, for, by the Gallican ruling, the
Papal interference in the province of the Archbishop of
Toulouse was as great an outrage on their privilege as
the claim of the King on La Regale. The assertion of
the independent authority of a bishop was fundamental
to the whole Gallican position, and it was essentially a
theological question. Because it had been challenged
by the action of the Pope, the King and his ministers
gained the support of many Churchmen of high principle.
And a theological opinion became involved with political
intrigue.
Chapter XIIL A Clerical Assembly
DURING his ten years of tutorship Bossuet held
aloof from ecclesiastical politics. He might dis-
pute with Huguenots or plunge into investigations
of such subjects as occupied the Little Council, but vexed
questions concerning Church and State were best avoided,
and it is unlikely that the peaceful conferences in the
Altee des Philosophes were ever disturbed by allusion
to La Re'gale or to the Charonne Convent. When, at
Easter in the year 1681, he preached before the King
he paid a special tribute to the beauty of the Church's
system as exemplified in France, attributing its perfec-
tions to " the prince who esteemed it his greatest honour
to be known as the most zealous and the most submissive
of the Church's children."*
At the moment the phrase was singularly inapplicable,
and Bossuet seems to have formed a false conception of
the situation with which his own interests were soon
to be so vitally concerned. Certainly he did not realize
the serious nature of the coming crisis, for he was so
secure in his opinions that he undervalued the force of
opposition to them, but even if he had had foreknowledge
of the ordeal awaiting him it could not have altered his
course of action. The course he followed was the in-
evitable result of his convictions, and these were not
subject to alteration.
Nevertheless he had reason bitterly to regret the
events that summoned him to proclaim his opinions to
the world. By reason of them, while his celebrity was
immeasurably increased, his fortunes suffered. In 1681,
after a long period of uncertainty, he reached the moment
when the promise of his future glowed most brilliantly.
The diocese of Meaux was not a rich one, but it had the
supreme advantage of lying within easy distance of
Versailles. Moreover, it was murmured by those who
knew the omens of advancement that the new bishop
would be a cardinal ere long. Bossuet, in common with
every other ecclesiastic about the Court, coveted that
elevation, and he was deserving of the favour with King
* (Euvres, vol. i, p. 181.
A Clerical Assembly 189
and Pope without which it could not be achieved. At the
time of his nomination to his bishopric there was reason
to believe that the value of his high aims and immense
learning was recognized by the supreme authorities,
and that a great public career was opening before him.
Possibly the sum of his service to the world would have
been less had he mounted higher : in fact, no further
prize awaited him after he went to Meaux.
It must be remembered that Bossuet had passed eleven
years at Court years that would have been intolerable to
a man of his temperament if the majestic fascination of
the King had not thrown a spell over his judgment. The
admiration which he lavished on his royal master was
entirely sincere, and his conviction that the royal authority
was held as a direct commission from God Himself*
was no less stable than his recognition of the successor
of St. Peter as head of the Catholic Church. Authority
stood in his mind for unity, and on unity depended the
ultimate salvation of mankind. It was his misfortune
that his lot was cast at a period when the two presenta-
tions of authority to which it was his duty to defer were
not in accord, and the limits of their respective claims
became confused. Yet the clash of obligation involved
a test of character, and it showed him to be endowed with
courage and with caution, the qualities essential for
diplomacy. We have no evidence that he had know-
ledge, before the summer of 1681, of the acrimony with
which the disputes between France and Rome were being
maintained ; yet a stage had been reached long before
that date which left little hope of peaceful settlement.
There is a letter from Innocent to Louis of December
1679 t which threatens appalling consequences unless
the claim to La Regale be immediately abandoned, and
its only effect was to increase the severity practised to-
wards Caulet and his adherents.
In fact La Regale offered itself as a convenient war-
cry to both the opposing parties, while neither the dignity
of Rome nor the liberties of France would have been
* See Defense de la Declaration, vol. i, p. 174.
f Limiers : Hist, du Regne de Louis XIV, vol. v, pp. 87-94.
190 'Jacques Benigne Bossuet
compromised by any conclusion with regard to it. Some
conclusion was necessary, however, and in May of 1681
the King summoned an Ecclesiastical Assembly to dis-
cuss the question. A singular method was adopted for
convening this assembly. It was composed of any
bishops or archbishops who chanced to be in Paris at the
time of the royal summons,* and Bossuet, as titular
Bishop of Condom, had a place in it. Under the
presidency of Harlai the gathering, fifty-two in number,
discussed and suggested and resolved.
Their proceedings were summed up by Le Tellier,
Archbishop of Rheims, a son of the Chancellor : " Bolder
men," he wrote, " would have talked perhaps more
boldly ; better men might have spoken more worthily ;
we who are merely average have said what we thought
best suited the occasion, not as an example to others, but
as an attempt to stave off much worse evils which are
threatening the Church."f
The only result of their deliberations was the decision
to hold a more formal Assembly of Clergy immediately.
Such assemblies were held in or near Paris every five
years and were supposed to represent the opinion of the
Church in France, each province electing four deputies,
two of whom held episcopal rank. The elections were
only nominal, however ; the choice of the deputies
rested with the King,^: and his choice for the celebrated
Assembly of 1682 was not governed by any inclination
to stave off the evils of open conflict with the Pope.
Bossuet was selected as a deputy, and even at the time of
his nomination he was still unaware of the extreme
gravity of the approaching crisis his allusions to it
suggest eagerness rather than anxiety. His confidence
gave place to apprehension, however, as the weeks passed
and his knowledge increased.
In fact there was just cause for apprehension. The
Assembly was coming to life in an atmosphere of political
* GeYin : UdssembUe, etc., p. 62.
f Avrigny : MSmoires Chron., vol. iii, p. 188.
^ G^rin : U Assemble, etc., ch. iii.
Correspondance, vol. ii, No. 239.
A Clerical Assembly 191
intrigue,* and the cause which Bossuet held sacred could
only suffer by association with political Gallicanism.
" In all political systems," it has been said, " there are
certain relationships which it is wiser to leave undefined "f
of such was the balance of power between Church and
State in France, and at a moment when the head of the
State in France was at variance with the head of the whole
Church the desire for definitions manifested by the King's
advisers was especially inopportune.
In 1663, when the Sorbonne had made its statement of
Gallican doctrine, Bossuet regarded the measure as in-
advisable,^ and he could not fail to perceive that there
were elements of danger connected with the Clerical
Assembly from which the Sorbonne deliberations had
been free. It was significant that among the deputies
was Gerbais, the Sorbonne doctor, whose book, De Causis
Majoribus, controverted the doctrine of Papal Infallibility
and had been censured by the Pope a few months earlier.
At their head, moreover, was Harlai, and of him it was
said by Bossuet that he gave Colbert " the blind obedience
of a valet." 1 1 Truly there was need for calm and balanced
judgment in those who sought to guide opinion in that
hour.
At the end of September a letter from Bossuet to
Ranee" explained that the Retreat at La Trappe, for which
he had hoped, must be postponed. ' The Assembly is
to be held," he wrote, " and not only am I required to be
of it, but also to preach the inaugural sermon. If it is
impossible for me to join you in prayer, at least will you
pray for me ? This business is serious enough to be
worth your efforts. You have had experience of Assem-
blies of Clergy and the sort of spirit which ordinarily
dominates them. Some few indications suggest hope
as regards this one, but it is not hope on which I dare rely,
and it is set in the midst of many fears. "5
* Jervis : Gallican Church, vol. ii, p. 46.
fj.de Maistre : CEuvres, vol. ii, p. 165.
^ Gerin : U Assemble, etc., p. 289.
Ibid., pp. 65, 230. || Ledieu : Journal, vol. i, p. 9.
5 Correspondance, vol. ii, p. 241.
192 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
A note of consternation reverberates through these
cautious phrases. The choice of Bossuet to preach the
inaugural sermon was well advised, since no other member
of the Assembly was so competent to instil moderate and
prudent counsels, but the honour of selection to this
office was of doubtful advantage to its recipient.
Legendre, the secretary of Harlai, makes no secret of the
fact that his master's jealousy at Bossuet's prospect of
elevation to the purple was responsible for the selection.*
A prominent place in an enterprise which was intended
to be offensive to the Pope was not likely to serve as a
stepping-stone to promotion, but Bossuet faced the
difficulty with the composure that rarely failed him.
It may be granted freely that he wished to save his own
career. He was in favour at the Vatican as well as at
Versailles, and he may have been sanguine enough to
hope that the sincerity of his intentions would secure
for him immunity from the dangers which encompassed
other members of the Assembly. But it is equally true
that personal anxiety held but a small place in his con-
siderations as compared to his solicitude for the safety
of the Faith and the welfare of France.
His opening sermon was a masterpiece of diplomacy.
" I have endeavoured so to speak as equally to avoid
offence to the Majesty of Rome and treason to the
doctrines of the Gallican Church."f So did he write of
it, and he added that he would have preached it as readily
in Rome as in Paris. As was inevitable, it satisfied neither
party. The Ultramontane regarded it as a torrent of
vague eloquence when the occasion demanded a de-
nunciation of infidelity ; $ in the eyes of the militant
Gallican, who desired a trumpet call that should serve
as a challenge to Papalism, it failed completely of its
purpose.
" I was forced to talk of the liberties of the Gallican
Church, and I governed what I said about them by two
rules : (i) Not to let them infringe in the slightest on
* Legendre : Me 'moires, p. 47.
t CorresponJance, vol. ii, No. 249.
$ J. de Maistre : CEuvres, vol. ii, p. 281.
A Clerical Assembly 193
the true greatness of the Holy See. (2) To refer to
them as they are understood by the bishops and not as
they are understood by the politicians. ... I may say
that all who heard the sermon agreed that it inculcated
peace and goodwill. If I may suppose it to be as effec-
tive in print as it was in delivery I shall have cause to
give infinite thanks to God."*
The first question dealt with by the Assembly was that
of La Regale. And here the King by his grasp on the
exempted provinces was deliberately intruding on the
rights of the bishops. Seventy years earlier under
Henri IV the same measure had been hotly resisted as an
unwarrantable attempt at tyranny, f but the times had
changed and Louis XIV had methods of dealing with
his subjects unknown to his predecessors. Over La
Regale those who should have been his opponents made
common cause with him. In the opinion of Bossuet
the claim was ill-founded and ought never to have been
brought forward.:}: It had been registered by Parlement
nine years earlier, however, and opposition to it had taken
a form offensive to Gallican sentiment. Moreover,
the King made certain concessions which in some degree
balanced the irregularity of his demands,^ and finally
the question in itself had no real claim on the importance
it had assumed. 1 1 And so Bossuet joined with the rest
of the Assembly in their compliance with the King's
desires, and a letter, drawn up either by him or by Le
Tellier, was addressed to the Pope conveying, in con-
ciliatory terms, the decision at which they had arrived
and the circumstances that had led them to it. But
Innocent was not responsive to these blandishments. ^
The Assembly had been convened to discuss a question
on which he had already given his decision, and the fact
of its existence was an offence. For three days the letter
* Correspondance, vol. ii, No. 249.
t Voltaire : Siecle de Louis XIV, vol. ii, ch. 35.
\ Correspondance, vol. ii, No. 250.
See Bausset : op. cit., liv. vi, part viii.
|| " Cette affaire est de petite importance " (Defense de la Declaration,
vol. iii, p. 264).
5 Guett^e : Hist, de I'Eglise de France, vol. xi, p. 75.
N
194 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
remained unopened,* and as the days and weeks went by
and no answer was vouchsafed the task of the peace-
makers in France grew harder.
In his inaugural sermon f Bossuet had sounded a
note of warning, lest there might be any among his
hearers who regarded schism lightly. He had drawn
a picture of Protestants abiding continually in " a con-
fusion that is of hell itself," and urged the advantage of
an unwavering hold on continuity : " Let us not stray
from the ways our fathers followed. We must cling
fast to the old system if we would hold to the old Faith."
The words suggest anticipation of danger, but when they
were spoken no man could forecast what shape it would
assume. The ominous silence of Innocent after the
letter from the Assembly concerning La Regale had
reached him, encouraged the more turbulent spirits
among the deputies to expound their views. They
argued that as Gallican liberties had already been
infringed the occasion should be seized for a clear
definition of Gallican opinion.^
Certain notes of the Abbe Fleury fragmentary, but
suggestive give us the key to the situation. From
these we learn that it was the Archbishop of Rheims,
egged on by his father, the Chancellor Le Tellier, who
first proposed that Gallican opinion on the limits of
Papal authority should be defined before their sittings
ended. He was supported by the Bishop of Tournay,
Gilbert de Choiseul, and vehemently opposed by Bossuet,
who declared the moment to be notably unpropitious.||
Argument availed little at this juncture, however, and
the suggestion of Le Tellier found so many responsive
echoes outside the Assembly 5 that opposition was swept
aside. Harlai and Pere La Chaise referred it to the King
* Bausset: op. '/., liv. vi, part ix. j~ CEuvres, vol. xi, p. 588.
Bausset : op. '/., liv. vi, part xi.
See Emery: Nouveaux Opuscules, p. 210. His contemporary,
Saint-Fonds, bears witness to his accuracy. See Correspondence Saint-
Fonds, Int.
|| Cf. Correspondance, vol. ii, No. 251.
5 Jervis : op. at., vol. ii, p. 46.
A Clerical Assembly 195
and brought a royal order to proceed with it. At this
point Bossuet, fertile in expedients, intervened again.
He proposed, as a preliminary to other measures, that
tradition regarding the relations of France and Rome
should be exhaustively investigated. He was defeated
by Harlai, who warned the King of the delay that such
an investigation must involve. Colbert was pressing for
decisive action, and the extreme party were not to be
diverted from their purpose by such a transparent
subterfuge.
There were days in the spring of 1682 when the
menace of schism between France and Rome * assumed
such vast proportions that other visions were perforce
obscured. Bossuet must have faced anxiety and anguish
of the most poignant kind, and it is likely that the com-
posure which he maintained before the world was in-
spired by his sense of the great issues that might depend
on his personal choice of action, and on the balance of his
own unaided judgment. There is no means by which
we may discover whether at the outset his choice of
intimates among the deputies was governed by a deliber-
ate policy. Whether prompted by diplomacy or chance,
however, his choice secured him the confidence of the
group whose violence in support of Gallican opinion
seemed to court disaster.
In obedience to the royal order a committee of twelve
was elected from the Assembly. These were to meet at
the palace of the Archbishop and decide upon a formula
of Gallican opinion which should ensure agreement
throughout the Church in France. Bossuet was one of
those selected, and the rest were, for the most part,
deputies who had distinguished themselves by their
vigorous expressions of defiance on the Papal question.
Gerbais, as the recent object of a Papal censure, should
have been excluded, but the provocative spirit prevailed,
and he was elected.")" Moreover, the office of secretary,
charged with the task of giving written form to the
decisions of the committee, fell to Choiseul, a recognized
* Jervis : op. cit., vol. ii, p. 53, note,
f Gerin : U Assemble, etc., p. 219.
196 Jacques Benigne Bos suet
extremist. There is a blank in the correspondence of
Bossuet at this time, and the only clue to his state of mind
during those weeks of tension is given by his secretary,
Ledieu,* many years later. If these reminiscences are
accurate his outward composure proceeded from a clear
conviction as to the course that he must follow. The
actual part that he played in these perilous negotiations
was recorded by Fe"nelon,t and the account purports to
be that given by himself in the friendly intercourse of
their early relations. (The official minutes of the pro-
ceedings of the Twelve were destroyed.)
After prolonged deliberation it was decided to revive
in substance the Six Articles formulated by the Sorbonne.
These were dressed anew by Choiseul, but their guise was
disapproved by Bossuet. A long argument ensued in
which certain of the distinctions are of the utmost
subtlety. It ended without a breach in friendliness, and
at the desire of Choiseul the task of summarizing Gallican
doctrine in terms that the whole world might understand
was entrusted to Bossuet4 This must be regarded as
the extreme moment of crisis, for there can be little doubt
that if the uncompromising assertions of Choiseul had
been published as the opinion of the Assembly of Clergy,
wholesale excommunication must have ensued, and
thence, the temper of the Assembly being what it was,
the path led straight to schism. Bossuet had required
wisdom and courage of no common order for the com-
position of the inaugural sermon, but the sacrifice in-
volved by response to this new demand was incomparably
greater. For the time was past when diplomacy could
aid him. He had striven by every device he could com-
mand to prevent a measure that was ill-advised and
perilous, and he had been defeated. He signified ac-
ceptance of defeat by assuming responsibility for that
which he had combatted. As a definition of Gallican
opinion must be made, he claimed the right to make it,
for his faith was based on such a firm foundation of learn-
* Journal, vol. i, pp. 8, 9.
f Quoted by Fleury : Nouveaux Opuscules, p. 147.
$ Ibid., p. 161.
A Clerical Assembly 197
ing and reflection that, as he then believed, no man
could challenge it. The result was the celebrated Four
Articles. They are sufficiently concise to be quoted in full.
I. St. Peter and his successors, vicars of Christ, and
likewise the Church itself, have received from God power
in things spiritual and pertaining to salvation, but not
in things temporal and civil. Consequently kings and
princes in respect of their temporal affairs are not by the
law of God subject to any ecclesiastical power, nor can
they directly or indirectly be deposed by the authority
of the Keys, nor can their subjects be dispensed from
obedience to them or absolved from the oath of
fidelity.
II. The fullness of power in things spiritual residing
in the Holy See and in the successors of St. Peter does
not alter the validity of the Decrees of the Council of
Constance regarding the authority of General Councils
as laid down in the fourth and fifth sessions, and the
Gallican Church disapproves all doubt cast on their
authority, or that their application should be restricted
to occasions of schism.
III. Hence the exercise of Apostolic authority must
be regulated by the Canons to which the whole world
defers, and also the rules, customs, and principles of the
Kingdom and Church of France must be preserved in-
violable in the form approved and agreed by the Holy See
and the Churches.
IV. In all questions of Faith the Pope holds the chief
authority and his decisions affect all Churches and each
Church individually, but if the Church does not concur
in his decision it can be altered.*
The Four Articles were incorporated in a Declaration
which explains that these opinions have been formulated
for the assistance of the Church in France " in order
that we may all speak the same thing and concur in
the same doctrine. "f On March 23 the King decreed
that in his dominions their acceptance should be obliga-
* Fleury : Opuscules, vol. ii, p. 598.
t Jervis : op. cit., vol. ii, p. 5 1 .
198 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
tory. " No one who refused to accept the doctrine of the
Four Articles was to be permitted to teach theology."*
The impression produced by the Declaration is diffi-
cult to determine, but it is probable that Bossuet was
justified in believing that his presentation of Gallican
doctrine had the support of the Church of France.
Although the King endeavoured to force conformity of
opinion upon his subjects he suffered many defeats where
he trespassed on the domain of conscience, and if dis-
sentients from Gallicanism had been numerous they must
have become articulate. In fact Bossuet, with his
learning and his intense conviction, was eminently fitted
to serve as the representative of his party, and the effect
of his intervention in the counsels of the Twelve is al-
together beyond calculation. " He was of infinite service
to Rome " writes his secretary in retrospective com-
ment " for it was intended to carry these affairs to
dangerous extremes. "f
His services were not of a kind to inspire sentiments
of gratitude, however, and by rendering them he forfeited
his chance of the advancement he most desired. In
April the Pope replied with unmeasured indignation to
the statement concerning La Regale, condemning all
that the Assembly had done or might intend to do4
The violent spirits became the more mutinous, and the
hope of peace receded with each succeeding meeting.
At length, in June, the King, awakening suddenly to the
imminence of a great peril, suspended the sittings till the
autumn.
A curious letter from Burnet, who was in Paris at the
time, indicates the greatness of the danger which Bossuet
was attempting to hold in abeyance. ' The old resolute
Pope," he says, " sent a courier to France to the Inter-
nuntio with a Bull of Excommunication, which he re-
quired him to carry into the Assembly, and there to
* Isambert : Anciennes Lois fraafaises, vol. xix quoted Guillardin,
vol. v, p. 82.
t MSmoires, p. 175.
^ Baussct : op. cit. t liv. vi, part x.
Burnet, Gilbert: News from France (1682), p. 37.
A Clerical Assembly 199
fulminate in his name against all the Assembly. This
came to the knowledge of Cardinal d'Estree, who, to
prevent the ill effects of so hardy a step, sent presently by
a courier with a strict charge to use all possible haste
to get before the Pope's courier so the King might have
timely notice of what the other was briri'ging, and this is
now known to be the true reason for that sudden ad-
journment."
The Assembly of 1682 did not meet again, and to very
many of the deputies the interference of their autocratic
ruler may have been welcome. To Bossuet it was not so,
however, for the work of the Assembly as he conceived it
was not yet complete,* and he seems to have been san-
guine that the fruit of its further deliberations would earn
the approval of the Pope.j" He was speedily dis-
illusioned. Innocent XI was implacable in his resent-
ment, and Papal powers which the Gallican definitions
did not question were exercised against the Church in
France. Thenceforward, when the King nominated a
deputy of the Assembly to a vacant bishopric the Pope
refused to confirm the nomination. For seven years
Louis maintained his aggressive attitude towards Rome,:}:
and continued to make these appointments regardless of
the spiritual privations that they entailed upon his sub-
jects.
" The thing that in all the world is most desired, and
which is really the most important at the present juncture,
is the death of the Pope." That, according to Madame
de La Fayette in 1689, was the prevailing sentiment in
France. At that date, as a result of the dispute, thirty-
five sees were vacant.
The imminent danger of the crisis in which Bossuet
became prominent is seen more vividly by the light of
these later events. Unless he denied the Faith in the
form that he had professed and taught it, it was incum-
bent on him to uphold Gallican opinion. And even if
* Correspondance, vol. ii, No. 258.
t Bausset : op. '/., liv. vi, part xxiv.
$ Gerin : V Assemble, etc., ch. ix.
Mtmoires, p. 115. Petitot, 2 me se>ie, vol. Ixv.
2OO Jacques Benigne Bos suet
his position as a deputy had been avoidable, the desire to
proclaim that which he believed to be the truth was so
strong an instinct within him that he could not have re-
mained silent when momentous questions were under
examination. Events as they developed gave him his
place, and he accepted it, but they did not develop ac-
cording to his wishes ; it was in his mastery over the
schemes of others that he displayed his genius. So long
as the stress continued, and the need for swift decision
and for absolute self-control was constant, there was
no room for thought about the cost. A time came, how-
ever, after discussion had been silenced, when he craved
for expressions of approval from those whom he revered.
In the autumn he wrote to Le Camus * describing and
explaining his part in recent events. He waited in vain
for a reply, and after six months' interval accepted the
significance of silence. " Perhaps as I wrote to him
about the interests of the Church he does not wish to dis-
cuss that subject with me : perhaps he disapproves my
action or has some reason to hide his own opinions.
Perhaps he is not altogether fair to me. The foundation
of truth being saved, the rest is of that nature which St.
Paul allows to be decided by the mind of each, and I have
not as yet felt any self-reproach regarding my own con-
duct.'^
At this period it is in his letters to Ranee* (one of
which contains the comment on Le Camus) that we
catch glimpses of those intimate human aspects of the
character of Bossuet which were hidden from the world,
and it may be conjectured from them that a little bitter-
ness was mingled with his thoughts of the Bishop of
Grenoble.
The dilemma that involved the hierarchy of France
had not found Le Camus unprepared. " May I entreat
you beforehand, Monseigneur, if an Assembly should be
held, to use your favour with His Majesty on my behalf
that I may not be summoned to it.":{: Thus did he ad-
jure the Chancellor, Le Tellier, in May 1 6 8 1 . When the
* Correspondence, vol. ii, No. 261. f Ibid., No. 272.
\ Bellet : Fie de C. Le Camus, p. 232.
A Clerical Assembly 2 o I
storm broke he wrote incessantly from his mountain
diocese to the two opposing camps. He protested often
that the measures he was taking were calculated to lose
him the favour of both sides,* but that he would give life
itself to avert the danger that was threatening. Probably
he was quite sincere in this last sentiment, for the spirit
of sacrifice was manifest in the general conduct of his
life. Moreover, the bitterness of his regret at the un-
happy relations between France and Rome was fully
justified. Yet actually while Bossuet struggled with his
tremendous task his brother of Grenoble remained a
critical spectator.
And at the next promotion Le Camus was made a
cardinal.!
* Bellet : Fie de C. Le Camus, p. 234.
f Legendre : M/moires, p. 72.
Chapter XIV. The Defence
THE position of Bossuet after the dismissal of the
Assembly can only be appreciated if the diversity
of view then existing within the Roman Church
has been considered. Having examined Gallican doc-
trine it is necessary to consider the opinion known as
Ultramontane, which was supported by an overwhelming
majority in Italy and Spain. It has been summarized
by a contemporary writer in the following terms :
I. The Church is a spiritual monarchy, absolute and
independent.
II. The Pope, as head of the Church, has exclusive
control of the Keys.
III. The power of the bishops proceeds from and is
dependent upon his.
IV. He is infallible.
V. He is superior .to the Councils.
VI. He alone holds the right to summon and to
authorize them.
VII. He has authority, albeit indirectly, over the
temporal powers of Christian princes.*
It is evident that Bossuet had not realized the strength
of Ultramontane opinion, and that the clamorous re-
monstrance evoked by the publication of the Four
Articles took him completely by surprise. His as-
tonishment and dismay at an account of the prevailing
sentiments in Rome were expressed to his correspondent,
Diroys, in October i682.f "I tremble at it" he
wrote " is it possible ! Bellarmin reigns supreme and
in his own person represents tradition. To what a pass
have we arrived if this is so and if the Pope is to condemn
whatever this author disapproves 1 Formerly boldness
stopped short of this ; no one has dared to attack the
Council of Constance or the Popes who upheld it. What
reply are we to make to the heretics when they bring up
this Council and its decrees, repeated at Bale with the
special sanction of Eugenius IV, and confirmed by Rome
* Le Bouclier de la France (1691), p. 24 ; attributed to Saint-George,
Archbishop of Lyons.
t Correspondance, vol. ii, No. 260.
The Defence 203
in sundry other ways ? They will say ' if Eugenius IV
was in the right in approving these decrees how can they
be questioned ? If he was wrong how are we to under-
stand this alleged infallibility ? '
In fact there was danger at that moment of a formal
censure on the Declaration of the Assembly from Inno-
cent XI,* and all the objects and interests of Bossuet's
life were jeopardized. He had considered the Declara-
tion to be ill-timed, but when he framed the Four Articles
he had no misgivings touching their orthodoxy. They
epitomized (as later he was to demonstrate with such
elaborate care) the Opinion of the University of Paris
recognized and maintained for so many centuries, and the
negation of them implied by Papal censure would have
undermined the foundation of his scheme for reconciling
the Reformers with the Church. His controversial ex-
perience assured him that to insist on Ultramontane
doctrine was to confirm the Protestants in schism.")'
His letters at this juncture would, unsupported, bear
sufficient testimony to the strength of the conviction that
possessed him. The evidence of his position as a Galli-
can does not, however, depend upon casual statements
in his letters to his friends. His explanation and defence
of the Four Articles is the most elaborate and considered
expression of his thought that he ever committed to
writing. He had desired to enlarge on the subject-
matter of the Declaration when it was circulated in
France, but Harlai refused permission.^: Later, when a
succession of writers of different nations and varying
ability denounced the Gallican opinion he returned to his
intention and amplified the original scheme. The result
is that deep and learned study " The Defence of the
Declaration. "
In the original preface he says that the two points he
desires to demonstrate are (i) that Gallican doctrine is
* Bausset: op. cit., liv. vi, part xvii.
j- See Defense de la Declaration, vol. i, p. 115.
\ Bausset : op. cit., liv. vi, part xiv.
Written in Latin published, simultaneously with French trans-
lation, in three quarto vols., by C. F. Leroy in 1745.
204 'Jacques Benigne Bos suet
Catholic and above censure ; (2) that it alone is the true
doctrine, and if either opinion deserves censure it is that
of its adversaries.* In his conclusion he declares that
he has sought to justify his fellow Frenchmen, and
especially the French bishops, against any suspicion of
desiring to impair the prerogative of the Holy See.t
The progress of the intervening argument gave scope
for the employment of his vast erudition. In 1685 he
finished it. Conditions then were not favourable to his
purpose in writing it, however, for no reasoning would
soften the tension between France and Rome. Nor did
a more opportune occasion arise when, under Inno-
cent XII, Louis abandoned his aggressive policy and
accepted the form of peace imposed by Rome.
Bossuet had other tasks in hand, and, having given
shape to the arguments for Gallican belief, he was con-
tent to wait for a summons to publish it. It was charac-
teristic of him that he could set aside the product of three
years of labour with complete tranquillity. He gave a
manuscript copy of his book to Antoine de Noailles, the
future cardinal, and another to the Abbe" Fleury,^: and
returned to his great work on Protestant Variations
and to his disputes with Huguenot ministers. The ad-
versaries of Gallicanism were not disposed to let the
question rest, however, and in 1695 Roccaberti, Arch-
bishop of Valentia, obtained from Innocent XII a com-
mendatory Brief for his work on Papal authority, the
contents of which seemed to Bossuet so offensive to
France and to French opinion as to require protest. ||
In December the Parlement prohibited the sale of the
book in France, and Bossuet, in consultation with
the King, ^ decided to undertake the response to the
Spaniard's challenge.
The response itself is the Gallia Orthodoxy which he
* Defense, etc., vol. iii, p. 271.
t Ibid., Corollaire, part xii, p. 265.
% Bausset : op. cit. t liv. vi : P. justificatifs.
Ledieu : M/moires, p. 193.
|| See Address to the King (GEuvres, vol. xxii, p. 617).
5 See Bausset: op. cit., liv. vi : P. justificatifs.
The Defence 205
joined as a preliminary dissertation to his original Defence
of Gallicanism with evident intention of giving the whole
book to the world. The fruits of a lifetime of study may
be found in the Defence, but for that vividness and fire
which Bossuet displayed in the heat of controversy we
must look to the opening pages. It is no longer merely
the Four Articles, that ill-timed statement of opinion,
which concerns him : * in the attack of Roccaberti he
finds a summons to champion the faith of Gallicans in
every generation. The anonymity of the original treatise
is thrown aside and he writes in his own name. Thus
the great Defence assumed its final form. Of its three
parts the first is given to that subject which Louis XIV
esteemed the most important: the Divine Right of Kings.
The next is concerned with the Councils of Constance
and of Bale, and those that followed them. The third
and last is devoted to the study of Tradition, and the text
is loaded with references and citations to prove that his
faith, just as he held it, had descended to him from the
dim ages of the past.f Point by point he examined the
objections raised to Gallican orthodoxy at different
periods, and the claim to absolute dominion made by
successive Popes. He pondered the testimony of Scrip-
ture, the decisions of the Councils of the Church, the
opinions of the Fathers. And then, holding the Four
Articles to the light of all the evidence his great learning
could supply, he declared that they contained no flaw ;
that the Gallican doctrine was so rooted in tradition as to
be unassailable.^: The attack of Roccaberti seems to
have aroused in him the same astonishment as he dis-
played at the contumacy of Protestants or Quietists. He
was learning at the same time that many Churchmen did
not sympathize with his desire to present the Catholic
Faith to heretic nations in a form that encouraged
voluntary acceptance, but the fact that his Exposition and
its statement regarding the primacy of Peter had
* See Defense Diss. Prtl., ch. x.
f Ibid., vol. ii, ch. xx, pp. 317-320.
% Ibid., vol. iii, pp. 134, 264.
Ibid., vol. i, p. 114.
206 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
received the sanction of the Pope was his shield against
the charges of his adversaries.
With the merits of the controversy we are not here
concerned. Its interest lies in its effect upon the mind
of Bossuet. The most severe among his critics could
hardly dispute his devotion to the Church, and it is
evident that in doing battle for his party he was inspired
by the sense that he fought for the safety of the Faith.*
Nothing could alter his conviction regarding the Gallican
theory, yet the antagonism manifested towards himself
as its spokesman, and the evident strength of the contrary
opinion, remained with him as a disquieting remem-
brance. It may be that his zeal, increasing as his years
advanced, to preserve the purity of the Faith from the
innovations of experimentalists in criticism or in devotion,
implied a reiterated protest of that loyalty which his
adversaries had called in question. It had been said that
he encouraged schism, and the suggestion rankled.f
There are only scattered indications of the shadow
which the Gallican crisis cast on Bossuet's prospects,
but as regards his mental outlook it was inevitable that,
marking the tendencies of the present, he should look
towards the future with misgiving. Any deflection from
the truth as he held it disturbed him; and, in addition,
he saw the Church exposed to a charge of variation if a
doctrine that had been held by Catholics for centuries
should ever be condemned. The years passed on, how-
ever, and his defence and explanation of Gallicanism
was not given to the world. The Quietism controversy
distracted him and interposed a fresh hindrance to
publication. Yet he returned to his manuscript again
and again % to retouch and polish it, and, as scholar and
man of letters, he must have recognized its worth.
Finally, in its completed form, he consigned it to his
nephew as a most precious charge, with orders that it
* " Cette doctrine releve merveilleusemcnt la dignitt et la vM table
autoritt de rtglise catholique et du saint-sitge " (Defense, Corollaire,
part xii, vol. iii, p. 264). t See Diss. Pr//., p. 16.
$ Ledieu : Journal, vol. i, pp. 152, 211, 251.
$ For history of MS. see Bausset: op. cit., liv. vi, P.justificatifs.
The Defence 207
must not leave his hands except for those of the King.
The danger of denunciation by authority in Rome
loomed large in the mind of the Abbe Bossuet,* and
Louis XIV had no desire to risk the revival of an ancient
quarrel. Thus the book lay buried until all the con-
temporaries of its author were in their graves. At
length, in 1730, a copy of the first manuscript was
printed at Luxembourg, and the publication of the final
version could no longer be avoided. It appeared
simultaneously with the French translation in 1745.
Among students of Bossuet there have been some who
question his authorship of the Defence, but those who are
familiar with his controversial methods and his mode of
thought will hardly need the external evidence to prove its
authenticity. Most tragic among works of genius, it
remains the perpetual memorial of his adherence to a
losing cause.
* Ledieu : Journal, vol. iii, p. 202.
Chapter XV. The Bishop in his Diocese
A SHORT interval of leisure in February 1682
gave Bossuet an opportunity of making his first
solemn entry into Meaux as bishop.* On several
occasions he evinced his liking for display, and the little
city with its steep streets and winding river offered an
admirable background for any form of pageantry. He
was accompanied by the Archbishop of Rheims and by
the Bishops of Rochelle, Chalons, f and Tournay, and in
the sheltered garden of the Bishop's palace, far removed
from the fevered atmosphere of the Clerical Assembly,
the quiet intercourse of friends prepared the way for
their mutual concessions at the future Councils of the
Twelve.
The few days that he could give to Meaux included
Ash Wednesday, and Bossuet made this the occasion
of his first sermon in his own cathedral. Thenceforward
he was determined to spend all the great festivals with
his flock,^ and until age and infirmity defeated him he
held to his resolve. The service of the King, the at-
tractions of the Court, and his literary interests had
claims that were not negligible, but his sense of the
obligations of a bishop weighed with him even more
heavily.
He was fifty-five when his life at Meaux began. For
the first time he had the background of an established
residence to which he could invite his friends and
which was even more important a place where his
library could be arranged. He kept books in Paris and
in Germigny, but there were over two thousand arranged
at Meaux, any one of which could be found at any
moment when he desired to refer to it. The duties of a
bishop who was also a Court ecclesiastic were sufficient
to occupy all the energy of a man of ordinary powers,
and Bossuet added to them the labours of a contro-
versialist and an historian. Moreover, his innate desire
for the life of prayer never left him, and it was during his
* Druon : Bossuet A Meaux, p. 3 3 .
t Antoine de Noailles, afterwards Cardinal Archbishop of Paris.
^ Ledieu : Me"moires, p. 182.
Revue Bossuet (1901), p. 130.
The Bishop in his Diocese 2,09
years at Meaux that he wrote those treatises which
testify to the reality of his spiritual experience. "It is
marvellous to watch the untiring ardour with which this
good Bishop works for the improvement of his diocese "
so wrote a contemporary.* His methods of work,
sustained for seventeen years, are worthy of study.
It was his habit to make his episcopal visitation
immediately after one of the great festivals, and he
liked it to be regarded as a Mission. There were
Mission priests from St. Lazare established at Crecy,
and these prepared the way for him.f The day
after his arrival he preached to the assembled people,
and each day while he remained there were special
sermons. The number brought for confirmation in
central towns would sometimes reach eight hundred,
and it was one of his cherished customs to celebrate
and then, before the people made Communion, to in-
struct on the Sacred Mysteries and on Penitence, holding
the Ciborium in his hand. Of his listeners many had
been drawn in and brought to confession by the minis-
tration of his Mission priests, and his teaching was in-
tended to set the seal on the work of others. At the close
of his visitation he carried the Blessed Sacrament in pro-
cession and gave Benediction.}: It was his duty to in-
spect sacred buildings and to acquaint himself with the
business-side of ecclesiastical matters in his diocese, and
no doubt he fulfilled these obligations; but business
matters were little to his taste, whereas the spiritual con-
dition that prevailed among his flock was a matter of ab-
sorbing interest. We find him dealing with small com-
plaints from the incumbents of country parishes which
bear witness to the fatherly intimacy of his relations with
them. There was one who declared that the people
all went to the curate's Mass on Sunday and not to his.
To which Bossuet proposed as remedy -the trans-
ferring of the Parochial Mass to the time for which the
* " Lettre Circ re Fisitation de Meaux ; 10 mai, 1684" (see Revue
Bossuet (1900), p. 179).
f Revue Bossuet (1900), p. 230.
if. Ibid. (1901), p. 23. Druon: op. cit., p. 38.
2io Jacques Benigne Bossuet
people showed their preference. There was another
who bemoaned the neglect of parents and employers,
faithful in personal practice, to send their children and
dependents either for instruction or for worship.* The
remedy here was not so simple, and probably he at-
tempted to apply it from the pulpit, for it was his custom
to collect hints from the clergy of such things as needed
to be said with force and with authority, and to weave
them into the sermon that he preached at High Mass
in every place he visited.f
The Catechism ^ which he compiled for the instruc-
tion of his flock bears witness to the minuteness of his
care. He would not admit the suggestion of inequality
in souls, or accept the excuse of the indolent cur that
the mind of the peasant was not receptive. He knew by
experience that " the common people " can accept the
truths of the Catholic Faith with understanding, and that
their ignorance was attributable to the neglect of those
who should have taught them. Sometimes, as he
travelled about his diocese, he found a company of
children thoroughly grounded in the Faith, while a
neighbouring hamlet would reveal depths of ignor-
ance. And his visitations, while they roused and
stimulated priests and people, were fruitful of knowledge
to himself. He had experience of the intrigues which
filled the lives of statesmen, courtiers, and ecclesiastics,
and it was with eager interest that he detected in the
villagers, who never ceased contention for the best seats
in the Parish Church, the symptoms of the same disease.
" It is the same passion of ambition as sets nations at war
against each other and moves a man to overturn society
that he himself may have the topmost place." || Thus
Bossuet, in philosophic mood, saw Retz or Mazarin
resuscitated in the truculent peasants whose disputes
were brought for his decision.
The records prove, moreover, that his patience was
of no common order, for he was ready to enter tolerantly
* Revue Bossuet (1900), p. 54. f Ibid. (1901), p. 25.
\ (Euvres, vol. v. Revue Bossuet (1902), p. 245.
I) (Euvres, vol. vii : Traitt" de la Concupiscence, ch. xvi.
The Bishof> in his Diocese 2 1 1
into the detail of tiresome complication for which devout
women are at times responsible. There was a Madame
Delamarre, for instance, who refused absolutely to have
any dealings with her parish priest and insisted on
frequenting another church. In the country such
practices acquire importance, and the lady had no good
reason for her prejudice. The bishop's intervention was
required to pacify the offended cure and direct his
favoured neighbour.* It demands temper as well as judg-
ment from a busy man to make adequate provision for
such needs as these, and to respond to all the question-
ings of so heterogeneous a multitude as are included
within the limits of a country diocese.f Undoubtedly
Bossuet set a magnificent example in his scrupulous de-
votion to the duties of his office. It is true that he did
not resign his bishopric when declining health kept him
in Paris, and to that extent betrayed the standard which
he had upheld so strenuously. But it is by the achieve-
ments, and by the faults, of his vigorous years that he
should be judged, and, while his strength endured, none
of the contests and adventures of his public career dis-
tracted him from his patient ministration to his people.
The spirit of the world might trouble the surface of his
life, but the fundamental principle of righteous living
remained undisturbed.
It was a natural consequence of his view of the re-
sponsibility of the priest that the ordering of the seminary
at Meaux should claim his serious attention. The Con-
ferences of Clergy, which had caused so much discontent
in his diocese of Condom, had been in use under his two
predecessors at Meaux, and he endeavoured to accen-
tuate the idea of their importance by attending them at the
cost of time and convenience. Here and there as we
strive to construct a picture of the man from the records
of his various activities new light is thrown by a personal
reminiscence. An eye-witness writing of his address at
* Recueil de tout ce qui c'est fait Jans la paroisse St. Jean des deux
Gemeaux (16761686), quoted Revue Bossuet (1904).
f It consisted of about 230 parishes. Revue Bossuet (1900), p. 52.
^ Bausset : op. cit., liv. f!i, part ix.
212 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
the second of his annual synods September 28, 1683
reveals him in an unexpected semblance. ' The con-
clusion of the synod was a curious one," the writer says,
" for Monseigneur expressed his belief that he was
primarily responsible for the sins of the diocese by reason
of his own shortcomings and the bad example that he set.
For he declared that a priest was so pledged to holiness
that wherever he fell short of it he was a cause of scandal.
To be less than saintly is to be scandalous this he re-
peated several times, and then said his confiteor aloud."*
Bossuet took too solemn a view of his own position
and of that of his hearers to have resorted to histrionics
in addressing them ; many of his letters, moreover, con-
tain a similar avowal : it was his habitual reserve before
the world that made this spoken outburst so astonishing.
Indeed, his sense of vocation as a guide to others per-
petually reminded him of his own weakness, and, when
his active brain had leisure for introspection, he did not
spare himself. Undoubtedly his success as a teacher of
simple minds was largely due to his spiritual humility.
When he dealt with souls he recognized his individual
shortcomings, and he held such dealings as a sacred trust.
After he went to Meaux he ceased to write his sermons,
but his sense of responsibility in this part of his minis-
tration did not diminish. His secretary records f that
for twenty years his chief preparation was made kneeling
at the foot of the Crucifix in his private chapel. He is
described to us going from one parish to another during
his visitations with his copy of the Gospels constantly
at hand, musing on the means whereby the truths most
needed could be most readily conveyed to the simple
minds of those he was to teach, and not less intent on his
preparation for such listeners as might assemble in a
country church than he had been when a congregation
of the greatest in the land awaited him. The picture
suggests the records connected with Le Camus or with
one of those bishops whose sanctity the Church has
recognized, but it is Bossuet in one aspect only that
* Quoted Revue Bossuet (October 1904).
f Ledieu : Mtmoires, p. 118.
The Bishop in his Diocese 213
it depicts. It is pleasant to regard him as the hard-
working and devoted provincial bishop, realizing that
ideal for which Vincent de Paul had fought so valiantly
on the Queen Regent's Counsel of Conscience thirty
years earlier, but it was not in this guise, we may be
certain, that he saw himself.
" Pray for me," he said, after visiting a convent at
Meaux, using the conventional phrase with which an
ecclesiastic took leave of a religious.
4 What would you have me ask for you, Mon-
seigneur ? " demanded the Superior.
And in Bossuet's reply his blunt sincerity plunged
through convention : " Pray that I may not love the
world," he said.*
" Spirit of the world, spirit of vanity and of sham,
spirit of frivolity and of pleasure, spirit of self-interest
and of ambition." Thus had he written from the Court f
with eyes wide-opened to its besetting dangers. The
passing of the years had dimmed his sight, though there
were times when the veil lifted. In fact, while he exhorted
the clergy of his diocese to the self-consecration de-
manded by their office, and maintained terms of sympa-
thetic intimacy with the Abbot of La Trappe, he was
swayed by the magic of the Court. His soaring in-
tellect did not prevent him from taking delight in inter-
course with princes, and all his learning was no defence
against the temptation of following the fashions that
prevailed in the great world. Perhaps the most lament-
able instance of his weakness sprang from his relations
with Conde". The great general, then Due d'Enghien,
had taken his father's place as Governor of the Province
when Jacques Be*nigne Bossuet was a schoolboy in
Dijon, and was present when he passed his final
viva voce examination in Paris. Youth and rank and
his personal endowments combined to make Conde" a
hero in the eyes of the French people. Bossuet, having
thus touched him before the tragedy of his persecution
and subsequent treason, remained faithful to his first
* Ledieu : Mtmoires, p. 119. f See p. 125.
^ Revue Bossuet (1901), pp. 93-103.
214 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
impression. An alliance that grew into real friendship
sprang up between them. There is a letter in which the
prince assured the bishop that there was no one living
for whom he felt a warmer affection.* Bossuet was a
favoured guest at Chantilly, and the pleasure-grounds
were shown him by their owner. It was here that
temptation lay in wait for him. The King, when the
park at Versailles was being laid out, required that
miniature lakes and canals and innumerable fountains
should form part of the design. j~ Thereafter all who
wished to be reckoned as denizens of the great world and
to lay claim to culture developed an interest in hydraulics.
Madame de Montespan was impossible to satisfy in her
demand for fountains at Clagny. At Maintenon irriga-
tion was one of the chief anxieties of its chatelaine ;
and at Chantilly (as Bossuet in his great Oraison Funebre $
recorded) the ceaseless splash of falling water refreshed
the eye and ear of the prince's guests in whatever part
of the pleasure-grounds they chanced to wander.
Conde was graciously pleased to exhibit these glories
of his retreat to Bossuet. It was not a small thing to
the Bishop that M. le Prince chose to discuss with
him, as with an equal, the further embellishments that
might be possible on his estate. The schoolboy of
Dijon was still alive in the celebrated ecclesiastic, and
as he strolled among the wooded avenues of Chantilly
in intimate companionship with the hero of his youth
there stirred within him a longing to have a part in the
display which seemed to be an attribute of greatness.
He was Bishop of Meaux, and he also like the great folk
at Court had a country-house and pleasure-grounds.
There was Germigny, three leagues from the cathedral
town, where it was his pleasant duty to offer hospitality
to distinguished guests as his predecessors had done
before him. And the fact of this house and park gave
him excuse for further intercourse with Conde*. The
Bishop's admiration of the fountains at Chantilly led to
* Correspondence, vol. iii, No. 344.
f Colbert : Lettres, Instructions, et MSmoires, vol. v, p. 355.
$ CEuvres, vol. xii, p. 623.
The Bishop in his Diocese 215
an offer from the Prince,* made in all good faith and
generosity, of the services of his chief engineer, Guil-
laume Thierry, for the embellishment of Germigny.
Bossuet accepted the offer ; he spent ten thousand livres
under the direction of this skilful personage, f and wrote
delightedly to the Prince that he had gained real know-
ledge of the science which the great world found so en-
grossing.^:
Let it be conceded that when temptation touched him
at this vulnerable point he yielded to it. It was pleasant
to have an interest in common with the Prince, and to have
something to display to eminent guests that might arouse
their envy ; and probably he did not regard the matter
very gravely when he embarked upon it. A later in-
cident, however, presents the venture in a more serious
aspect. The vexed question of plurality of benefices
was the subject discussed in a conference held by certain
of his clergy and of the Fathers of the Oratory over which
it was his duty to preside. The custom was condemned,
and he gave his formal approval to the verdict, but it in-
volved him in the necessity of explaining his retention
of the revenues of the Abbey of St. Lucien and of two
priories in addition to his bishopric. He did so by
describing the constant hospitality afforded at Germigny
to Protestants desiring instruction, and the expense in-
curred in consequence.^ The facts were unquestion-
able, and satisfied his hearers and himself, but possibly
as he listened to the splash of the fountains on his next
visit to his country-house, uneasy doubts may have dis-
turbed his peace regarding the connection between his
costly and admired improvements, and the work of
propaganda which was held to justify the cost of hospi-
tality at Germigny. Good men are constantly bad
managers, and Bossuet acknowledged readily that he
neglected consideration of ways and means, and that his
more important avocations forced him to do so. His
secretary || tells us that he was cheated for sixteen years
* Correspondence, vol. iii, No. 344. f Ibid., vol. iii, p. 41, note.
\ Ibid., No. 349. Bausset : op. '/., liv. vii, part ix.
|| Ledieu : Journal, vol. i, p. 39.
2i6 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
by his steward, Souin, whose misdeeds would never have
been discovered if his nephew, the Abbe Bossuet, had
not interfered. And here he was the willing prey of self-
deception ; having once adopted an attitude of indiffer-
ence towards money matters he covered all subsequent
extravagances by the same excuse of preoccupation with
labours more important than sordid business ; the
fallacy of his view never dawned on him. Indeed, the
venom of the Court, which was the world to him, be-
numbed his judgment. Fashion, public opinion, the
code that other men approved and practised these
worked upon a will that supposed itself to be fixed solely
on great endeavours of intellectual and spiritual import.
Visits to La Trappe * took place at intervals, and, even
when he failed to find the time, the desire for them never
slackened. Bossuet did not lower his aspirations, yet
the march of events suggests that there were periods
when he allowed himself, literally, to be too busy to main-
tain the defences of his spiritual life. The evidence of
his usefulness in the spreading of God's Kingdom was
so clear to the eyes of all men that it became the most
insidious of temptations to himself. Self-assertion dis-
guised itself as duty, and suggestions were attributed to
conscience which may have had a wholly different origin.
Yet the shadows of inconsistency and weakness were not
so heavy as to obscure the personal power that made him
a support to others. We shall see the beauty of his
relations with the religious who came under his care as
Bishop of Meaux, and the grandeur of the spiritual
writings to which intercourse with them inspired him.
He held a special place, moreover, in the eyes of courtiers,
and he owed it as much to his righteousness and integrity
as to his learning. When, in 1683, the young son of
" La Soeur Louise de la Mise"ricorde " died on his first
campaign, it was some higher quality than cleverness
that made Bossuet the fittest person to go to the Great
Carmel and break the news.f When, in 1687, Madame
* In 1682, 1684, 1686, 1687, 1690, 1691, 1695, 1696, 1698
(Revue Bossuet (1903), p. 173).
f Madame de Caylus : Souvenirs, p. 34.
The Bishop in his Diocese 217
de Montespan decided on retirement from Court she
sent for Bossuet and made him her ambassador ; * and
later, in the years when repentance seems to have gained
some reality of hold on her, she sought interviews with
him, and once, in 1695, accompanied by her sister, the
Abbess of Fontevrault, she visited him at Germigny.
And it may be regarded as a further tribute to his spiritual
versatility that he was summoned to the deathbed of
La Rochefoucauld.f
' The demand for his advice from all sorts of persons
on every kind of question was a thing beyond all reckon-
ing " wrote his secretary; ^ " a vast amount of business
connected with the Court passed through his hands when
he was at Versailles, and he laboured at it vigorously.
It was absolutely confidential, and he never kept a note
with relation to it." The records from all sources are of
one who gave out persistently. In some of his letters
to Bellefonds from the Court, and in a few addressed to
Ranee at a later time, there is the demand for sympathy
which is connected habitually with the idea of friendship,
but such instances are infrequent. Ordinarily Bossuet
considered himself, and was considered, as the depository
of treasures for the use of others. A certain austerity
of mind is needed to maintain such a position, and its
isolation fosters self-sufficiency. A mentor does not
develop the qualities of fellowship, and evidence of his
intellectual egoism accumulated while the questionings
and uncertainties of his deeper life only revealed them-
selves in rare moments of expansion. His confidence
in the infallibility of his own judgment in all that con-
cerned the Faith was acquired gradually, and with it
came the tendency to regard all opposition as tantamount
to dangerous heresy. Emanations from his brain had
so stirred thought and opinion all over Europe that he
had won an established place as champion of the Church
before the world, and it seemed to him that, having been
entrusted with this great and sacred mission, it was his
* Dangeau : Journal, vol. i, March 15, 1691.
f See Madame de Sevignd : Lettres, vol. vi, No. 791.
Mtmoires, p. 204.
21 8 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
duty to insist on full deference to himself from other
minds.
In his old age, when death was drawing very near, he
was stirred to indignation by the audacity of a young
scholar who dared to treat of a subject which he had
regarded as peculiarly his own.* Here the vanity of the
writer may have had its place, but in the main it was the
intellectual autocrat who felt himself to be assailed, and his
sense of Divine appointment gave a righteous glow to his
resentment. With many men the fulfilment of vocation
and the finding of their appointed place in life tends to
enrich and ripen character. To him realization of his
mission was a temptation ; it hindered the development
of his deeper nature. And thus it came to pass that in
the eyes of the world Bossuet, the Bishop, was repre-
sented by the majestic figure which for a time engrossed
so much attention at the Court of Louis XIV and looms
so importantly in the ecclesiastical history of the period :
a figure which was not in any sense foreshadowed by that
of the Abbe" Bossuet who made his plunge into the life of
Paris under the direction of Vincent de Paul.
Tradition has widened the gulf between promise and
fulfilment ; the celebrity who imposed himself upon the
imagination of his contemporaries, and who followed the
example of his royal master in using all external means
to enhance his dignity, is not sufficiently commemorated
in his character as shepherd of souls. Recorded ob-
servation of him differs according to the prejudices of the
observer. While in one direction he was revered
especially for his tolerance and tenderness and patience,
in another it was just these qualities that appeared to be
lacking in him. He was unconscious of these contra-
dictions or of any temptation to a dual life ; indeed,
deliberate deception was alien to his nature, and the
simplicity of the self-revelation that may be found in his
Spiritual Letters was no less genuine than the arrogance
of his attacks upon the ecclesiastics who dared to differ
from him in opinion. So gradual was the growth of
intellectual self-esteem that it had mastered him before
* Ledieu : Journal, vol. ii, p. 31.
The Bishop in his Diocese 219
he was aware of its existence. Questions demanding
study and reflection came from without continuously,
and to each in succession he gave his full capacity.
Being thus absorbed he learnt to measure life by work
accomplished. And so as years went on the world and
the world's view engrossed him.
If there had been no Dauphin, and Condom, hundreds
of miles from Paris and Versailles, had claimed and held
its bishop, the development of Bossuet in mind and spirit
might have been clearer, and his personal history less
fruitful in items for regret. His life at Meaux, as we
have indicated, is full of admirable scenes ; he occupied
himself with the welfare of his people and was eager for
the education of the children and the careful nursing of
the sick. No other bishop dared to be so temperate in
his use of the laws for coercing Protestants or was so
patient in his endeavours to effect true conversion. For
the figure of one whose literary labours were making his
name famous throughout Europe Meaux is an admirable
background. But unfortunately, Versailles lay seven
leagues away, and Versailles holds greater place in rela-
tion to the life of Bossuet than did his diocese of
Meaux.
Chapter XVL The Spirit of Versailles
THE influence of the Court pressed hard on Bossuet.
He belonged essentially to the age in which he
lived the age of which Louis XIV is the central
figure. It was not under compulsion that he recognized
the Divine right of kings ; it was a part of his conception
of the universe, and in his eagerness to defend established
institutions he became suspicious of all novelty. Thus
he made himself liable to the charge that, with all his
learning, he originated nothing.* In fact, the aim of
his life was to restore a condition that belonged to the
past that unity of Christians after which he strove so
fruitlessly and his preoccupation with a former state
did not tend to develop in him the qualities of the pioneer.
As he grew older he paid less regard to the vices of the
Court : the correction of them was no longer a part
of his accepted life-work, and only by forgetting them
could he preserve his admiration for the system that pro-
duced his royal master. It is not possible to trace the
process by which his faith as a Christian and that as a sub-
ject were welded to so indissoluble a whole, but it should
always be remembered that while the cult of the sovereign
in many of his contemporaries was the offspring of self-
interest with Bossuet it was spontaneous ; the King's
majesty was part of the existing order designed by God
which it was his mission to uphold.
At the close of his years of tutorship he drew up,
ostensibly for the Dauphin, a theory of government
founded on the Scriptures : Politique tiree de fEcrtture
Sainte. This was put aside for possible use in the future.
He did not have it printed at the time of writing, and there
is no evidence that he ever submitted it to the King ;
he was satisfied when he had given expression to his
thought. It remains as the explanation of a portion of
his conduct which is frequently misjudged, and it shows
us that his view of the King coincided with the view
propounded by the King himself in his own Memoir
for the Dauphin. " If God should withdraw His Hand,"
wrote Bossuet, " the world would become void ; if royal
* Sainte-Beuve : Nouveaux Lundis, vol. ii, p. 341.
The Spirit of Versailles 221
authority is suspended the kingdom is a chaos."* " God
has ordained that a king should be responsible to Him
only. The right of a king is not the right to do evil,
but his right sets him above human laws ; he gives ac-
count only to God."f His conviction of the inherent
excellence of monarchical government blinded him to the
consequences of his proposition, and, indeed, a belief
so absolute as his that the King held power by the
ordinance of God carried with it faith that the use of
power would be for the ultimate welfare of the people.
For a good Christian the will of the King was the will of
God, and he treated the idea of a constitutional monarchy
as too absurd for the consideration of reasonable per-
sons ; ^ yet, having gone thus far, he did not take the
further step of asserting that the conduct of a king was
admirable by reason of his kingship : the language of his
sermons before the Court had not been that of adulation,
and in compiling his treatise on Government he drew
freely from these sermon notes.
It was essential to his peace of mind that he should
make no attempt to reconcile theory and experience. He
knew the secrets of the Court ; he had been the confi-
dant of La Valliere, the ineffectual judge of Madame de
Montespan ; and his association with the lawyer class,
who had knowledge of the condition of the people, made
it impossible that he should be ignorant of the suffering
which was the price of royal magnificence. There were
ugly stories of individual defiance that passed from lip
to lip. The woman whose son had been killed in the
works at Versailles, who called the King a tyrant and was
mercilessly flogged ; the old man, using the same
epithet, who cried that Ravaillac might reappear, and
had his tongue cut out. 5 Bossuet was tender-hearted,
and such things were not easy to forget ; they were
significant of the agony that was never seen by eyes
* (Euvres, vol. xxiii : Politique tirfo, etc., liv. v, part iv, prop. i.
f Ibid., vol. xv, 5 W * Divertissement centre Jurieu, part xliv (cf.
Dreyss : op. cit., vol. ii, p. 285).
Ibid., part liii. Ledieu : Me"moiref, p. 112.
5 Olivier d'Ormesson : Journal (14 juillet, 1668).
222 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
polite ; nevertheless, they did not touch the central
dogma of his political faith, which was nothing less than
monarchical infallibility. Society was conditioned by
the will of the King, and the champion of urtity and order
would have betrayed his own cause by exposing its cor-
ruption and hypocrisy. It is true that at an earlier
period he had striven to check the feverish lust of pleasure
that prevailed at Court, and had made his protest at the
darker stage that supervened; but the situation at Ver-
sailles * that amazed the world after the death of the
neglected Queen did not disturb him, and thenceforward
he never questioned any expression of the royal will.
Although the reign of Madame de Maintenon pro-
moted certain interests that Bossuet had at heart it had
no favourable effect upon his fortunes. His claim to the
purple should have been a very strong one ; it cannot
be doubted that he cherished a desire for this supreme
distinction,f and the interest of Madame de Maintenon
was of just that kind which might have obtained it for
him. Moreover, when the See of Paris was left vacant
by the death of Harlai rumour assigned it, not un-
fittingly, to the greatest Churchman of the day. The
Noailles family was related by marriage to Madame de
Maintenon, however, and therefore the prize fell to the
future cardinal, who was then Bishop of Chalons. There
is a letter from Bossuet to Madame d'Albert,^: the nun of
Jouarre, which shows that with the announcement a
period of suspense was ended. " After so much vain
speculation we may now rest assured that my bones will
be laid among those of my predecessors, and that I shall
end my days in labouring for the flock entrusted to my
care." It is the letter or\a disappointed man.
The indifference of this devout lady towards the
greatest ecclesiastic of the time has no self-evident
explanation, yet certain subconscious instincts may ac-
count for it. She was the daughter of a felon, born in
* Well depicted in recent study : Saint-Re'ne' Taillandier : Madame
de Maintenon (1920).
f Griselle : Lettres Intdites du Frere de Bossuet.
\ Correspondence, vol. vii, No. 1270.
The Spirit of Versailles 223
the precincts of a gaol,* and therefore she preferred
those to whom great position came by right of inheritance
to climbers who, like herself, had risen by force of ability
and character. Also, being by temperament controlled
and unemotional, she was attracted by the imaginative
excursions of those who sought adventure in religion,
and when Bossuet exposed the dangers of Quietism he
destroyed a vision that had brought refreshment to her
jaded spirit. Although there is no trace of friendship
these two had much in common. Personal ambition
was not a stronger motive in Madame de Maintenon than
loyalty and devotion to the Church, and if she might but
follow her own peculiar methods she had no greater desire
than to labour for the good of souls. She did not at-
tempt to conciliate public opinion but to command it,
and in this she was extraordinarily successful. The
same capacity developed in Bossuet as the years passed
and his experience of mankind grew wider, and it appears
to have been cultivated by many of his contemporaries.
" If you are right-minded you will think of me with
gratitude, Monseigneur " said Montausier to the
Dauphin when his governorship ended " if you are
not so your opinion will be valueless. "f That is typical
of the mental attitude adopted by those who were brought
into close association with the King, towards themselves
and their own conduct. The sublime self-assurance
which kept their idol balanced on his pinnacle of great-
ness was reflected in those about him. Madame de
Maintenon modestly refused to write a memoir of her life
because she said only a saint would be able to enjoy
reading \\..\ Bossuet, having once arrived at an opinion
on a question submitted to his judgment, assigned to it
all the weight of infallibility, and the maintenance of his
personal conclusion became " God's affair." Any
suggestion of a parallel between the great ecclesiastic
and the uncrowned queen may now seem an absurdity,
* Noailles, P. de : Hist, de Madame de Maintenon, vol. i, ch. i.
f Madame de Sevigne : Lettres, vol. vi, No. 783.
$ See Sainte-Beuve : Cauteries, 28 juillet, 1851.
Correspondance, vol. viii, No. 1551.
224 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
because later generations have learnt to pay homage to the
one and smile over the other; but to the eyes of a courtier
Madame de Maintenon had achieved a place on the ladder
of fortune that was far higher than that of Bossuet, and
in those days it was the courtiers who held control of.
reputation.
It was not his opinions only : the character of Bossuet
also, in so far as it may be judged by outward manifesta-
tions, was materially affected by his contact with the
Court. To him this was the world, and he was not proof
against its dangers ; yet in its effect upon his life the good
is inextricably interwoven with the evil, for it gave him
knowledge that books could not have taught him, and
without which his genius could never have found full
expression. If, on the one hand, we are tempted to
regret the occasions of stumbling that arose from asso-
ciation with pomp and vanity, we are reminded, on the
other, of the inspiration that he found in it. And Bossuet,
as posterity regards him, cannot be separated from the
Court, because Bossuet and the Oraisons Funtbres are
indivisible. It was a Court fashion, part of the
artificial impressiveness of the great, which demanded
a panegyric on the dead, and from this fashion he snatched
the greatest triumph of his whole career. It is proof of
his genius that in approaching an established custom
he dared to be original. It was his aim to modify the
extravagant eulogy which was expected, and in its stead
to trace the work of grace in the experience of his subject.
If he could discover the essential lesson in the life he had
been studying and impress it on his hearers he had
achieved his purpose.
Such an innovation had no inherent claim to popu-
larity. Society was accustomed to the language of com-
pliment on these melancholy occasions, and anticipated
emotional excitement rather than moral edification.
Moreover, pulpit oratory was regarded as a fine art,
and it was the well-chosen phrase and brilliant image
that held the attention of the congregation rather than
any precept they were intended to convey. Under such
circumstances it was only genius of the very highest order
The Spirit of Versailles 225
that could have commanded success for Bossuet's
methods. Nor did the sense of inspiration lessen his
desire for exactitude. It would seem that a funeral
sermon on the Queen of England preached in a convent
chapel might have been based on those events that were
matter of common 'knowledge. These did not satisfy
him, however, and there exists the Memoir composed by
Madame de Motteville,* at the command of Madame,
to provide him with the. material that he required. In
the case of Madame herself, as in that of Conde, the fruit
of personal intimacy was sufficient complement to rumour,
and when he was required to discourse of the Queen
Consort before the Court any reference to fact would
have been the height of indiscretion. Probably, of the
six Oraisons Funebres that he published, it was those on
Anne de Gonzague, Princess Palatine, and on the
Chancellor Le Tellier that demanded the most careful
study. For the Chancellor he was supplied with a care-
ful memoir by Claude le Peletier, kinsman and colleague
of the dead man.f The difficulties were greater where
the Princess Palatine was concerned, as a true record could
not fail to be extremely scandalous, and the chronicle
of her doings had to be drawn from many sources.
Ranee had been her guide in her hour of conversion,
and under his direction she wrote a statement of her
spiritual experiences from which Bossuet quoted freely.
We find him also writing to Madame de Beringhen, then
reigning over the Abbey of Farmoutiers, where the
Princess Anne had spent her early years, for details to
fill in the background of his picture.
These proofs of his indefatigable industry are of
enormous interest, and again we see the welding of his
methods as orator and as historian. In spite of his brilliant
gifts, he thought no pains too great in preparation for the
tasks that he appeared to discharge with such extra-
* See Hurel : Orateurs Sacrds, vol. ii, appendix vi.
f This still exists in MS. underlined and noted by the hand of Bossuet
(Revue Bossuet, January 1902).
% Le Nain : Vie de Dom A. jF. le B outfitter de Ranee" (17 '19), liv. iii.
CorresponJance, vol. iii, No. 337.
226 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
ordinary facility, and the listening world, while it paid
tribute to the quality of spontaneity that rises above art,
knew nothing of the toil inseparable from triumph. In
fact, the vision of his subject that he needed when he
faced his audience from the pulpit depended on his hours
of solitary study ; with that secured his genius could
establish contact with his listeners. Their response was
essential ; unless they saw with him he could give them
no share in his own discoveries. He showed, in the
masterpiece that first wrested from them full recognition
of his genius, the widowed Queen, in the many hours of
prayer she had spent in the convent chapel, rendering
thanks to God for just those misfortunes and bereave-
ments which made her the object of general compassion.
It is the ideal of the ascetic the spirit that is covetous of
suffering that he ascribed to her, and his hearers shared
his vision by the force of his own conviction.
There were years in the early period of his episcopate
at Meaux when demands for the display of his peculiar
power followed each other swiftly. In his study of Anne
de Gonzague he touched a very high level.* Until then
his subjects had been so nearly associated with the King
that his treatment of them was inevitably trammelled,
but the Princess Palatine gave him an opportunity for
the portrayal of the Court without approaching the
person of the King, and, during fifteen years of quiet
observation, he had learnt the meaning of those subtle
ambitions and excitements on which her life had centred.
Sainte-Beuve declares that she was the most skilful
diplomatist of her day,f and Bossuet, neglecting those
passages in her career to which many of his hearers
specially desired reference, dwelt on the pride of life in
the guise of political ambition. Her escapades were
notorious, and it was enough to indicate that she was
of those widows condemned by St. Paul whose lives are
lived in pleasure. Her repentance, in accordance with
the taste and fashion of her day, was as public as her
* "L'une des plus belles qu'il ait faites, et mime que I' on puisse fairt "
(La Bruy^re a Cond6 CEuvres, vol. iii, p. 272).
f Port Royal, vol. v, p. 536.
The Spirit of Versailles 227
offences, and her history as blatantly dramatic as that of
other heroines of the Fronde. Bossuet's presentation
of her is distinguished by extreme refinement ; he suc-
ceeded, as in his sermon for Louise de La Valliere, in
eliminating all that was obvious and tawdry, and, while
he conveys the atmosphere of storm and tumult that
shrouds the Regency, he had the art to keep the sensa-
tional episodes that could not be ignored subservient to
his theme.
The fashionable crowd assembled in the chapel of the
Great Carmel, and the nuns behind the grille, may have
expected a skilful mingling of panegyric and sensational
incident ; that which he gave them was the history of a
miracle, and he believed that so marvellous a conversion
would produce many others. If his hearers could see the
work of grace in Anne de Gonzague as he saw it they
would not need the summons of a human voice to bring
them to repentance, and therefore the sole design of his
Funeral Oration was to convey the impression which he
had himself received. It was no longer his part in life
to fish for souls in the great world of Paris, and it was not
by his own desire that he addressed them. " He had no
taste for this office," we are told,* and so pompous and
artificial a method of celebrating Death was against his
instincts. Here and there indeed, when it would seem
that the actuality of the throng of listeners intrudes itself
upon his consciousness, he strikes "a note that suggests
defiance. He was constant in insistence that the re-
sponsibility of preaching did not rest solely on the
preacher. " Perhaps you are here to sit in judgment on
my sermon at the Last Judgment you will have to
answer for your part in it " : so he warns his hearers, and,
when he has led them to the consummation of that work
of grace so marvellously demonstrated in the experience
of the dead woman, he summons them to listen for the
Voice of God within themselves.
The mind of Bossuet is reflected in the Oraison Funebre
on the Princess Palatine. His careful hold on fact and
his dramatic sense were as essential to his study as colour
* Ledieu : Mtmoires, p. 182.
228 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
and perspective to a painter, but it was a passion of
religious fervour that gave his picture life. When,
two years later, he was required to preach at the funeral
of Conde* his spirit found itself confined by the elaborate
trappings of a great occasion. As an orator he touched
his highest level, as a priest it may be doubted whether he
satisfied, himself. Madame de Sevigne* describes the
magnificence of the scene in the ' Cathedral of Notre
Dame, and notes approvingly that the lights and decora-
tion cost one hundred thousand francs.* Bossuet would
have recognized that pomp and circumstance were
necessary to the obsequies of the First Prince of the
Blood, yet the skeletons grouped around the bier, and
the other sepulchral effects admired by Madame de
Sevigne, were a hindrance to his purpose. He cele-
brated greatness fittingly, however, the admiration of a
lifetime aiding him. Conde was a hero, but he had been
a traitor, and no loyal subject, least of all a worshipper of
monarchy, could venture to extenuate his guilt. Apart
from that admission his funeral sermon was a panegyric
a great feat of oratory and it was the last of Bossuet's
efforts in that field. Whenever he faced it the thought
of the sure approach of death filled him with awe, and
the death of Conde summoned him to contemplate anew
the hollowness of human triumph. For him there could
be no triumph comparable to these rare moments when
he seized and held the minds of other men and swayed
their thought with his. When the moment passed we
are told that he would go away in silence and remain
hidden, making no reference at any time to his success.f
Such reserve does not signalize indifference. Where his
literary work was concerned he made no rule of silence ;
he discussed its merits simply. It would seem that he
was conscious of temptation only in the use of the greatest
of his gifts. Friendship with Conde* had gratified a
worldly instinct, and with the ending of their friendship
he closed the channel to the most worldly of his am-
bitions. This would seem to be the true explanation of
* Madame de SeVignd : Lettres, vol. viii, No. 1015.
t Ledieu : Mtmoires, p. 1 8 1 .
The S-pirit of Versailles 229
an announcement to which other and lower motives have
been assigned ; for fifteen years of vigorous life remained
to him before his powers showed signs of waning, and if
he had desired further triumph it must have been within
his reach. ' It is true that he was never more dramatic than
in the apostrophe with which he closed the most cele-
brated of his funeral orations, and called on the dead man
to accept the final effort of the voice that had once been so
familiar to his ears. But the dramatic impulse implied
no insincerity ; he did, indeed, reserve his eloquence
thenceforward for the preaching of the Faith to the
simple and the ignorant within his diocese of Meaux.
" He had a great gift for adapting himself to the capacity
of his hearers," comments his secretary.*
The death of Conde, and the renunciation which com-
memorated it, is a landmark in Bossuet's career. There
is no reason to suppose that his friendship with the great
soldier affected his relations with the Court ; neverthe-
less, after their friendship ended those relations grew
more formal and less kindly. The Court itself was
changing ; its brilliancy was on the wane, and new
customs and ways of thought were coming into vogue ;
it was hard for one who was not of its inner circle to
learn its altered language, and Bossuet, engrossed in
literary and controversial schemes, lost spiritual hold in
the great world. He was sixty when Conde died, and
the years that were left to him were full of strife and dis-
appointment, of which there is full record. Their
deeper history can only be conjectured.
* Ledieu : Mtntoires, p. 116.
Chapter XVII. Bossuet and the Monasteries
IN June 1 68 1 Bossuet, in replying to congratulations
on his appointment to Meaux, had told Ranc6 that he
had planned for many years to begin his real episcopate,
whenever the time for it came, with a Retreat at La
Trappe. He asked his friend's permission humbly, and
the desire he expresses had evidently taken strong hold
upon him : " My heart is full of happiness when I
think that I am going to accomplish my wish. I beg
of you not to refuse me." *
He was assured of his welcome at La Trappe, but
royal wishes and the plans for the Assembly intervened,
and the beginning of his new life was very different
from his anticipations of it. The hope and its dis-
appointment were symbolic ; he aspired to a life main-
tained on the supernatural level in which each action
was bound up with prayer, but events, actual and
potential, called him to bear a part in the struggle that
other men found so absorbing, and his practice lagged
far behind his aspirations. His conviction that God
had called him to the place he held consoled him. " My
business is not my own business, but that of the Church "
" as I do not choose the work that fills my time I
must be content with the leisure God permits. "f It was
thus that he strove to reconcile himself to the hindrance
of overwhelming occupations. Nevertheless, in his
dealings as director, and also with the Religious Com-
munities under his care, we see the inner life of struggle
which is so alien to the ordinary conception of the great
bishop and theologian, the oracle of the Church in
France. The evidence of it is present also in his corres-
pondence with Bellefonds and Ranee", in all his con-
nection with La Trappe, and in certain of his writings ;
and those to whom the hidden side of his nature is
precious cannot fail to deplore that an epoch, so im-
portant and so sacred as the opening of his career as
bishop, should have been invaded by his labours on the
Clerical Assembly and all that they entailed.
When the King had dissolved the Assembly and set
* Correspondance, vol. ii, No. 233. f Ibid., vol. vi, Nos. 1 1 56, 1 1 57.
Bossuet and the Monasteries 231
him free to take up the duties of his diocese he was
weary and despondent. He wrote to ask Ranee" to
pray for him in his new life : " That I may not be a cause
of scandal to the flock who should find in me an example."
A later reference to the ordeal from which he had just
emerged is significant : " May we never be required to
meet again for so unfortunate a purpose."*
In that hour of reaction his thoughts turned with
longing towards La Trappe, and we find his first moments
of leisure, after he reached his diocese, devoted to the
study of a treatise on monasticism,t which the Trappist
abbot had drawn up for the use of his Community.
Considering the conditions of his life in the previous
months the fact is noteworthy. His initiation into his
new duties had occupied the summer of 1682, and it
was not till October that the long-desired journey to
La Trappe was at last accomplished.
Armand de Ranee had rejected all intellectual inter-
course : his stern conception of the monk's vocation
repudiated the practices of the monks of St. Maur,
and he demanded of his Trappists that they should
mortify the natural desires of the mind as well as of the
body. The appeal that Bossuet made, however, was
possible to reconcile with the abbot's vigorous ordinances.
Although he asked advice that claimed intellectual judg-
ment on controversial questions, he pressed far more
heavily for personal help, for prayers and spiritual
stimulus. Thus there is evidence to show that the stern
superior did not relax in the practice of his rule merely
to find comfort and profit for himself, and that the
friendship which united monk and controversialist for
thirty years maintained its lofty standard of austerity.
To estimate the value to Bossuet of his periodical Re-
treats it is necessary to recall such episodes of his life
as his contact with Madame de Montespan in 1675, his
labours on the Assembly of 1682, or his violent contro-
versy with Fe"nelon fifteen years later. At these times
especially he experienced the full force of the human
* Correspondance, vol. ii, Nos. 257 and 258.
f Devoirs de la Vie Monastique (see Ledieu : Mfaoires, p. 197).
232 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
passions that dominated the world in which his lot was
cast. He said once that if his life drifted apart from
God there was nothing to save him from despair.*
There may have been points in his career when such a
drifting threatened, and it was then that the fact of La
Trappe, and the conviction for which it stood, summoned
him back and restored to him the inner vision that had
been the inspiration of his youth. This vision of the
Unseen which to Ranee* was a support in the endurance
of each painful day became for Bossuet a goad, driving
him into discontent when the interests and satisfactions
of his vigorous life waxed too absorbing ; to each it was
absolutely essential, and their intimacy was rooted in
their common need.
Bossuet showed by the devotional works produced
during his years at Meaux that he apprehended the true
meaning of the Religious Life, and his ideal of it was not
fulfilled by the scholarly routine of the monks of St.
Maur ; indeed, when official duties encroached un-
comfortably on his own literary labours his regard for
them may well have been mingled with a spice of envy.
For him La Trappe filled a place apart, and its mission
was one which could not in any other way have been
fulfilled. In an age of external show and glitter, when
the temptations of bodily self-indulgence held dominion
over every class, it would seem that the self-annihilation
of the Trappist had the same effectiveness as has the
stillness of the contemplative in an age of feverish chatter
and occupation. The effect produced on others is
in no sense to be confounded with the purpose of a con-
secrated life ; it must be regarded only as a by-product,
and must ordinarily remain unknown to the producers,
nor is it possible to estimate the value of this species of
example as a force among the innumerable influences
on human development. Such calculations are outside
the scope of finite intelligence. Nevertheless, it may
safely be assumed that Bossuet, without suffering in
the slightest as controversialist or politician, would
have been infinitely poorer as a man, had Armand de
* Ledieu : Mtmoires, p. 265.
Bossuet and the Monasteries 233
Ranee" retired from the world into reasonable and
scholarly]; seclusion and refrained from his fierce chal-
lenge to society.
It was during that autumn visit in 1682 that Bossuet
urged upon his friend the advantage that general readers
might derive from his treatise on the Monastic Life if it
were placed within their reach.* The advice came
strangely from one who was the intimate of Mabillon
and sought assistance in his historical researches from
him and his learned colleagues at St. Germain-des-Pres,
for Ranee's work, in its insistence on the entirety of
self-abnegation implied by the monastic vow, attacked
the practices and intentions of his brethren of St. Maur.
Without Bossuet the treatise in all likelihood would not
have been published ; it had been written only for the
instruction of the Trappists, but he obtained the sanction
of Le Tellier and Le Camus, and saw it through the
Press. The wisdom of his action is open to question.
It was, as Le Camus wrote, necessary, for full appreciation
of the book, to be inflamed with the enthusiasm of its
writer.f Possibly Bossuet fulfilled that condition when
he read it, and did so more completely when he talked it
over with the author. For him, evidently, there was en-
chantment in the violence of the contrast between life as
he knew it among fellow priests and courtiers and life as
constructed by the great Trappist for the few who had
courage to enlist under his leadership. The immediate
result of the book, however, was a controversy of no little
vehemence between Mabillon and Armand de Ranee,
in which Bossuet contrived to intervene without com-
promising his friendship with either party. The in-
cident is important because it shows his susceptibility to
the influence of environment. At La Trappe the pure
ideal of renunciation, as exemplified by the silent monks
whom he watched at their daily toil, possessed his imagina-
tion to the exclusion of those normal sympathies that
ruled his life at other times. The weakness of Ranch's
* Dubois : Hist, de I' Abbe" de Ranee". Vol. ii contains full account of
controversy on La Vie Monastique.
t Ingold : Lettres de Cardinal Le Camus, No. 235.
234 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
case was emphasized by the erudition he displayed in
maintaining that ignorance was essential to a monk,
and it is hard to understand the motive of Bossuet in
supporting such obvious inconsistency. No public testi-
mony was asked of him, however, for the contest ended in
a meeting between the two champions, where each recog-
nized the noble qualities of the other, and the note of
charity dominated. The final incident was one from which
Bossuet, as spectator, might have drawn a lesson, for
the dissension between them had been hot, and when
Mabillon visited La Trappe his adversary had com-
pleted a pamphlet that was to refute all the arguments
of his last book on the Studies Proper to a Monk. And
after the visit the pamphlet was consigned to the archives
of the monastery, with a note to the effect that the sin-
cerity and gentleness of the guest had so won the heart
of his host that " I should wish never to say a word on
any subject that might cause him distress "* a con-
clusion that is probably unique in the history of con-
troversy.
The asceticism of the reformer of La Trappe is not
for general adoption, he does not represent the true
spirit of the Cistercian Order, and his teaching contains
many elements of danger. Nevertheless, Bossuet returned
to his diocese after that first visit and on subsequent
occasions inspired and invigorated, and bearing with
him an impression of the possibilities of the Religious
Life which was of infinite service to him. For there
were nine Communities in the diocese of Meaux, and
they claimed an important share in the pastoral labours
of the bishop. They added appreciably also to his
anxieties, for disorder in Religious Life was no less an
offence to his instincts as a man of prayer than to his
regard for discipline as a bishop.
He had opportunity to observe during his ministry
as Archdeacon of Metz the lengths to which conven-
tual disorder could be carried. The Convent of Sainte-
Glossinde occupied a considerable area in the centre of
* Broglie, E. de : Mabillon et la SociM de St. Germain-des-PrSs,
p. 185.
Bossuet and the Monasteries 235
that city.* It dated from the sixth century and,
nominally, was under the Benedictine Rule. Actually
the conditions prevailing there during the period
when Verneuil was Bishop of Metz set every rule,
whether of religion or convention, completely at defiance.
If Bossuet in his serious youth had ever watched a
carnival procession he would have seen the abbess and
her nuns, some of them in male attire, bearing their part
in it, and he could not have taken his share in the life
of the city without being cognizant of the wild revels
held within the convent walls. The ladies of Sainte-
Glossinde acknowledged no authority save that of the
Sovereign Pontiff, and the dislocation of ecclesiastical
affairs in Metz delayed appeal to Rome. Eventually,
however, an inquiry was held, over which Bossuet pre-
sided, commissioned by the King and by the Pope.
This celebrated scandal concerned him for a few weeks
only, during which time the offices of counsel, judge,
and jury were incorporated in his person. He cross-
examined, summed-up, and gave his verdict and then
returned to Paris. Outwardly it made little mark upon
his life, but its importance cannot be measured by the
time it occupied, and his steady concentration on the
ordering of Religious Life within his diocese twenty
years later may be traced to this experience of extreme
disorder. Not that Meaux produced any example of
irregularity that could be compared with Sainte-Glossinde .
the worst offenders there with whom he had to deal
were the nuns of Jouarre, and their frivolities were not of
such a nature as to rouse a public outcry. They were a
dishonour to religion in his eyes, however, and he deter-
mined to restore the practice of the Rule. In carrying
out his purpose he displayed the highest qualities of the
administrator : courage, resolution, and unbounded
patience. For this reason the venture is important in
his history.
In 1225 the Papal Legate had accorded privileges to
the convent which may be said to have transformed its
* See for full account of Convent of Sainte-Glossinde Floquet :
Etudes, vol. ii, liv. ix.
236 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
precincts and the neighbouring hamlets into a miniature
bishopric presided over by a female bishop in the person
of the abbess.* She had power to appoint and to direct
the priests within the limits of her territory, and she her-
self recognized no authority save that of the Pope.
The abbess in possession at the time when Bossuet was
appointed to Meaux was Henriette de Lorraine, grand-
daughter of Henri Due de Guise, murdered at Blois.
Her interpretation of the privileges of her office had in-
duced the King, before Bossuet was in any way concerned,
to apply to Rome for investigation of them. The
application seems to have been ineffective, and Madame
de Lorraine continued to use the revenues of the monas-
tery to maintain the luxury and magnificence appertaining
to her rank, while she neglected all the obligations of
monastic rule. Her visits to Jouarre were rare, and she
made no pretence of regarding it otherwise than as a
country-house where rest and refreshment might be
obtained when social duties had induced fatigue.
Bossuet, who had seen many women of birth as noble
and upbringing as tender embrace the hardness of
Carmel or the spiritual austerity of the Visitation with
generous desire, was not dazzled by the splendours of the
princely house to which Madame Henriette belonged.
It was not his policy, however, to attack hastily : his
hands were full during his first years at Meaux, and when
the difficult question of the lawlessness at Jouarre was
once approached he foresaw that it would demand all
his attention. It may safely be assumed, also, that he
faced the risk of discomfiture before he threw down his
challenge, and the risk was by no means small. He had
every reason to know the immensity of the advantage
possessed by those who commanded family interest over
humble persons like himself who had won position by
individual effort. The weight of tradition was against
him ; indeed, to the ordinary worldling it was an absur-
dity to expect Madame de Lorraine to submit to an
* (Euvrfs, vol. v, pp. 559-573 " Pieces concernant I'Abbaye de
Jouarre " and Correspondance, vol. iv, appendix v, for documentary
evidence concerning this dispute.
Bossuet and the Monasteries 237
authority from which her Order had been exempt for
generations, and there was nothing in her conduct that
outraged the susceptibilities of the pious to any serious
degree. These stately abbesses, who knew how to
heighten their personal attractions by skilful adaptation
of the severity of the monastic garb, were familiar figures
at Court and had their place in the scheme of society.
No doubt the knowledge he had accumulated in his years
of service to the Dauphin protected Bossuet from im-
prudent action, and was the main reason for his long
delay in attacking a condition that must have been a
source of perpetual offence. The Dauphin's tutor had
intimate experience of the power wielded by Madame de
Montespan, and so long as that lady reigned supreme
his case had no chance of a favourable hearing from
the King. For among the notable figures at Court
during his years of residence was Gabrielle de Roche-
chouart, Abbess of Fontevrault,* than whom no one
more competent or more autocratic ever directed a
great religious Order. Madame de Fontevrault was the
youngest and much cherished sister of Madame de
Montespan, and one of the chief objects on which she
expended her energy and talents was the preservation of
just those privileges of authority and independence which
Bossuet was determined to destroy. It was necessary,
therefore, that he should wait until the star of Madame
de Montespan had waned, but while he waited he was
working steadily to prepare the Community at Jouarre
for the ordeal that awaited them.
This Abbey of Jouarre holds a very important place
in the later history of Bossuet, and his first connection
with it belongs to the brilliant period of his independent
years in Paris. It had been a great compliment to the
bourgeois abbe" when, in 1664, M. le Due de Luynes had
invited him to preach the sermon at the Clothing of his
daughter, Madame d' Albert, f but one without promise
of far-reaching effect. Yet a time came when he stood
in need of friends at Jouarre. Twenty-five years later
* Clement : Une Abbesse de Fontevrault au XVIII Siecle.
f Floquet : fitudes, vol. ii, p. 302.
238 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
the authority which he had full right to exercise over
the Community was defied, and then he found support
of the most valuable kind awaiting him. Henriette
d'Albert and her sister, Madame de Luynes, had
been educated at Port Royal, and the tendency to
independence of judgment characteristic of Port Royal
had survived their transplantation to Jouarre. Madame
d'Albert treasured the remembrance of the solemn link
between herself and Bossuet, and regarded him with the
deepest veneration. The two sisters gave their allegiance
secretly, and there is nothing to mark the particular
point in his negotiations concerning the Community
when he began to rely upon their aid. He was the
spiritual director of Madame d'Albert, and his rigid views
on the way of life involved by the vow of the religious
must have prepared them for his condemnation of the
practices in vogue at Jouarre. Their adherence was of
infinite importance, for they were the nieces of that
magnificent lady the Abbess Henriette of Lorraine, and,
while their aunt was in Paris or at a health resort, the
position they held among their sisters made it possible
to prepare the way for those sensational events that
loomed in front of the Community.
Bossuet had a good cause and he used all his weapons
with infinite skill, but it is probable that he owed the
loyalty of many of his supporters within the convent walls
more to his own confidence in ultimate success than to
any real understanding on their part of his aims and
principles. The upheaval necessary for the desired
consummation meant that the custom and tradition
which were the fabric of their daily lives must fall in ruins,
and that they would be dependent on the power that
had worked this devastation to repair it. To restless
spirits a suggestion of novelty may have been welcome,
but it is probable that the true meaning of the reform
for which Bossuet was working was understood only by
the two whose training at Port Royal had made them
subject to cravings for which Jouarre had no provision.
It must be admitted, however, that there were other
interests involved far wider than those simple ones
Eossuet and the Monasteries 239
touching the nuns and the convent discipline. The
Abbess of Jouarre denied the authority of the bishop
and only acknowledged that of the Pope ; by so doing
she set the whole Gallican theory at defiance, and provided
Bossuet with the strongest of all incentives to inter-
ference. His attack on the privileges of Jouarre must
be accepted, therefore, as proceeding from a double
motive, yet there was no need of dissimulation in con-
nection with it. Amid the tangled politics of Church
and State he himself retained the directness of thought
and purpose that had been characteristic of his youth.
Of the many reasons that brought him to a conclusion
all may not have been equally admirable, but when the
conclusion was reached he went straight forward un-
hindered by any of the temptations to vacillation or
uncertainty that waste the energy of feebler spirits.
And as he proceeded some of his greatest qualities were
manifest patience and charity bore as large a part in
securing his success as did the inordinate cleverness that
made him so formidable an adversary.
It was this cleverness, however the craft of the
lawyer race from which he sprang which ruled the
opening of the combat. He interfered deliberately
with the liberties of the Foundation, and lured the Lady
Abbess into proceedings against him in a civil court.
When she obtained the sentence she desired he appealed
at once to the Parlement in Paris. He alleged that her
exemption from episcopal authority was invalid because
it was bestowed without due authority by a Papal Legate,
although it had been enjoyed by her predecessors for
nearly five hundred years. The importance of a test-
case was assigned to the dispute. The long-drawn
struggle with Innocent XI had not been calculated to
soften the hostile feeling among the Parisian magis-
trates towards Rome, and their decision was a foregone
conclusion. The imperious Abbess had a rude awaken-
ing. The defences of her state and dignity, which she
regarded as invulnerable, had crumbled at the first
assault, the peace between King and Pope which had
followed the death of Innocent weakened her chances
240 Jacques Benigne Bos suet
of support from Rome, and her pride of race revolted
from the unconditional surrender that was demanded
of her. Bossuet, who had laid his plans carefully, must
have anticipated the continuance of her rebellion : it was
for the reform of the Community that he had made his
venture, and he accepted the unpopularity resulting from
his action as the price of his success.
The decision of the Parlement was given in January
1690. A month later, February 25, the Bishop of
Meaux entered the little town of Jouarre in state, and
the townsfolk lined the way and gave him a respectful
welcome. Bossuet never omitted the pomp and circum-
stance that added dignity to his position in the eyes of a
generation habituated to the ceremonies in which their
King delighted, and his work at Jouarre was of a kind
to be facilitated by external impressiveness. The wel-
come accorded to the bishop may well have been genuine.
The Abbess was unpopular by reason of her disinclination
to make any payment for goods supplied for the use of
the Community, and her lay subjects were ready to re-
joice over her downfall. But the citadel of the little
kingdom was the abbey itself, and the leaders of the
garrison there were not disposed to surrender to the
conqueror. The bishop and his train found the gates
locked against them, and when at length the grille slid
back it was only to emit a message of defiance.
Bossuet was not prepared for the strength of the
resistance that confronted him ; to overcome it and
obtain entrance to the monastery he was obliged to
appeal to the Parlement. When he returned, four days
later, the governor and officers of Jouarre accompanied
him with a warrant for the forcing of the doors. But it
was at cost to his dignity that he resorted to the arm of
the law, and every trick and subterfuge that feminine
ingenuity could devise continued to impede him in the
fulfilment of his purpose. It was here that he showed
himself capable of rising above the ordinary weaknesses
of human conduct. There is a letter * of his to the
prioress (Madame de La Croix, the ringleader of the
* Correspondance, vol. iv, No. 517.
Bossuet and the Monasteries 2 4 1
opposition, who had herself broken faith with him on a
matter of importance) which is a masterpiece of wise and
temperate remonstrance. He did not hesitate to use his
disciplinary powers against the rebels ; he suspended
the priests who held office (on one of whom rested a large
share of responsibility for the irregular conditions that
prevailed), and the nuns who refused to give allegiance
to their bishop were denied Communion until they sub-
mitted. Yet in this enforcing of authority there was
nothing provocative. He upheld the prioress in such
matters as did not touch his own relations with her
because she was a ruler legitimately appointed, and in a
series of letters addressed during the year of struggle to
religious within the convent he is unfailing in exhortation
to mutual charity, and to the use of every expedient
calculated to allay the bitterness of unwilling submission.
If he was right in his initial conviction that the privileges
of Jouarre were an abuse his conduct throughout the
negotiations was wholly laudable. He could have
punished the nuns who tricked and defied him, for the
King was ready to command their removal to other
convents, but he never wavered in his desire to impose
order by the kindliest and most conciliatory methods,
and in the end he succeeded. The Abbess Henriette
withdrew from the contest, and her successor, Anne
Marguerite de Rohan, Madame de Soubise, after a brief
struggle in which once more the power of class interest
was pitted against the personal force of the bourgeois
bishop, capitulated. Thus the independence of the
Community at Jouarre, founded on an ill-considered
permission and maintained by a succession of abbesses
whose royal descent secured them from attack, was
finally destroyed.
Having accomplished his purpose Bossuet devoted
infinite care to the regulating of the lives of these noble
ladies. Ten years later we find him visiting the abbey
and investigating details with the minuteness of one
who understands how large a stumbling-block a small
disorder may become to the advance of a religious.*
* Ledieu : Journal, vol. i, p. 277.
Q
242 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
He admonished them as one with real knowledge of their
failure. The nuns of Jouarre had not recovered in ten
years from the laxity inherited from so many generations
of their predecessors, but the chief danger against which
he warned them was the danger familiar to the devout
" his rebuke was specially directed to those who love
Divine Office and are satisfied with assiduity in that when
their conduct is otherwise unworthy."* Such admoni-
tion would be wasted on the indifferent or the self-
sufficient, and its utterance implies that under his guid-
ance Jouarre had changed its character. In fact, the tra-
dition of comfortable indolence formerly prevailing there
had given place to a real endeavour after spiritual life.
Success of so notable a kind must be held to have
justified his interference, but also it strengthened his love
of authority. It cannot be denied that as years went on
the passion for external dominance gained hold on him
increasingly. It was so easy for the assertion of self to
appear to be the assertion of a principle, and so hard for
one to whose opinion all wise men deferred ever to dis-
cover his mistake.
An incident that followed that of Jouarre illustrates
the weakness that shadowed the last decade of a great
career. Another battle of a like nature for episcopal
jurisdiction had been waged against the Benedictine
monks of Rebais, and had been won. The bishop once
again took possession of the territory that had formerly
acknowledged monastic rule, and again, by extending
the scope of his own power, upheld the principle of
Gallicanism. But he was not content with his victory.
The monks had opposed him, and he required of them an
outward token of submission. In spite of their protests
he insisted on being received with full state and cere-
monial and conducted to the altar in their abbey church
itself. He was able to rely on support from the King,
and it was hard to set a limit on the power of the King in
ecclesiastical affairs. Prudence forbade prolonged re-
sistance, and Bossuet, in a letter to Madame d'Albert,t
* Ledieu : Journal, vol. i, p. 282.
f Correspondence, vol. vii, No. 1355.
Bossuet and the Monasteries 243
betrays his enjoyment of the triumph he had coveted.
Yet no benefit accrued from it to anyone, and to his
familiar friends at St. Germain-des-Pres the outrage on
monastic dignity was not acceptable. " I think he
might have spared the Community such a humiliation,"
wrote Mabillon, " and I told him so. But he was very
eager for it."*
His eagerness for the complete attainment of his
purpose never failed him while he lived, and it helped
him to support the enormous burden of his life-work.
There were occasions, nevertheless, when such eagerness
combined with obstinacy to lure him on into actions
that are no addition to his glory.
* A Dom Estiennot, 7 avril, 1696 (Revue Bossuet (1903), p. 37).
Chapter XVIII. Bossuet the Historian
X TTTHEN he entered on the new conditions involved
\ \ / by his appointment to his bishopric Bossuet was
VV already a prominent figure. He had proved his
power as a preacher, as a courtier, and as a politician
and in each of these several fields had won celebrity.
Yet the real purpose of his life the purpose that inspired
him in his years of insignificance and in each stage of
experience until his death was not fully represented
in any of these avocations. Before all else he was a
controversialist, and to understand the place in his life
that was held by controversy it is necessary to stand
beside him and see the world as it appeared to him.
For in the intervening centuries the division of Christen-
dom has become stereotyped, while to him it was an
innovation, and he refused to allow that any division
could be permanent. The Church was the Body of
Christ, and the Christian had no life outside the Body,
therefore once again the Church must be made synony-
mous with Christendom : that was his aim, and he never
admitted that it was a hopeless one.
It is not easy in following the outward life of Bossuet
to realize the degree in which his mind, his thoughts
and schemes and desires, were dominated by his Faith.
Indeed, in his ambitions and his worldliness and his
majestic self-assertion, the individual Jacques Be*nigne
Bossuet is merged in the champion of the Church :
his failings as well as his virtues were interwoven in his
relation to that office it was thus that he saw himself,
and it was thus that he imposed himself upon the view
of others. Moreover, it was from the standpoint of the
champion of the Church that he regarded the work of
Martin Luther, and he had been born into the world too
late to understand the cause of Luther's domination over
the minds of men. The evidence of history would seem
to prove that in France there was fervour and enthusiasm
awaiting the coming of Reform. The Gallic tempera-
ment is peculiarly susceptible to religious reaction, and
in the early sixteenth century worship had become
formalism ; the lives of the priests were not examples
Bos suet the Historian 245
of good living, and where the religious instinct existed it
remained unsatisfied. The sensational challenge of the
Reformation kindled the finer spirits to new vitality ; it
realized for them a dream which had hazy outline in their
brain, and we find the conduct of the first Huguenots
touching that high level of purity and strictness to which
so many Catholics attained a century later.*
If Bossuet had lived among those first Reformers he
must have realized the supernatural force of that great
tide which swept over so large a part of Europe. Re-
garding it in retrospect he had eyes only for the devasta-
tion it had wrought, and could find no clue to the mental
attitude of those who appeared to rejoice in their own
downfall. He was too near to it for critical detachment
and too far removed to have known its power by ex-
perience. Thus it came to pass that understanding
failed him and all his life was spent pursuing a mirage.
He believed, with simple and complete sincerity, that re-
union might be accomplished on so great a scale that the
number of schismatics left in Christian countries would
be negligible.
Controversy often becomes confounded with a display
of skill in dialectic, and the attack and defence of theo-
logians assumes many of the characteristics of a match
between swordsmen fought for the credit of success.
But no shallow motive tarnished Bossuet's ardour.
" Here is a prelate who never writes for the sake of
writing," said Bayle ;f and it says much for the acumen
of that critical free-lance that he was able to seize on the
distinctive trait in the writings of so prolific a contro-
versialist. In fact, as we follow him closely we find
Bossuet, with a fine disregard of the carnage for which
religious disagreement had been responsible, more and
more concentrated on a protest, that was passionate in its
intensity, against the supine negligence of the past genera-
tion and the perverse obstinacy of his own, which had
* See Antin : Ufichec de la Rtforme en France au XVI Siecle,
p. 231, etc.
f Bayle, P.: Nouveltes Lettres Critiques (Amsterdam, 1715), vol. i,
p. 72.
246 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
permitted the blight of schism to settle upon Christian
Europe and had acquiesced in the greatest evil con-
ceivable by the mind of man.
His own mission was to convince his misguided
brethren of their errors, and with this object he began
his " History of the Variations of the Protestant Re-
ligion."* The book was to demonstrate the incon-
veniences of a system of belief that remained continually
fluid and did not recognize authority ; it was to be one
of the weapons used in a great polemical campaign f
organized by the leading thinkers of the day (among
whom must be included Antoine Arnauld and other
notable Port Royalists). The writing of it was inter-
rupted by a succession of other claims, and with each
delay its scope and purpose seem to have been widened,
until from a laborious task it was transformed into a
cherished occupation for which days or hours were
snatched from other toil. It was as his share in the
great offensive against the Protestants, and not on his
own initiative, that Bossuet undertook his History, but
once he had embarked on it he followed a method of his
own. The appeal to imagination, which was a leading
object to so many of his predecessors,^ had no part in his
scheme ; nor did his genius uplift him above detail
every page is studded thickly with references, a custom
then almost unknown even to students. And in his
hands a subject with infinite capacity for abstract dreari-
ness assumes absorbing interest. Himself a thinker,
these thinkers of whom he wrote took living form as he
mused upon them. They were his adversaries, yet they
passed their days in the same endeavour as engrossed
his own : their chief desire had been to seize and chain
the minds of other men. He describes the battle-
* For learned and luminous study thereon see Re'belliau, A. : Bossuet
Historien du Protestantisme (1891), chief source of the substance of this
chapter.
t Rebelliau: op. a'/., p. 91, and Picaret : Lfs Dernieres Annies de
Turenne, pp. 225, 226.
$ See especially de Thou and Eudes de Me"zerey.
See Madame de SeVigne" : Lettres, vol. ii, No. 1 1 8 1 . " Ah, le Beau
jivre A mon gre" ! " Cf. Arnauld, A. : Lettres, vol. vi, p. 161.
Bossuet the Historian 247
fields of bygone controversy with vivid touches of which
only a fighter would be capable, and the wearisome com-
plications of opinion become subservient to the human
interest excited by the combatants. Work like this is
not the fruit of study only ; sharp experience, such as
falls inevitably to vigorous natures struggling in the
world, was needed to produce it. Twenty years spent
in Paris and at Court had brought him into intimacy
with an immense variety of characters ; he had watched
the rivalry of persons and of factions, and tested the un-
certain quality of human conduct. For one whose eyes
could penetrate beneath the surface, the proceedings
of the Clerical Assembly had been full of the raw material
of drama. Bossuet said of himself that he could learn
from all things and was always learning * his work up-
holds his statement. The immensity of his intellectual
power delivered him from the feverish doubts, the vain
pursuit of an ideal, which haunt the days and nights of the
literary craftsman. The knowledge that he had once
acquired did not elude him : he could range the fruits of
experience and study in the storehouse of his brain, and
hold them there ready for use when the occasion came.
In his old age, broken by suffering and weakness, the
habit of his life was still so strong that, at the mention
of any subject he had made his own, he could recall
the authorities to be consulted and direct his wondering
assistants in their search for the desired passage.f But
if with good reason his confidence was greater, his labour
was not less than that of other students. In this, also,
he turned experience to profit. It was controversy that
had claimed his literary skill originally, and controversy
had taught him the worth of accuracy. The contro-
versialist is forced to keep before him the recollection
of the antagonist who lies in wait to seize on every error,
and no practice could be more salutary for an historian
than to visualize a learned and malignant critic to whose
scrutiny his statements and deductions must be exposed.
Bossuet worked ceaselessly. His bodily health was
* (Euvres, vol. xx : Relation sur la Quie'tisme, section v, par. 8.
f Ledieu : MJmoires, p. 268.
248 'Jacques Benign e Bossuet
good, his brain never played him false, he could com-
mand sleep, and he used this power to secure hours of
uninterrupted study ; rising in the night, he could ac-
complish the task he set himself and go back to bed
secure of rest. The lamp in his window was a familiar
sight to the citizens of Meaux,* but that city was not
a seat of learning, and it is improbable that any of his
flock were inspired to emulate his diligence. It was not
as a thinker and a writer that they knew him, but as
administrator and man of action, and this dual existence
explains the necessity of his night watches. When old
age threatened to impose idleness upon him he confessed
that he was ill-prepared for its endurance because he had
always neglected the practice of ordinary recreation. f
The prospect facing him may have been tragic, but
against the unusual form of improvidence for which
he blamed himself he could have set the record of his
published work, and so been justified. And yet the
writings published in his lifetime were but a fraction of
his actual accomplishment. " No man was ever more
exempt from the desire to see himself in print " his
secretary declared " we have heard him say a hundred
times that he could not conceive how persons of intelli-
gence could write with the sole object of producing a
It was in the spirit of this saying that he approached
the writing of his History, and in criticism of it this should
be kept in mind, for it is plain that his strong sense of
literary form was made subservient to the immediate
object of his labour. The passion of an historian was
allowed scope when it concentrated on the quest of truth,
but he was heedless of balance and perspective in so far
as the claim for them was that of art. In fact he wrote
solely to convince ; his reputation as a writer had no
place in his calculations, and if the artist in him is never
more evident than in this book it is only because he was,
when he wrote it, at the prime of his intellectual power,
and genius need not wait upon intention.
* Faug^re : Ecrits Intdits de Saint-Simon, vol. ii, p. 484.
f Ledieu : MSmoires, p. 266. Ibid. t p. 153.
Bos suet the Historian 249
In 1688, when the History appeared, the Jansenists,
after a truce of nearly twenty years, were once again the
object of popular attack, and consequently were dis-
credited as defenders of the Faith. Catholicism in France,
though it had the support of secular authority, was so
ill-provided with intellectual champions that Bossuet
stood alone. He intended that his book should be
unanswerable, and may perhaps have dreamed of it as
so revealing of the truth that the fortress of heresy must
fall before it.* Certainly his satisfaction in it was in-
dependent of any positive result. We find him, four
years after its appearance, writing to Leibniz that if
the new book on the German Reformation by M.
Seckendorf is accurate it must be in agreement with
the " History of Variations. "f And turning to it again
after a further interval of ten years he observed
that he had included in it all that there was to say on
the Protestant question.^: The book gains in interest
from his comments on it, but it would bear the stamp of
his personality even if it had remained anonymous.
The preface strikes that note of appeal which was latent
in all his earlier controversial writing. " My chief
fear," he says quaintly, "is to make the futility of
their reform too clear to our brothers. There are some
among them who will be roused to fury rather than to
reflection by so clear a demonstration of their errors ;
although in very truth I do not regard them as responsible
for the condition into which they were born, and my
commiseration is far greater than my blame. And how
many of them will tell me that I have thrown away my
character for moderation by confusing religious dispute
and personal attack 1 But assuredly they will be wrong.
If it comes to pass that through this record of it Reform
should become hateful, men of goodwill must own that
that result is due to facts speaking for themselves, and
* Gibbon, the historian, attributes his conversion to Roman
Catholicism to this work and the Exposition. See his Miscellaneous
Works (1837), pp. 28, 29.
f Correspondance, vol. v, No. 680.
\ Ledieu : Journal, vol. i, p. 213. (Euvrfs, vol. xiv, p. 14.
250 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
not to me. And if they should discover that the actual
conduct of those founders who are held up to us as
marvellous beings sent into the world in the sixteenth
century to recreate Christianity was in direct contra-
diction to their profession, the Protestants will learn from
this passage of history not to dishonour God by attribut-
ing to Him a choice of agents which was so evidently
ill-judged. All their disputes, their contradictions, and
their falsehoods bear witness to the Catholic Faith.
From behind all the contentions and complications of
this new Reform, Catholic truth will break forth as the
sun pierces a bank of cloud, and this treatise, if I can
carry it out as God suggests it to me, will prove the
justice of our cause."
With this preamble Bossuet flung himself upon his
subject. The figure of Luther loomed largest before
his mental vision, and the place assigned to Luther is
out of all proportion to that allotted to any of his partners
in revolt. And the book is the worse for the writer's
self-indulgence in this matter. No other character in
history can have engrossed his attention in like degree,
and the astonishment which it evoked in him was in-
exhaustible. Of the sixteen chapters of the History
six are chiefly devoted to Luther, and he makes continual
appearance in many of the others, yet there were many
obstacles, besides religious antagonism, to any true
understanding of him by Bossuet. Most evident among
them was the great scholar's ignorance of all modern
languages except his own. By this he was denied access
to the familiar correspondence which is the source of so
much precious information to a biographer, and also
to any contemporary work concerning the leader of
Reform, for at that date nothing on the subject had ap-
peared in French.* It was very well for him to declare
that he used no material which could be called in question
by those whom he was seeking to convince ; in fact
omissions are hardly less deceptive than misstatements,
and his knowledge of his subject cannot be regarded as
comprehensive.
* See Rdbelliau : op. cit., p. 420.
Bossuet the Historian 251
Behind the ignorance of language, moreover, lay a far
more serious hindrance to understanding. Luther was
essentially a German, stamped with the fine, and also
with some of the ugly, qualities characteristic of his race.
Bossuet, French in every fibre yet striving to be fair,
appreciates his strength, his pertinacity, his power as a
leader, even his effort after honesty, but is puzzled and
revolted by his fierce love of tyranny, his violence and
coarseness. The mysterious fascination which this one
personality held for him disturbed his sense of proportion,
to the detriment of his book as literature but to its ad-
vantage as a human document. Certainly the History
was not designed as a medium for spiritual self-revelation,
yet if, in reading it, we have in view another work of his
containing intimate self-expression, the Commentary
on St. John's Epistle known as Le Traite de la Con-
cupiscence his remarkable concentration on the character
of Luther becomes more intelligible. In his opinion
Luther had wrought more evil in the world than any other
individual human being, and yet the inalienable justice
of his judgment compelled him to acknowledge that
Luther himself was not an incarnation of evil, and that
his moral qualities had borne their share in his achieve-
ment of success. And when, as he wrote his meditation on
the warning of St. John, he sought examples of captives of
" thejpride of life " it is permissible to guess that the
two most prominent in his mind were Luther and him-
self. He traced the gradual deterioration of the great
Reformer, and saw in it the miserable results of that
temptation which he knew to be his own.
In his Treatise he denounces self-indulgence and all
sensual vices forcibly enough, but it is plain when he
passes on to the other dominion of self-love that in the
earlier passages he is merely theorizing ; it is not with
the lust of the flesh or the lust of the eyes that he is
seriously concerned he is moved only by his consideration
of " the pride of life." When that point is reached all
the accumulated discoveries of those hours of solitude
and leisure wherein he had faced himself surged up
within his brain, and he set forth the naked truth he
252 'Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
knew. His verdict upon Luther was that he had made
himself the slave of pride : " the pride that becomes self-
worship and claims universal homage "* the pride of
Lucifer ; but he acknowledged that Luther had begun
with the sincere profession of a real humility not less
convincing than that which fell so frequently from his
own lips. This concession was disquieting, but it
sharpened his interest with regard to Luther and sent
him back to his dissection of the sin of spiritual pride
as to a subject that had intimate and personal importance.
That humility itself may minister to pride and a man
be vain of being humble f is one of the subtleties of self-
knowledge which the world regards as puerile ; but
Bossuet, probing for the root of the disease, is forgetful
of any man's opinion ; with the fate of Luther engrossing
his imagination he is relentless in bringing into light the
smallest symptom that may serve as warning to those
who may be stricken with the malady. The temptations
that beset the virtuous, the intellectual, the souls whose
lives are dedicated to the service of God and of their
fellow men it is these which he groups together as " the
pride of life," it is before these that in his hours of re-
flection he himself trembled, and it is to these that he
attributed the downward course of Luther which his
" History of Protestantism " traces with such elabora-
tion.
It is not to Luther only, however, that he devotes
attention. Scattered throughout the book are vivid
scenes that seem to show us for an instant the world of
the sixteenth century, grim, grotesque, and sometimes
infinitely humorous. Melancthon, Calvin, Erasmus,
and a host of others take momentary reality as Bossuet,
after years of mental association with them, throws them
upon his canvas. The gulf of time he had to bridge
was not a wide one, but for him, the bias of his mind
being so opposed to the mentality of the first generation
of Protestants and of those who regarded them with
toleration, it was a greater feat to place himself beside
* CEuvres, vol. vii : De la Concupiscence, ch. xvi.
f lbid, t ch. xxii and xxiii.
Bossuet the Historian 253
them and grasp the significance of their thoughts and
deeds, than it would be for a twentieth century historian.
The sense of antagonism dwindled when the Protestants
in question were Protestants by inheritance ; many of
these commanded his respect, and he desired to win them
rather than to force them back into agreement. With
this end in view he had striven to understand their
reasoning, and his book was enriched by that generous
endeavour. His confidence that a vivid picture of the
difficulties and inconsistencies inseparable from heresy
would win back multitudes to the safety of the Faith was
not justified, however. The effect of his book did not
accord with his design ; nevertheless it was infinitely
effective, for it revealed the Protestants to themselves
in an aspect which they had not realized,* and from the
revelation they evolved a solution of many doubts and
inconveniences that had long troubled them. He had
demonstrated that this vast new society, which divided
Europe and reduced to chaos the most time-honoured
political traditions, was itself devoid of any settled system ;
that it was swayed this way and that by the contests of its
leaders and was completely lacking in any foundations
that gave promise of stability. He did not expect his
opponents to accept his thesis without protest, and in
fact it provoked a storm of contradiction and counter-
attack. When that had subsided the preachers of Re-
form began to modify their claim to fixity of doctrine,
and to embrace the view that their mission was a search
for truth whose developments were likely to involve a
further series of just such variations as those that Bossuet
condemned.f
We have seen that he was satisfied with his work,
that he judged it to fulfil his intention for it, and to be,
in fact, " the last word on the Protestant controversy,"
and he did not concern himself with its bearing on his
literary reputation. In the present day, however, it
is to the literary critic that the book is of such vivid
interest, for it demonstrates the intrepidity of the
* Rebelliau : op. cit. t p. 576.
t Cf. Bayle: op. '/., vol. i, p. 75.
254 'Jacques Benigne Bossuet
writer's genius. He was treating a vast and complicated
subject, and many employments occupied and inter-
rupted him, but he was never content to accept tradition ;
he made his own discoveries and formed his own con-
clusions. His study of Melancthon,* for instance, is
intricate, and when, after close attention, his real verdict
on that tragic figure has been disentangled, it is not in
accord with the prevalent opinion of his day, and won
corroboration only from later generations. Again, he
devoted as much research to his survey of the early
revolt of the Albigenses and of the Waldensians f as
though these had been his central theme, and the result
is so full of unfamiliar names, and of allusions to so many
by-ways of heresy, that it is not easy reading. But
having plunged into an abstruse and complicated subject
it is characteristic of Bossuet that he should go further
in his search for knowledge than any other explorer.
Catholic and Protestant alike accepted that the belief of
Albigenses and Waldensians was almost identical.
Bossuet insisted on the wide divergence between them.
He failed to convince his contemporaries, but after a lapse
of two centuries his conclusions have been endorsed by
competent historians.
These instances suffice to show that his deliberate
excursion into the domain of history was an important
event in his life. Neither in the books written for the
Dauphin nor in his controversial work had there been
full scope for his powers. When he allowed himself to
develop the scheme of his " History of Protestantism "
it was with no intention of providing an outlet for self-
expression, yet the genius of the historian was latent
within him, and if the exercise of unbending resolution
had resulted in its permanent repression, not only would
his powers have missed their full fruition, but the world
would have been poorer by a masterpiece. Probably
such a thwarting of intellectual instinct was not possible.
We have seen that outward events were by no means
propitious for a work of research. Between 1681 and
1688, in addition to external activities in many directions,
* Book v. f Book xi.
Bossuet the Historian 255
Bossuet's literary production was considerable ;* he
published the two volumes concerning his Conference
with Claude, also his celebrated Catechism written for
his diocese, and his Treatise on Communion in both
kinds. Four of his Oraisons Funebres, with all that they
entailed of labour, came within these dates, and until
1685 he was engaged on his " Defence of the Declara-
tion."
It is obvious that the insistence of an overmastering
impulse was needed to produce a great work of discovery
founded on research against such a throng of hindrances,
and there are some indications that Bossuet's regard for
his History was of a different order from that with which
any of his other productions had inspired him. Ordi-
narily when one piece of work was accomplished he
seems to have passed on swiftly to the next, sparing no
time for backward glances. But he had convinced
himself that if any reason was left among Protestants
they must acknowledge themselves vanquished after so
clear an exposure of their errors, and he awaited their
capitulation eagerly. In fact, the Minister Jurieu,
most truculent of pamphleteers, took up the cudgels,
and a battle, destined to become violently personal on
both sides, began. It raged for three years, and, if it
did not advance tjie prospect of ultimate reunion, it gave
opportunity to Bossuet to repair any omissions that re-
vealed themselves in his original work after it had left
his hands.f By the end of that period other interests
had absorbed him and he figured no more as an historian.
* See Appendix v.
f See Crousl : Bossuet et le Protestantisme, p. 143.
Chapter XIX. The Tokrance of Bossuet
IT was in 1688 that the great history made its appear-
ance, and by that date the last semblance of religious
toleration in France had ceased. In October 1685
Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes and set the final
seal on a long course of persecutions.* At the beginning
of that year a petition of protest, drawn up by the
Minister Claude, had been forwarded to Versailles
setting forth the injustice under which the Huguenots
were suffering. The methods in vogue for dealing with
heresy were extremely simple. The door to reconcilia-
tion with the Church at all times and in all places was
held open, and here and there a priest devoted his elo-
quence and learning to the allurement of the stubborn
and the persuasion of the wavering. This was the
aspect of the Huguenot situation on which the charitable
could dwell contentedly. There was, however, a further
detail that was not pressed upon the public notice.
The provision for the royal armies was a severe tax upon
the revenue, and the Minister of War received authority
to quarter his troops upon those subjects of his Most
Catholic Majesty who were not Catholics. No penalty
exacted by the law had greater horror than the ordeal
to which the Huguenot households were exposed,t and
the appearance of Louvois' soldiery had been known to
convert the entire population of a Protestant town. The
statistics of conversion were calculated to give great
satisfaction to the faithful, but to Claude,^ and to those
who shared his inalienable conviction, the most savage
form of open persecution was preferable to the infamy
of this counterfeit of toleration. And within a few months
of his protest the pretence of toleration ceased.
The new ordinance was described by Bossuet as
" the pious edict which was to give the death-blow to
heresy." In fact, it suppressed all schools and places of
worship used by the Reformers, exiled all ministers who
* See Limiers : Hist, du Regne de Louis XIV, vol. v, liv. ii.
t See Douen : La Revocation de l'dit de Nantes, intro.
\ His protest Sur lei Lettres Circu/aires de I' Assemble, etc. (1683),
convicts the bishops of hypocrisy.
Orations Funebres : Michel Le Tellier.
The Tolerance of Bossuet 257
persisted in their errors, provided for the baptism of all
children by Catholic priests, and forbade Huguenots
on pain of condemnation to the galleys to attempt to
leave the country. The rejoicings of Bossuet over the
Revocation Edict are not consistent with other expressions
of his opinion, yet his real abhorrence of heresy must be
remembered. The promulgation of the Edict was
followed, as it had been preceded, by persecution, and
he was the enemy of all violence, but the Protestant
system of worship appeared to him as evil in itself and a
fruitful source of evil, and he had no regret at its pro-
hibition. Moreover, his confidence in the real ad-
vantage accruing to those who renounced their errors
and embraced the true Faith was so great that it was easy,
in a moment of enthusiasm, to banish reflection on the
hollowness of compulsory conversion. It was absolutely
necessary that France should be cleansed from the taint
that had sullied her for more than a century. Protestant-
ism was at the root of most evils ; "it was synonymous
with the rejection of all authority in Church and State,
of all social order, even of morality. It meant that man
with all his unbridled impulses put himself in the place
of God."* Such was his description of opinions with
which he did not agree, and it would have been echoed
by many of the worthiest and most charitable of his con-
temporaries. The age in which he lived was one that
had no sympathy for the spirit of tolerance, and Bossuet
was not likely to become imbued with a sentiment that
would have cancelled the chief incentive to his contro-
versial labours. In principle, then, it must be conceded
that he approved the policy which appears so criminal
to modern judgment, while in practice he was reluctant
to enforce it.
Once, when his conduct towards the Quietist offenders
was called in question, he wrote of himself : "I am
always what I have always been, as tender over in-
dividuals as I am severe over doctrine. "f That phrase
is the keynote of his conduct towards the Huguenots.
* (Euvres, vol. xv : Cinquieme Avsrtissement contre Jurieu.
t Correspondance, vol. viii, No. 1557.
R
258 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
Their opinions roused him to the fiercest denunciation ;
when suffering threatened them as individuals, however,
he remembered that they were men and women. There
is conclusive evidence of his compassionate regard for
them, of his endeavours, as persevering as they were
futile, to enter into their opinions and reason with them
without prejudice. One of the Huguenot ministers,
writing to Huet after the publication of the " Universal
History," observed that its author was well known for
his moderation and recognized as a man of good feeling,
as well as a wise man.* In days of fierce sectarian
animosity that is a significant tribute from an adversary.
The condition of the Huguenots in the diocese of Meaux
may fairly be regarded as a little less grievous than that of
their co-religionists elsewhere. Cosnac, Bishop of
Valence, notes in his diary that the methods of the
dragoons were far more efficacious in hastening con-
version than any arguments of his ; that when two
hundred Huguenots had been burned in a barn where
they were assembled for their illegal form of worship
the remainder became amenable to Catholic influence.f
Grim anecdotes of a like nature abound in the records of
those days, but in Meaux there was a reasonable attempt
to temper injustice with mercy4 The town itself had
been one of the nurseries of Calvinism and Lizy, within
the diocese, was the scene of the last National Protestant
Synod held in France. If Bossuet had left the law to
take its course, and accepted the numerical result of the
work of the King's officers in the matter of conversion,
he would have incurred no blame and saved much time
and energy for other purposes. Questions of faith lay far
too near his heart, however, for such a course to be accept-
able ; he might regard religious division as a danger to
the State, but the ardour of his desire to reconcile Pro-
testants with the Church sprang from the love of souls.
* See Revue Bossuet (January 1901).
t Cosnac : Mdmoires, vol. ii, p. 116.
\ The difficulties of the problem as Bossuet saw it are indicated in his
Report of 1698. See Lemoine : MSmoires des tfvfyues de France, p. 15.
Druon : Bossuet A Meaux, p. 76.
The Tolerance of Bossuet 259
" It is for us to distribute the merciful gifts of God ;
we are not agents of His vengeance. We must use
infinite caution, and the harshness that may be em-
ployed in the King's name is only an additional reason
that we should be invariable in gentleness " this was
the bishop's charge to his clergy at the Synod after the
Edict of Revocation,* and he recommended that there
should be no insistence on non-essentials, such as the
use of holy water or of the pain benit. A further warn-
ing is concerned with the risks attendant on over-hasty
conversion. These soon caused him grave disquiet. t
The law of the Church compelled every Catholic to
receive the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar every year,
and the law of the State required that every subject
should be a Catholic. No honest mind could doubt
that sacrilege must spring from the conjunction of the
two decrees.
Bossuet was an acknowledged master in controversy,
but it may be questioned whether his past experience
was of much assistance in the task that these new con-
ditions laid upon him. There is clear evidence that he
tried to win the people by kindliness ; he surprised
an unlawful gathering of Protestants on one occasion,
but he used the opportunity for persuasion rather than
for rebuke. He visited them in their own homes and
showed himself to be their friend when they needed
practical advice. He held conferences, and was ready
to reason and plead with all who came, and he exerted
his eloquence in the pulpit of his cathedral that he
might win the hearts and minds of all his people. One
of his auditors tells how he would preach for over an
hour to a packed congregation numbering four thousand
" truly he did not spare himself in the service of these
people." He told them the meaning of ordinary
practices and their antiquity, and also of the love of God,
* Reaume : Vie de Bossuet, vol. ii, p. 275 ; and Revue Bossuet (October
1904).
t His later opinion on results of coercion are given in letter to P. de
La Broue, June 1698. Correspondance, vol. ix, No. 1712.
$ Ledieu : Me" moires, p. 188.
260 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
and of the interior life of which these outward practices
were the symbols : " His preaching was so easy that
we could have listened all day without growing
weary."*
His methods were not regarded favourably by those
who enforced the King's decree. " Nothing can be done
in the diocese of Meaux ; the weakness of the bishop
is a hindrance to conversion "f such was the verdict
of the Intendant at Soissons, and it is supported by the
bishop's secretary, Ledieu, the most intimate of eye-
witnesses. ' There were some who returned to the
Church of their own free will, but by far the greater
number remained obdurate.":):
If Bossuet was conscious of the discontent his clemency
provoked it did not move him. His Pastoral in 1686
was addressed chiefly to the Protestants and the newly-
converted among his flock, and he was able to declare
that not one among them could complain of ill-treatment
either to his person or to his goods. At that time he
was still confident that the fulfilment of his hopes could
not be long delayed and real peace and unity on religious
questions would prevail throughout his diocese. He
recognized that conversion was more thorough when it
developed slowly, and was content to wait until the
wavering had laid their doubts to rest. Those who came
to make submission were welcomed tenderly. A de-
scription of one of his days at Meaux shows the degree
to which he made himself accessible despite the many
claims upon his time. " In the morning there came a
nobleman, dwelling in Saintonge, who abjured his
Protestant errors in the chapel and remained to dine.
In the afternoon certain peasants appeared at the palace
door and asked to see the bishop. ' We have no longer
any doubts ' they told him ' we are sure that it is
* Recueil de Sieur Rochard, Chirurgien du Rot dam la ville de Meaux
(Rdaume) : op. cit., vol. ii, appendix 8.
t Quoted Gazier : Louis XIV et Bossuet, p. no.
4 Me" moires, p. 191.
A statement challenged in pamphlets by Basnage and by Bishop
Burnet.
The Tolerance of Bossuet 261
better to be Catholic, and we wish you to convert us.
But we will not obey the Pope.' To which Bossuet
replied : ' The King himself obeys him. And I obey
him.' And with that they were satisfied and abjured
their errors." * The sketch, so roughly outlined, is
characteristic of Bossuet. When the occasion called
for it he assumed, very readily, all the dignity that his
ecclesiastical position warranted, but he could meet the
simple with simplicity. A smaller man, if he had
condescended to speak at all with labouring folk, would
have met their repudiation of the Pope with pained sur-
prise and administered a suitable rebuke. Bossuet had
made it his endeavour to smooth the way of return for
every type of wanderer the ignorant as well as the
intellectual and he gave them the answer that made
submission easy.
There was another side to the picture, however.
Time passed, and it became clear that those who were
Huguenot at heart were not changed in nature by being
Catholic in name. The King's officers did not consult
the bishop before using their authority. There was a
painful scene when a certain couple of gentle birth, Seguier
la Charmoix and his wife, were brought to the episcopal
palace that wise persuasion might turn them from their
errors. The wife, who had been removed from her home
to a religious Community in the town till she should be
converted, screamed continuously ; the husband, who
resented their separation, was more ready to urge his
own complaints than to listen to theological argument,
and between the two the time and patience of their host
were wasted.
And there was wider testimony yet to the existence
of this spirit of rebellion. The Huguenots, among
whom the newly-converted were probably included,
assembled at Nanteuil. They were surprised by a
company of dragoons and a large number of them
arrested and condemned to death. This was in 1688,
more than two years after the Edict of Revocation, and
it was calamitous that the incident should have taken
* Sieur Rochard : of. cit.
262 'Jacques Benigne Bossuet
place within the diocese of Meaux. The opponents of
Bossuet pointed to the offence as proof of the failure
of that policy of mercy which he advocated, while the
punishment of the offenders was an official repudiation
of the policy itself. Directly the tidings reached him he
hastened to Versailles, and the news of his successful
intercession with the King was speedily made known
throughout the diocese. His errand of mercy is com-
memorated in many records of his personal dealings with
the Protestants as if its result had been completely happy.
" Nevertheless " says the contemporary chronicle
" they were condemned some to the galleys, some
to perpetual imprisonment, and some to be branded
with the fleur-de-lis"* The postscript is noteworthy
as showing the strict limit on his influence in checking
persecution.
In fact the mental position of Bossuet was at variance
with every principle of consistency, and the Intendant
who charged him with weakness did him no wrong.
He was the intimate friend of the Chancellor Le Tellier,
who had drawn up the Revocation Edict, and he was
consulted by the King in all that concerned the Church ;
this must convict him of conniving at the plan for the
forcible repression of heresy besides acclaiming it when
it took the form of a decree. Nor can there be any
doubt of his theoretical agreement with the King and
the Court and the Parlement that the existence of a
heretic was an offence to the Church and a danger to the
State. The logical sequence to that theory was the
extermination of the heretic. The rest of the Catholic
world accepted this conclusion cheerfully, and were un-
dismayed by the grisly tidings of events in Huguenot
districts that sometimes reached the capital. But with
Bossuet the case was different. The capacity for self-
deception, the penalty of his artist nature, helped him
to see a potential Catholic in every Huguenot. He be-
lieved that they were led astray by false guides and their
prejudices were founded on misrepresentation. On that
premiss the banishment of their pastors and the ruin
* Si fur Rochard: op. cit.
The Tolerance of Bossuet 263
of their conventicles became such an act of mercy as
might be the closing of a poisoned well.*
Thus he allowed his vision of reunion to divert his
gaze from actualities. The same instinct which had
guided his pen when he wrote his statement of the
Catholic Faith twenty years earlier prompted him to
contravene the King's orders for the suppression of
heresy. In the one case he had persuaded himself that
the King's real intention toward his subjects was merciful,
and therefore he obstructed the cruelties ensuing on a
cruel law. In the other he was equally persuaded that
there was nothing in the teaching of the Catholic Church
that could be unacceptable to honest minds, and, seen
in that light, the softening of such points as might offend
became a charitable expedient to win the prejudiced.
He was completely true to himself and his own vision,
and if he had carried public opinion with him his policy
might have furthered the purpose that absorbed him.
He was alone in it, however, and in a generation
dominated by the fiercest sectarianism a time came when
his simplicity provoked distrust. The Protestants were
suspicious of a trap when the door was thrown so widely
open, and in England, where the protest against Rome
had assumed a character wholly different from that of
the Calvinists and Lutherans, he was regarded as a very
dangerous enemy.
The Exposition had been translated into English f
in 1672 and circulated widely. Court influence swayed
towards Rome, and the little volume was peculiarly
adapted for cases where there was no fierce prejudice
to be overcome. It is said to have produced a large
number of conversions, and there is abundant evidence
of the fierce antagonism towards Bossuet himself that it
aroused among Anglican divines. It is to be regretted
that Bossuet was debarred, by his ignorance of the
* Bossuet did not escape the charge of hypocrisy as well as cruelty.
Frotte is particularly violent in accusation. See Some particular motives
of the Conversion of P. F. (1691), and Spanheim : Relation de la Cour de
France, p. 449.
f By Walter Montagu, son of the first Earl of Manchester.
264 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
English language, from any real comprehension of
English thought. He had several English correspon-
dents, and was held responsible for the conversion to
the Roman Faith of two Scottish noblemen Lord
Perth * and Lord Lovat. These were all, however,
adherents of James II, and their conversation was not
likely to correct his prejudices regarding English politics.
He was profoundly interested in the English people,
but his ignorance of them was invincible, and his inter-
course with those of them who differed from him in
opinion was embittered at the outset by a misunder-
standing. His relation with the little band of eager
Churchmen who upheld the Faith in England in those
dangerous times might otherwise have been characterized
by the same friendliness as had distinguished his inter-
course with Paul Ferry. This condition was rendered
impossible by an accusation of double-dealing levelled at
the Exposition by William Wake, afterwards Archbishop
of Canterbury .f The charge, although inaccurate, was
not unfounded. It was the disposition to temporize
which laid him open to it. We have seen that even
as he refused to face the inevitable result of a law to
compel conversion so had he striven to veil the real
divergence between the faith of Catholic and Protestant.
In his great longing for reunion he was persuaded that
if he could allay the fears and prejudices prevailing among
the great mass of heretics the hideous and terrible
form in which the ministers were wont to represent
Popery in the pulpits and so draw them within the
fold, the Grace of God and the glory of the Faith itself
would complete the work that he had been permitted to
begin. Even in its accepted form it was questionable
whether his Exposition gave a true and comprehensive
statement of the doctrine of the Church, Catholic and
* Correspondance, letters 359, 487, 490, 907, 1291, 1304, 1410,
1485, 1952. Bossuet had an interview with Lord Lovat at the sug-
gestion of Mabillon. See Revue Bossuet (July 1904).
t See Preface Exposition of Doctrine of the Church of England (1686);
also, same year, Defence of Doctrine^ etc.
\ CEuvres, vol. xiii, p. 16.
See Protest of Abbe" Imbert, quoted by Wake; Defence, etc., p. 121.
The Tolerance of Bossuet 265
Roman, but in his early notes of it the points that he
knew to be of special difficulty to Protestants were
omitted or unduly softened. This early manuscript*
was circulated, and eventually printed, without the
knowledge of its author. It differed materially from the
authorized version, and the discovery of its existence was
hailed with special delight by the Anglicans. The
original pamphlet had been, according to the Reformers,
the statement of the Faith which Bossuet had intended to
present to the world, and its publication was stopped by
authority because " the too great desire of palliating had
absolutely perverted the doctrine of their Church. "j"
As one of his great arguments against Reform was the
variable nature of the Faith that it produced, as opposed
to the fixity of that of Rome, it was possible to make
considerable capital out of the divergencies between his
several statements of Catholic dogma.
Wake used his material adroitly, and refused to accept
Bossuet's contradiction regarding the printing of his
early notes (polemical offensiveness in those days was
carried to a point which now appears incredible), and
he struck just at the moment when the persecution of the
Huguenots in France complicated the question in its
spiritual and intellectual aspect. He was a more dan-
gerous adversary than he appeared in the eyes of the
great Frenchman. In that year, 1686, the " History of
Protestant Variations " was very near completion, and its
author's view of the Anglican Church (based on Bishop
Burnet's " History of the Reformation ") is set forth therein
with great distinctness. In his eyes, indeed, the Angli-
can Church was not a Church at all, nor did he differ-
entiate between the English Reformers and the great
mass of Calvinists and Lutherans. In his Oraison
Funebre for Queen Henriette the moral condition of
her former subjects is painted in lurid colours, and,
ever after their betrayal by Henry VIII, he appears to
regard them as the prey of licence and impiety. A year
later, before the mourning Court at St. Denis, his capacity
* Known as V Edition Jes Amis, See (Euvres, vol. xiii, pp. iv, v, 30.
f Wake : Exposition of Doctrine, etc.
266 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
for magnificent exaggeration reached its zenith when he
declared that the Almighty had decreed the English
Revolution in order that Henrietta of England might be
restored to the Church. ' The law of the State was the
obstacle to her salvation ; therefore, God overthrew the
State that she might be delivered from its law."*
These oratorical extravagances sprang from a root of
prejudice, and by refusing to recognize the essential
difference between the faith of a Churchman in England
and of a Reformer on the Continent he forfeited his
chance of influence on English thought. When Wake
drew up a statement of the Anglican doctrine in a form
identical with the Exposition Bossuet regarded it as a
parody rather than as a profession of faith, and remained
indifferent as to the impression he produced among
learned Anglicans. Many of his English adversaries
had the advantage of familiarity with the French language
and with the manners and thought prevailing in French
society, while he contentedly ignored both the principle
and the purpose that inspired their conduct.f His ac-
quaintance with a translation of Burnet's work, un-
balanced by other testimony, was hardly calculated to en-
lighten him, and the attacks of Wake (regarded as a
young Protestant chaplain who had appeared in Paris in
1682 in attendance on the British envoy) seemed to him
altogether negligible. Therefore, while a storm of fierce
vituperation between his critics and his champions was
raging across the Channel, he remained undisturbed :
;< It has been the constant habit of Monseigneur de
Meaux, having once written, to leave his tracts to the
world and take no care to defend them. Perhaps he
looks upon his pieces to be of a spirit and force sufficient
to despise whatever attempts can be made upon them."
Such was the comment of Wake, and there is reason to
think that it was justified.
It was Burnet whom Bossuet chose to regard as the
* CEuvres, vol. xii. Nevertheless, his references to the Papal policy
towards England in the sixteenth century (Defense de la Declaration,
liv. iv, ch. xxiii) might be used to justify the Reformation.
t Lambin, G. : Les Rapports de Bossuet avec I'Angleterre, 1672-1704.
The Tolerance of Eossuet 167
representative of the fabulous Church in England ;*
in him he was able to recognize the Protestant spirit
with which he was familiar, and he assigned a place in
the front rank of his adversaries, between Jurieu and
Basnage, to the famous Whig ecclesiastic. Yet, despite
his ignorance, England retained a special hold on his ima-
gination. He told the exile, James II, that the love of old
traditions shown by the English people attracted him, and
he was able to maintain an unbroken friendship with that
most faithful of English Churchmen, Robert Nelson. It
seems, however, as if Nelson must have avoided theo-
logical argument. In his years as a non-juror with a
Papist wife to whom he was deeply attached he may have
feared the persuasive eloquence of Bossuet. He con-
tented himself with despatching specimens of Anglican
theology to Meaux, the last of these being a pamphlet on
the Catholic Church f by his friend Bull, afterwards
Bishop of St. David's. Bossuet, in a letter of acknow-
ledgment written from St. Germain-en-Laye, where the
Assembly of Clergy of 1700 was in progress, desired
to convey to Dr. Bull, besides his own gratitude, " the
unfeigned congratulations of all the Clergy of France
assembled in this place for the service he does the Catholic
Church." Had the letter ended on this generous note
it might have healed old wounds and left a kindly memory
of the writer among the circle of Nelson's intimates
the Tory clergy who had taken umbrage at the Exposition.
But the temptation to give the challenge that was so
obvious a sequel to the compliment proved irresistible.
' There is one thing I wonder at, which is that so great
a man, who speaks so advantageously of the Church, of
salvation which is obtained only in unity with her, can
continue a moment without acknowledging her. Will
he not vouchsafe to tell me, who am a zealous defender
of the doctrine he teaches, what is it that he means by the
Catholic Church ? "|
* In 1685 he gave momentary consideration to validity of English
Orders. See letter to Mabillon. Correspondance, vol. iii, No. 339.
f Judicium Eccleslee Catholicce, etc.
\ Correspondence i vol. xii, No. 2020.
268 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
Voluminous replies greeted this query. It is im-
probable that Bossuet realized the indignation he would
arouse, and his ignorance is very properly attributed
" to your lordship's unacquaintedness with our writ-
ings."* But this " unacquaintedness " was in itself an
offence. It implied that this great theologian, known
throughout Europe, had never considered the opinions
of English Churchmen as worthy of attention. Robert
Nelson hoped that the moment had come for the omission
to be rectified, and in his " Life of Bull " he expressed
regret " that the death of Bossuet prevented the progress
of that Controversy which we might have expected to
have seen carried on with great Decency and to very good
Effect."t
His regret is not justified by reasonable probability.
The controversy could not have been elucidated by the
arguments and definitions of Bossuet or of Bull, and the
sum of mutual bitterness between devout and earnest
men would have been increased. It was not in intel-
lectual apprehension that Bossuet failed. He could
by study and inquiry have made himself as familiar
with the tenets of the Anglican as he was with the
opinions of the Huguenots of Meaux, but he chose to
class all who differed from himself together in one im-
mense company of the misguided. It was only as
possible converts that they had interest for him, because,
without conversion, he did not recognize any foothold
that he and they could have in common. In his diocese,
and in his vast dealings beyond its limits, he was liable
to rude shocks and disappointments for which the
limitation of his outlook in this direction was responsible.
The same unconquerable optimism that had shown him a
student and a scholar in the Dauphin and a man of
honour in the King, taught him to regard the forced
profession of the Huguenot as the first step towards
* Quoted G. Hiakes : Several Letters to a Popish Priest (1705), p. 322.
f Nelson, R. : Life of Dr. Bull, p. 390. (That the misconception of
the Faith of Anglicans was not peculiar to Bossuet is suggested by the
statement that Nelson " se joignit aux Catholiques " in Revue Bossuet
(1903), p. 138.)
The Tolerance of Bos suet 269
joyous acceptance of the Catholic Faith, and to find in the
enigma of the Anglican, with his deep learning and his
passionate convictions, a sign that the English people
were under an aberration that was only temporary.
In this his reason yielded to his charitable instinct ;
he desired a sense of brotherhood with all men, but a
heretic could have no place in the Christian family as he
conceived it.
Chapter XX. Quietism at Court
IT is a natural instinct in the champions of great causes
to desire disciples, and Bossuet, although he took no
direct measures to enlist the sympathy and admiration
of a generation younger than his own, recognized the
value of a follower whose natural gifts marked him for
future leadership. If he ever paused to consider the
isolation of his own position the great controversialist
must have longed for some assurance that, when the
time came for him to put off his mantle, it would descend
on one with strength to bear its weight.
The remarkable capacities of Francois de Fenelon
which, during his years of training, had distinguished
him among his contemporaries at the Seminary of St.
Sulpice, secured for him the interest and regard of Bossuet.
The intimacy into which their acquaintanceship ripened
has become historic by reason of its tragic sequel. In
the long-past years before Bossuet achieved celebrity, he
had preached many sermons in the refuge for recent
converts in the Rue St. Anne, known as the " Nouvelles
Catholiques," and at all times afterwards he maintained
close relations with it and with its work. In 1678
Fenelon was appointed Superior of this celebrated
institution, and as, year by year, events moved towards
the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, his office gained in
importance. From his first installation he was known to
Bossuet,* and when the Dauphin's tutor became Bishop
of Meaux the friendship between the two was so well
established that the change of outward circumstances did
not disturb it. The privilege of familiar intercourse with
Bossuet was not accorded to very many persons. His
constant preoccupation with work of divers kinds gave
an impression of inaccessibility, and he was in fact so
concentrated upon each task in turn that the need of
companionship did not present itself. He had neither
the aptitude nor the inclination for society that distin-
guished Fdnelon. As he expressed it in a letter from
Paris to Henriette d'Albert ; " I am very irregular in
paying visits, or rather I am regular in not paying them.
* His name is'on the list of those who formed the Little Council.
Quietism at Court 271
I am forgiven because it is so evident that my motive is
neither self-esteem nor superiority nor indifference ;
and I am spared immeasurable loss in time."* In the
company of Ranee* or of Mabillon he could enjoy the
exchange of thought implied by intellectual intimacy, but
such indulgence was exceptional in his life of persistent
labour. He may have been more susceptible to the
charm of Fenelon's society because of this habitual
isolation ; certainly the young abbe and his friend and
constant companion, Langeron, were frequent guests
at the bishop's table at his house in the Place Royale,f
and were associated with his work in the earlier years of
his residence at Meaux.
The Chronicle of Sieur Rochard records that a priest
" called M. de la Motte Fenelon " gave an address
every Sunday in the cathedral at five, after evening
prayers had been said4 This was in the Lent of 1684,
and Bossuet was always present. We may learn the
opinion that he formed of his guest's capacities from the
fact that he enlisted his services as a mission preacher
in the year following, when he made his Visitation.
Fenelon was about thirty at this time, and his friend
the Abbe de Langeron rather younger. Bossuet was
ready to accept them as inseparables, and to appreciate
the contrasting qualities which made one the comple-
ment of the other. The enemies of Fenelon have repre-
sented him as cultivating Bossuet from interested motives.
The Bishop of Meaux had won a position from which
he might stretch out a helping hand to a younger man
who was known to be his intimate, and therefore this
younger man pursued him with flattery of the most
fulsome kind and importuned him with offers of service.
That is the account left to posterity by the Abbe Pheli-
peaux,|| Canon and Vicar-General of Meaux. It does
not carry conviction, however. Bossuet was not a
* Correspondance, vol. vii, No. 1341.
t Phelipeaux : Relation du QuiStismf, vol. i, p. 33.
$ See Revue Bossuet (April 1900, July 1904).
Ibid. (October 1 900) : Proces Verbaux des Visites Pastorales.
|| O/>. cit., vol. i, p. 34.
272 Jacques Eentgne Bos suet
recluse so absorbed in study and oblivious of the world
as to be beguiled by such transparent devices ; he was a
man of wide experience, in full possession of all his
faculties of observation and deduction, and well able
to defend himself. In his own youth he had desired
promotion that he might be the better able to serve the
Church, and if he descried a like desire in Fenelon he
would have given him credit for the same motive. At
this time, while Fdnelon was still unknown, his aims
may have seemed to himself to be absolutely identical
with those of his host,* and no vision could have ap-
peared more glorious or more desirable than the ideal
of universal unity which was the inspiration of Bossuet's
labours. With such a theme in common the dividing
gulf of years was negligible. The master was endowed
with the youthfulness of spirit which does not cease from
planning fresh endeavours till death is on the threshold,
and at that time his brain was full of schemes for drawing
all the nations within the Church's fold ; while the
disciple, Gascon by birth and temperament, could seize
on a suggestion and develop it with a zeal and fervour
that added to its value even in the eyes of its originator.
Thus these two became more and more important to each
other, and their alliance promised rich result for the
interests of religion and of scholarship. The failure of
its development was not the result of any deliberate
withdrawal or division, but of the pressure of events.
In 1687 the Superior of the Nouvelles Catholiques
was entrusted with a Mission to force the Faith on the
Huguenots of Saintonge. The methods of conversion
with which he is associated may be criticized by a more
tolerant generation, but they won the approval of the
King and his prospects after that enterprise were notably
improved. It interrupted his personal intercourse with
Bossuet for two years, however, and a new vista, of
which he had not dreamed in the days of his pleasant
labours in the diocese of Meaux, opened out before him.
The reign of Madame de Maintenon had become as-
sured in 1683. Tradition (founded on the Saint-Simon
* Crousl : Ftnelon et Boauet, vol. i, p. 55.
Quietism at Court 273
Memoirs) is probably at fault in attributing the Revoca-
tion Edict to her influence upon the King, but she was
aware that the character of Louis was most vulnerable
on the religious side and she used her knowledge
dexterously. She wished to make the practice of devo-
tion fashionable, and she so managed the King that she
succeeded. Only those who satisfied her standard of
observance could hope for royal favour. The test was
dangerous to sincerity, yet among the favoured were
some devout persons who were also honest. Of such
were the two sons-in-law of Colbert, M. de Beauvilliers
and M. de Chevreuse, and they gathered round them a
select few, chiefly of their kindred, who were ready to
share their aims and practices. Madame de Maintenon
approved the little group, and it owed the importance
of its influence largely to her. In 1689 it widened
sufficiently to admit the Abbe de Fenelon.
Bossuet was very frequently at Court, and his duties
there kept him closely in touch with the household of
Madame la Dauphine, over which Madame de Mainte-
non presided. His intimacy with M. de Chevreuse,
moreover, was of many years' standing, and his links with
Madame de Luynes and Madame d' Albert at Jouarre
strengthened the bond between them. Yet there was
never any question of giving him a place within the
circle that assembled week by week at the table of M. de
Beauvilliers. From the day of his first introduction to
them Fenelon was the centre of these devout festivities,
and usually they were concluded by his delivery of one
of the spiritual lectures known as Conferences.* The
Court was aware of the existence of this coterie, and if,
as is possible, Bossuet had rather more definite knowledge
of its nature and objects than the ordinary courtier, he
looked on with approval. The great powers he dis-
cerned in Fenelon were dedicated to the service of the
Church, and he saw in these new associates the best
guides towards preferment that a young man could find.
If he suspected that the select circle breathed a hot-
house atmosphere his own active part in the Church's
* Revue Bossuet Supplement Quly 1909).
274 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
battles gave him no leisure to reflect on these undeveloped
dangers. Moreover, the warmth of his affection for
Fenelon was in no way lessened by the interruption
of their close association. And here it may be observed
that his own sentiments regarding the life of Courts
had changed appreciably. Twenty-five years earlier he
had warned his listeners in the chapel at the Louvre
against the struggle for advancement as involving the
barter of personal tastes and personal liberty for prizes
of doubtful value and uncertain tenure. In that far
distant period his sense of the dangers of the world over-
ruled all other considerations, but experience had modi-
fied his views. He saw that the Church needed men of
unstained character and brilliant intellect in her high
places, and that the advancement of Fenelon promised
to be of benefit to her.
In August 1689 the course of events developed on
those lines which all well-disposed persons expected and
desired. The Duke of Burgundy, eldest son of the
Dauphin, having reached an age when he required a
governor, M. de Beauvilliers was appointed to that
office, with the Abb de Fenelon as tutor. The sincerity
of Bossuet's delight when the news reached him admits
of no dispute. He has been represented as twisted in
mind and spirit by envy of one who was distinguished
by favours of a kind that had never been accorded to
himself.* This charge is part of the train of calumny
laid to wreck his reputation, but it is defeated by the
most superficial survey of his manner of life and his
occupations. A man so absorbed in labour, the object
of which was to benefit the whole world, had no time
for the pettiest of all forms of jealousy, nor is it likely that,
with the sense of power, and of the claim of God to use
it for His service, burning within him, the great theo-
logian would have exchanged his lot for that of any other
man. Fenelon had once more been his guest at Germigny
* See Carres fondance Saint-Fonds (among reminiscences of Fenelon of
great interest). " M. de Meaux vit avec chagrin qu'on avail pour M. de
Cambrai, qui ("tail homme de qualite", des distinctions qu'on n'avait pas eues
pour lui " (Dugas a S.-F., January 8, 1719, p. 90).
Quietism at Court 275
for a considerable part of the summer, and, when the
news of the appointment reached him, the keenness of his
pleasure found expression in a note to Madame de Laval,
cousin to the favoured abbe :
" Yesterday my thoughts were full of the benefit to
the Church and to the nation. To-day I have had time
to reflect on the pleasure this will have meant to you,
and to rejoice in it. And moreover, madame, we shall
not lose M. 1'Abbe de Fenelon. You will still have
him in reach, and I provincial though I am can
snatch a moment now and then to exchange greetings
with him."*
Bossuet maintained a vast correspondence, and con-
gratulations to Madame de Laval on her cousin's pro-
motion were not obligatory ; the importance of the letter
lies in the fact that it was spontaneous and would never
have been written except from the motive of rejoicing
that it expresses. It is safe to assume that, amid all his
anxieties concerning the nation and the Church, the
thought of Fe*nelon as guide and teacher of a future King
of France was a source of deep content to Bossuet.
Probably he did not concern himself deeply with the
rumours that attributed fantastic opinions to the little
company thenceforward to be associated with the royal
schoolrooms. A survey of the literary work that he
accomplished during these years is sufficient to account
for his ignorance in other directions, and his literary
work was only a fraction of the charges on his time. He
lived arduously, for he was devoted in his service to the
souls whom he accepted as his special care, and never
forgetful of the duties of his bishopric, while no measure
that had for object the welfare of the Church in France
would be sanctioned by the King unless he had reviewed
it. It was a difficult period in Church politics. The
death of Innocent XI in 1689 had lessened the tension
that had been steadily increasing since the Clerical
Assembly seven years earlier. The King showed some
desire to propitiate the succeeding occupants of the
Papal Throne and the most pressing cause for anxiety
* Correspondance, vol. iv, No. 501.
276 "Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
subsided ; but the effect of the drastic measures of Inno-
cent XI had been far-reaching ; the spectacle of thirty-
five sees left shepherdless because the authority of King
and Pope would not accord, was not edifying either to the
Catholics in France or to the Protestants all over Europe.
Bossuet maintained his hopeful outlook, but he con-
sidered that the encouragement given to the enemies of
the Church by the dispute made unremitting vigilance
the most pressing of his obligations.
Meanwhile the little cloud, to which even the watchful
paid no heed, was slowly gathering volume. The ortho-
doxy of the austere duenna of the Court, Madame de
Maintenon, appeared as unassailable as that of Bossuet
himself. It is just at those points, however, where
women's influence is most apparent that the history of
the seventeenth century is so fruitful of surprises, and the
developments at Versailles between 1689 and 1695 were
chiefly due to the influence of women. It was difficult
to live as a Christian should at Court Ranee* had said
that to do so required miraculous powers and perhaps
the main cause of difficulty lay in the sense of dullness
that, among leisured and luxurious persons, so often
supervened on the first excitement and delight of the
experience termed conversion. The routine of the
Court, its pomps and ceremonies and artificial pleasures,
could hardly fail to become wearisome if gossip and
flirtation and intrigue were not permissible. To
Madame de Maintenon herself the cessation of the
struggle that had lasted twenty years, and left her without
a rival, must have involved reaction. It appeared to
make her only the more zealous for a severe and rigid
way of life, however, and the little company whom she
honoured with her intimacy were confronted with the
problem of living virtuously at Court and at the same
time maintaining the zest and interest necessary to make
life endurable. Unaided they could not arrive at its
solution.
Now, in the days when Bossuet had striven to direct
the King during his transitory conversion, he had recom-
mended more careful use of customary times and methods
Quietism at Court 277
of devotion rather than the adoption of new practices ;
and such, doubtless, would have been his counsel to de-
vout courtiers at a later period. His direction was at all
times of the simplest, and the spiritual needs of the
courtiers were not simple. In fact the generation that
could use his counsels was already passed ; a new era
had brought new needs, and it was Fenelon who showed
himself most perfectly equipped to meet them. Personal
charm in Fenelon was assisted by his reputation for de-
tachment. He had never pushed his fortunes openly,
though birth and capacity justified a claim to high prefer-
ment, and a certain mystery enveloped him, as one set
apart for some special service. When he moved to
Versailles his place as chief in a band of pioneers was
waiting for him. The old idea that had been at the
root of the Cabale des DeVots * (crushed many years
before by secular powers) was revived in the devotees
whom he directed. They were to conspire for the
spreading of Christ's Kingdom upon earth, and all self-
interest must be made subservient to that object. Each
individual of the group was sincere, and collectively they
were animated by a high ideal. As we read Fenelon's
earliest letters of direction, although he shows himself
over-minute in detail and lacking in that breadth of
view which makes for spiritual health, it is impossible
not to recognize the promise of his future genius for
guiding and inspiring others.
If these new evangelists had been content to concen-
trate on the development of their plots for the purification
of the Court their personal standard was so high that they
must have raised society. It was a most unhappy fate
that brought among them a newcomer who was reputed
to possess a novel system by which the old command-
ments gained fresh hold upon the human soul. It was
their object to live in an atmosphere of prayer, but they
had found it difficult, and their aspirations after perfec-
tion seemed to bring them no nearer to its practice.
This newcomer professed to show a short and easy road
to personal sanctification, and on that plea she gained
* See Allier, R. : La Cabale des Dfoots.
278 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
admission to their secret conclave. The story of
Madame Guyon * is a familiar one, and the place she
occupies in the history of France and of the Church
should be allowed its full importance. It was due to her
that the friendship of Bossuet and Fe*nelon was turned
into virulent enmity, and that under the pressure of a
terrible ordeal the weaknesses of each have been exposed
to the criticism of the world. It was her teaching that
evoked the Quietism controversy, and she is ultimately
responsible for all the commentaries upon it which,
during two centuries, have occupied innumerable writers.
The exact point where the Quietist oversteps the
legitimate bounds of mysticism is a question for the
theologian.f Madame Guyon's teaching, however, was
sufficiently extreme for its danger to be evident to any
unprejudiced critic. She taught that a Christian should
aspire to disinterested love of God, and the glamour of
generosity that her phrases carried with them disguised
their actual purport. To produce disinterested love
both hope and fear must be eliminated and Heaven and
Hell alike grow meaningless. This simplification of the
spiritual state prepared the soul for that absorption in
God which should be the ultimate goal of all believers,
but its immediate effect was to remove the incentive to
the ordinary practices of religion, including that of
prayer in the sense of petition. The spread of Quietism
among the courtiers might have continued unchecked
if the condemnation of Molinos,^ the Spanish priest
whose instructions on the interior life produced such
dangerous results in Rome and Naples, had been less
notorious. Paris shared in the great sensation of Rome,
however ; the trial of Molinos was recent, and the new
devotion had much in common with his teaching.
* For authorities on career of Madame Guyon see Appendix vii.
t For summary of errors of Molinos and degree of Madame Guyon's
participation see CEuvres de Ftnelon, vol. iv, pp. xc-icv.
\ Interesting account of Molinos is given by Bishop Burnet : First
Letter on Quietists (1689). Tracts, vol. i (1786).
1685. (For contemporary comment see Dangeau : Journal, July
10, 1685.) The works of the most noteworthy followers of Molinos
Malaval and Falconi were condemned 1688.
Quietism at Court 279
When we turn to the consideration of Madame Guyon
herself we approach the domain of the psychologist rather
than that of the theologian. Those who find food for aston-
ishment in the acceptance so freely accorded to her mysteri-
ous theories ignore the evidence of hypnotic power which
is furnished by the contemporary records of her personal
dealings. Of her it may be said that she was self-
hypnotized, for even the most fervent of her disciples
could not rival her own conviction of her supernatural
mission, and from this unassailable sincerity she derived
a force which no charlatan, however skilful, could com-
mand. Madame Guyon believed that God intended her
to teach the world a new method of approach to Him.
The old ways of prayer were proved to be inadequate
seeing that the world remained alienated from God, and the
time had come for mankind to be given the opportunity
of a fresh beginning. Before she came to Paris she had
travelled in France and in Savoy, founding centres for her
teaching, and during her travels she had the assistance
and companionship of a Barnabite Religious, Pere La
Combe. Her methods and their success aroused sus-
picion, and on her arrival in Paris she was imprisoned.
From that experience she derived the certainty that her
mission had received the sacred seal of persecution.
Her imprisonment is explained by the tidings that
were continually reaching Paris from the provinces of the
ravages wrought by the Quietists and their teaching.
Amid the many excitements and distractions of the capital
the majority of the faithful were proof against a tempta-
tion which revealed itself only to those whose minds were
concentrated on religion ; it was in smaller circles,
where a single influence becomes dominant more easily,
that the infection had spread with astounding rapidity.
The worst plague-spot in France was Burgundy,* and
Dijon, that home of piety with all its hallowed memories
of Madame de Chantal and Fransois de Sales, was
in danger of deplorable corruption. The Burgundian
Quietists by publishing their " Maxims" had managed
to enlighten the public mind with regard to the results
* Cherot : Le Qui/tisme en Bourgogne et A Paris.
280 Jacques Eenigne Eossuet
of their convictions. They were so thoroughly imbued
with the theory of the absorption of the human self in
Divine Perfection that they eschewed those practices
prescribed by the Church for erring mortals. The worst
feature of the movement could be traced to the perverted
teaching of certain individual priests, and was illustrated
by the custom of allowing the laity to remove the Sacred
Host (in silver boxes specially designed for the purpose)
that they might communicate at any hour of the day or
night the state of privilege attained by the Quietist
being such, according to the new teaching, that the
Sacrament of Penance had no more significance. To
acknowledge the possibility of sinning was to disavow the
first principle of Quietism, and when, in an interview that
sealed her fate, Madame Guyon declared to Bossuet *
that she could not ask forgiveness for her sins, she was
only adhering to a fundamental dogma of Quietist belief.
It is interesting to trace in the writings of the Mystics
the realization, born of their own experience, that the
way to which they had been called was shadowed by
the perpetual danger of spiritual presumption. Those
especially who directed souls in the confessional or with-
in the cloister had strong foreboding of the darker evils
which Molinos and his followers brought to maturity.
' There are some " wrote Juan d'Avila " who believe
themselves to be so far possessed by the Holy Spirit
that their every impulse is inspired by God. If they
feel no impulse they leave undone even that which is
right. If they have an impulse in any direction, even
though it be evil and contrary to God's commandment,
they do not hesitate to obey it because it must be of
Divine inspiration and the liberty to which they have
attained must emancipate them from every other law."t
And eighty years later Ste. Chantal presented the
same case in another form : " We hear so much of
interior experience and extraordinary graces, and so little
of self-denial and the practice of good life."
* Relation sur le QuiStisvtf, section ii, part xx ((Euvres, vol. xx).
t Audi Fi/ia, cap. L (translated from Spanish by Arnauld d'Audilly,
Paris 1673). $ (Euvres de Ste. Chantal, vol. i, p. 545.
Quietism at Court 2 8 1
Unfortunately the conclusions that did not accord
with their own predilections were overlooked by the
devout students of that period, and they hailed Madame
Guyon as having a share in the privileges accorded to the
Mystics. She had made disciples in the provinces whose
influence at Court procured her release from arbitrary
imprisonment, and secured her welcome among those
most able to appreciate her. The circle to which she
was introduced by Madame de Mortemart, a widowed
daughter of the Minister Colbert, seemed to be waiting
for her. Living as she did in a chronic condition of
mental and spiritual exaltation, she breathed freely in the
atmosphere of mystery which the devout conspirators
strove to maintain at their weekly gatherings, and the
reverence, which the privileges she claimed would merit,
was accorded to her at once by each one of the great
personages among whom she found herself. And her
Autobiography reveals that she was by no means in-
different to the rank of her associates. Fenelon, alone
of all the band, showed no eagerness to make her ac-
quaintance and was slower in yielding than the rest,
but his eventual subjugation was not the less complete,
and when he, who was the leader of the devout cabal,
accepted her at her own valuation her footing was abso-
lutely secure.
Madame Guyon had made her appearance among the
pious duchesses a few months before the formation of
the Duke of Burgundy's household, and the march of
public events swept her into a position of importance
which no deliberate scheming could have won for her.
The Institution of Saint Cyr was then one of the favourite
themes for interest and for conversation in a society that
strove heroically to banish scandal. It had been founded
by the King's munificence, that girls of noble birth
might be educated by a Community of Religious under
the supervision of Madame de Maintenon, and it gave
practical exposition of the theories for the up-bringing
of the young in which that austere lady took delight.*
* For an admirable account of inauguration of Saint Cyr see Mme.
Saint-Rene Taillandier : Madame de Maintenon (1920).
282 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
It is probable that Madame Guyon intended from the
first to gain entrance to Saint Cyr ; it was a centre of
influence calculated to be extremely useful for the
promulgation of her doctrines, and among its inmates
was her kinswoman, Madame de La Maisonfort. At this
period of her career her capacity for imposing her wishes
on unlikely subjects is remarkable.* The prudence of
Madame de Maintenon, by some mysterious process,
was beguiled, and the carefully guarded lambs within the
royal sheepfold were exposed to a danger against which
they were defenceless. The enthusiasm of Madame de
Maintenon for the sublime spirituality of Madame
Guyon carried her further than Fe"nelon approved ; f
he did not regard the pupils of Saint Cyr or their in-
structresses as good subjects for initiation into mysteries
which he himself approached with awe and reverence.
In spite of the prudence and good sense that he displayed
in this particular, however, it is evident that the new
prophetess owed her success with prominent courtiers
chiefly to his support and sympathy. The sequel to that
success was irreparable disaster.
Madame de Maintenon received the first clear warning
as to the possible result of her ill-judged action from her
confessor, Godet Desmarets, Bishop of Chartres, who
thenceforward showed himself to be a quiet but determined
opponent of the new teaching.:}: He had the support of
the most celebrated preacher of the day, Pere Bourdaloue.
In 1687 Madame Guyon had written a book called
" The Short Method of Prayer," which was condemned
by the Inquisition in Rome in 1689. If its condemna-
tion had been known to the Jesuit preacher it is unlikely
that he would have delivered any judgment on the book.
His personal opinion was asked, however, and it ac-
corded with that of the Roman censors. It appeared to
him that the writer contradicted the teaching on prayer
given by Christ and reiterated by the saints. She
wished to abolish petition, thanksgiving, acts of surrender
and of contrition, and to retain only simple acts of faith :
* (Euvres de FSnelon, vol. iv, p. 16.
t Phelipeaux : op. cit., vol. i, pp. 48, 51. $ Ibid., pp. 48, 57, 69.
Quietism at Court 283
' To propose this method to all sorts of persons without
discrimination as preferable to that which Jesus Christ
taught to His disciples, and through them to the whole
Church ; to assert that this method is more necessary
to salvation, more useful for the sanctifying of souls,
for acquiring virtue and expelling vice, more suited to
average ignorant persons, and easier for them to practise
than the usual way of meditation ; to give up spiritual
reading and vocal prayer and the effort of self-examina-
tion for this method, and to go so far as to make it a
substitute for the dispositions proper to the Sacrament
of Penance ; these things with which this ' Short
Method ' is overflowing seem to me to be all equally
perilous."*
It was thus that Madame Guyon's great discovery
appeared to one who approached it without prejudice
but with the light of a priest's experience. Her short
cut to perfection was attractive f to those who were
weary of the beaten paths followed by every faithful
Christian ; she taught that by a great surrender the
human will might be united to the Will of God, after
which all further effort was to be avoided. Thereafter
sin was represented by any failure of complete passivity,
for ordinary sin was incompatible with the state of unity
which had been achieved. When this doctrine was pro-
mulgated among the nuns and schoolgirls at Saint Cyr
religious observances were neglected and rules broken,
until Madame de Maintenon, menaced by the conse-
quences of her own folly, threw off the enchantment that
had held her and became once more the vigilant shep-
herdess whose dearest interest was the safe-keeping of her
flock. She it was who had sent Madame Guyon's book
to Pere Bourdaloue, and his comments on it sustained
the conclusion to which she was inclining. Thence-
forward all novelties in devotion were banished from
* Cherot : Bourdaloue Sa Correspondence, etc., p. 122.
f For typical suggestion see Moyen Court, etc., part vi " d'etre in-
difftrent a toutes chases soil pour le corps, soil pour I'ame, pour les b'tens
temporels et e"temels, laisser le pass/ Jans J'ou6/i, I'avenir a la providence,
et donner le present a Dieu."
284 Jacques Eenigne Eos suet
Saint Cyr. If Madame Guyon had been a solitary
innovator her disappearance from Versailles and the
prohibition placed upon her books might have disposed
finally of the danger she had created. Unfortunately
she gave utterance to the inarticulate murmurs of in-
numerable * voices ; her conviction that her ideas had
originated with herself was merely the result of her
peculiar mentality, and the danger involved was so
insidious that simple souls had real need of protection.
A protector, watchful and competent, was at hand.
At many points in her difficult experience Madame
Guyon had displayed remarkable perspicacity, but under
the first threat of really serious danger she made an
irrevocable blunder. Bossuet was known personally to
her friends at Versailles, the character of his mind was no
secret, and to the ordinary intelligence his attitude to-
wards the fantastic doctrine of " Le Moyen Court "
must have been a foregone conclusion. Yet Madame
Guyon was eager to submit her writings to Bossuet, and
appears to have relied on her own powers of persuasion
to secure his verdict in her favour. Her failure to im-
press him marks the turning-point in the fortunes of her
cause. Her capacity for influence, which she and her
followers regarded as a supernatural grace, was com-
pletely ineffective in her intercourse with him, and the
shock to her self-confidence disturbed her judgment.
She grew fertile in tricks and stratagems, and Bossuet
was deceived by her repeatedly. With each exposure
of deception he became more fixed in his resolve to silence
her, and after 1695, wrien she was imprisoned at Vin-
cennes, it was the legend of Madame Guyon rather than
her personality that stirred enthusiasm among the devout.
He believed the importance of the cause he was defending
justified extreme severity. Whether his drastic method
served his cause may now after two centuries have
elapsed be questioned.
* Bishop Burnet describes the prevalence of Quietist suggestion in
1689. See Tracts, vol. i, p. 141.
Chapter XXL The Combat*
WHEN Bossuet agreed to examine the writings of
Madame Guyon he approached them without
prejudice, and he had no inkling that he was on
the threshold of the fiercest and most absorbing contro-
versy of his life. It was not till five years later that he
resolved to place the facts of the dispute, as they ap-
peared to him, before the world.f At the beginning of
that record he declared that he would not attempt to ex-
plain or comment, but having offered his remembrances
before God would set down events as he might remember
them. As he proceeded, however, passion got the
better of him, and he failed to adhere to this laudable
intention. His writing did not lose in force on this
account ; even when indignation betrayed his judgment
the perfection of his style remains unmarred. Neverthe-
less, as the mordant paragraphs succeed each other,
the sense of anger as their inspiration forces itself upon
the reader ; it would seem that his fingers trembled with
it as they gripped the pen.
He tells us he had been warned of Fenelon's predilec-
tion for " the new ways of prayer " years before the matter
gained publicity. He had tried then to draw him into
discussion on the subject, but had found him unre-
sponsive, and matters that appeared more urgent had
intervened. When, in the autumn of 1693, tne invita-
tion came to him to examine the writings of Madame
Guyon it took him by surprise, and he consented un-
willingly and under pressure, not feeling it to be a part
of the labour to which he was called. Finding later that
the task was entrusted to him at Fenelon's desire, he
entered upon it with greater zeal, and set aside his own
employments to study the printed works and voluminous
manuscripts submitted to him. He did not pronounce
any opinion till he had taken five months for reflection
and had had frequent communication with Madame
Guyon herself. Her verbal explanations only increased
the disgust with which her voluminous writings inspired
* For list of authorities on Quietism Controversy see Appendix vii.
t CEuvres, vol. xx : Relation sur le Quie'tisme.
286 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
him, and when he was satisfied that nothing further with
regard to her strange doctrines remained to be discovered
he hastened to lay the fruit of his inquiry before Fenelon.
The interview took place in the Court tutor's apartment
at Versailles, and Bossuet went there full of confidence that
his report would be effective in destroying the mysterious
attraction of Madame Guyon and her spiritual vagaries.
If he had been less impervious to the charm this woman
exercised he would,* without doubt, have been far better
able to deal with its results. He regarded it as negligible
because he was himself unaffected by it, and his subse-
quent errors in strategy were largely due to his failure
at this point to use imagination. His love and admira-
tion for Fe*nelon at this period are quite unquestionable,
and he had no dearer object in his laborious examination
of Madame Guyon than to disabuse his friend regarding
the merits of her teaching. " It is always my belief that
truth must convince if only it obtains a hearing," he
wrote, " and I could not have a moment's doubt that
M. TAbbe* de Fenelon would listen. "f Here once
again he could not allow the possibility of truth in an
opinion that differed from his own, and he regarded
Fe'nelon as the victim of a transitory hallucination.
Otherwise it was inexplicable that one who had paid
him unfailing deference through all their years of
intercourse, could give greater weight to the rhapsodies
of a self-constituted prophetess than to the presentation
of his own considered judgment. Fe'nelon's surprise
at the tenour of that judgment was also entirely sincere.
With his knowledge of the degree to which Bossuet was
dominated by zeal for the Faith he had not feared to
expose the doctrines of this new teacher to the scrutiny
of the great theologian. Nothing could demonstrate
his confidence in her more clearly.
The seed of the quarrel that dishonoured both was
sown in that interview, although it was only after many
months that it sprang into visible life. At the time
* See Matter : Le Mysticisme au temps de Ftnelon, p. 157.
f Relation, etc., section ii, part i.
\ Correspondance, vol. v, No. 715.
The Combat 287
Bossuet retired in real dismay, shaken as he says in
confidence in his own mental balance if one so mar-
vellously endowed as Fenelon could be thus deluded.
His next step was to send a long letter to Madame
Guyon condemning her teaching and recommending that
she should abstain from further writing and go into
retirement. She replied, promising submission and
obedience.*
This was in March 1694. Madame de Maintenon,
by this time, had awakened to full knowledge of the
danger to which she had exposed her precious charges
at Saint Cyr. Even if Madame Guyon's submission
had been sincere, her followers were already too deeply
impregnated by the magic of her doctrine for its sup-
pression to be easily accomplished, and, in fact, Madame
Guyon had small concern with sincerity ; she yielded
only to force, and always with reservations that contra-
dicted the pledges she had given. To remain in retire-
ment of her own free will was against her conscience,
and when, in the summer, she brought herself again into
prominence her action was probably dictated by fine
motives. She petitioned that Bossuet should make his
examination of her writings more formal, and should
associate with him Antoine de Noailles (at that time
Bishop of Chalons) and M. Tronson, Superior of the
Congregation of St. Sulpice. The latter was un-
known to Bossuet f and deeply attached to Fenelon,
and it is likely that Madame Guyon, unshaken in her
conviction that her whole being was possessed by Divine
inspiration, believed that the two new critics would op-
pose the unwelcome verdict already given and range
ecclesiastical authority upon her side. The new sugges-
tion was received with the utmost joy by Bossuet, and
for eight months a series G conferences took place at
Issy, in the neighbourhood of Paris, a branch house of
the Seminary of St. Sulpice. It is evident that the
question of Madame Guyon and her writings was re-
garded by each one of the three examiners as having
* Correspondance, vol. vi, Nos. 1004, 1007.
f Revue Bossuet Supplement, p. 177.
288 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
assumed grave importance " it stood for nothing less
than the revival or Quietism ; there were symptoms in
parts of the kingdom that this was on its way," * and
to each one of them equally the necessity of condemna-
tion was clear. The manner of its delivery demanded
caution, however, not on account of the culprit herself,
but because the Abbe" de Fe*nelon was implicated to
a degree that had become alarming. During their
deliberations he had written frequently to explain and
elaborate the theories that were engaging them, and
there could be no doubt of his sympathy with the new
doctrine. There is no reason to question Bossuet's
assertion that the three had no dearer object than to
shield and to convince one to whom they accorded so
much love and admiration ; and Fenelon's constant
protestations of humility lessened their apprehensions.
Finally Thirty-Four Articles were drawn up containing
the errors found in Madame Guyon's writings and their
condemnation. On March 10, 1695, these were signed
at Issy.
The King had heard of Madame Guyon and her
heresy, but he knew nothing of the devout conspiracy
of which Fenelon was ringleader.f Rumour is difficult
to silence, however, and it was possible that the whole
story might reach him at any time. As a safeguard against
the effect of such a disaster Fenelon was invited to colla-
borate in framing the Articles at Issy, and thus establish
himself as one of the chosen defenders of the Faith
against the ravages of Quietism. He stipulated for
certain alterations which he regarded as important, and
when these were accepted he signed the Articles. He
had just been nominated Archbishop of Cambrai, and
it was more than ever necessary that his orthodoxy
should be assured. Once his name was appended to the
condemnation of Madame Guyon the weight of anxiety
that had preyed upon his friends was lifted, and to many
minds even the danger of the doctrine itself became
negligible if it was known that he disclaimed it. The
* Relation, section iii, part ii.
j" lbid. t section iii, part ix.
The Combat 289
tidings that the Abbe* de Fenelon concurred in the
unanimous decision of the three judges spread swiftly
through the ranks of the devout, and a spirit of generous
friendliness prevailed. A little later the new archbishop
was consecrated by the hands of Bossuet, and Madame
Guyon withdrew to the Visitation Convent at Meaux
(the place of retirement chosen by herself). To all
appearance the sky was once more clear.
Before returning to his disputations with the Protes-
tants Bossuet applied himself to the production of a
study on prayer, the celebrated treatise &ur les Etats
d'Oraison* Among the motives that engaged him in
this new enterprise must be counted his disgust and
irritation at the astounding assertions of Madame
Guyon : in his eyes she was both ignorant and crazy
" a woman who ought never to have been allowed to
write anything. "f His attitude towards her differed
essentially from that of his two colleagues, who seem to
have remained detached and undisturbed throughout
their examination, and this difference did not escape the
observation of Fe'nelon. Probably the clue to subse-
quent events lies in the effervescence of intellectual in-
dignation which Bossuet permitted himself. The truth
was so true to him, and the hallucinations of the pro-
phetess were so obviously false, that the thought of the
credence they had won drove him to frenzy. And
Fenelon was a Gascon, full of impulses and of enthu-
siasm ; below the submission that had seemed so
spontaneous there had lurked resentment at the assertive-
ness of the great theologian. Christ had taught that
there were mysteries which were hidden from the wise
and learned, and it was easy, on reflection, to find in the
scholarship of Bossuet just that barrier against spiritual
enlightenment which the Gospel warning indicated.
It was native individuality in each that brought
Bossuet and Fe'nelon into conflict.:}: There was not on
* (Euvres, vol. xviii. f Relation, section v, part ix.
% The writers most effective in justifying the action of Bossuet are
M. Brunetiere : Bossuet (1913); and M. Leon Crousle : Fe'nelon et
Bossuet.
290 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
either side a scheme rooted in long-past happenings
and prompted by base motives of spite or jealousy ;
such legends may have been believed by their respective
partisans, but they draw no support from facts. It
chanced that the same events challenged them both,
that they were taken unawares, and that the natural
man was master before the acquired habit of self-
control by which, ordinarily, they were guided assumed
direction. For the student of human nature there is
no episode in history more interesting, nor would it
be easy to find one more painful. These two were by
far the greatest figures in the Church of that period.
They held power by their speech, their writing, and their
influence that was of incalculable value to the cause of
righteousness, and it may be claimed for both that they
were righteous men. Yet for three years they fought
one against the other with a passion of animosity that
spread dismay among the faithful and provoked heretics
to triumphant mirth. The truth regarding that notori-
ous quarrel has, ever since, been confused by the tendency
in those who write of it to assign the whole responsibility
either to one side or the other. In fact the balance is not
easy to adjust. At the first stage Bossuet's indignation
was directed towards Madame Guyon only ; she was
the traducer and Fe"nelon merely the victim of a temporary
aberration. A hint to the King regarding the suspicions
that were rife would have ruined Fenelon's prospects,
and no such hint was given. At the second stage, when
the royal tutor had become Archbishop of Cambrai and
Madame Guyon was banished from Versailles, Bossuet
wrote his treatise, Sur les Etats cTOraison, in all good
faith, to enforce his condemnation of the prophetess
and her doctrine. His confidence in his own judgment
was unwavering, and his sole object was the defence of
the Church against the advance of a dangerous and
insidious heresy. As he wrote the pamphlet that was
to put the crowning touch to the work of the Conference
at Issy, the calm of his library at Meaux was undisturbed
by any portent of the conflagration of human passions,
of jealousy and malice and suspicion, that was so soon
The Combat 291
to burst into evidence before the world. Nor when it
blazed before him did he guess that his own unconscious
self-sufficiency was responsible for kindling it. As soon
as his work was complete he placed the manuscript
in the hands of the new archbishop * with a request for
criticism and for the formal signification of his approval.
Fenelon was about to remove to his diocese, and three
weeks later, in August 1696, the book was returned to
its author at Versailles by M. de Chevreuse. It had
not been read, and the suggested sanction did not ac-
company it.f That was the first shot fired, and only to
a few did it serve as warning of the coming battle.
It was hard for Bossuet to brook such an affront from
one who owed him respect and gratitude. He curbed
his anger, however, and proceeded with the correction
and printing of his book. It was announced to appear
in March, and was to contain the great theologian's
commentary and final judgment on the subjects treated
in the Articles of Issy. In February another com-
mentary on the same questions from an opposing point
of view was in the hands of all whom it might interest.
It was from the pen of the Archbishop of Cambrai, and
it was called Les Maximes des Saints.
The English mind in the twentieth century can re-
gard episcopal antagonism without serious disquiet, and
it is, therefore, extremely difficult to realize the dismay
by which Bossuet was overwhelmed when the news
reached him. From the standpoint of the mere writer
an outrage on the canons of literary etiquette had been
committed, but that was as nothing in comparison with
the deadly thrust aimed at the centre of the Church's
strength: its unity in thought and teaching. The real
object of Fenelon's book, ostensibly a comparison be-
tween true and false mysticism, was to show that the
doctrine of Madame Guyon, condemned by the Articles
* Relation, section iii, part xvi.
j- The sub-title suggests an excuse for the conduct of Fenelon : " Pre-
mier traitt ou sont exposes les erreurs des faux mystiques de nos jours."
See also his letter to Bossuet August 5, 1696 (Correspondance, vol. viii,
No. 1402).
292 Jacques Eenigne Eossuet
of Issy, was innocent of the heresy of Molinos, and was
not distinguishable from that of the canonized mystics.*
Without doubt an instinct of chivalry was in part re-
sponsible for his action. He and Madame Guyon had
been allies ; if she merited disgrace he had no right
to the favour and prosperity he was enjoying, and he
risked jeopardizing his own fortunes for her deliverance.
Such a consideration, being merely personal, could have
had no weight with Bossuet when the safety of the
Church was concerned. Thenceforward Fe*nelon ap-
peared to him as faithless, irresponsible, a potential
traitor. He sprang to that conclusion swiftly, and never
reconsidered it. He was seventy years old, and he found
himself flouted before the world by the man he had be-
friended. He believed his indignation to be wholly
righteous ; evidently he did not suspect that the enor-
mity of the offence against himself might contribute to
the violence with which he condemned the offender. In
a confidential letter f he could write that his pain was all
for the Church and the disgrace that must fall on one
who had been the closest of his friends and for whom he
still had a sincere affection, but already he was admitting
the thought that Fe*nelon's submissiveness had only been
assumed till his archbishopric was secure4
Events developed slowly. At the earliest opportunity
Le Tellier, Archbishop of Rheims, who was a politician
rather than a man of prayer, drew the attention of the
King to the new study of the " Maxims of the Saints,"
and explained its connection with the Quietist doctrine.
The King was consistent in discouraging all novelties in
matters of religion, and Quietism was known to be
particularly abhorrent to him. He summoned Bossuet,
and taxed him with concealing his knowledge of the
erroneous opinions of one so highly placed as Fe*nelon.
The charge was justified, and Bossuet's expression of
remorse may well have been sincere, for he had, in
* Bossuet had already been assured on his behalf " qu'il ne pouvait
condamner Madame Guyon " (Relation, section iii, part xvi).
f CorrtiponJance, vol. viii, No. 1477.
$ Relation, section v, part iiii.
The Combat 293
collusion with Madame de Maintenon, Desmarets, and
his two colleagues of the Issy conferences, deliberately
shielded Fenelon and made Madame Guyon the solitary
scapegoat for the evil done.* His consciousness of age
and dignity taught him to curb the ardour of denuncia-
tion in the presence of the King, but there is sufficient
ground for assuming that he had determined, before the
end of that interview with their royal master, either to
force a recantation from Fenelon or to drive him into
disgrace and consequent impotence. If this was his
design it was facilitated by the course of action chosen
by the culprit.
It is an important characteristic of the opening of this
battle that each of the two adversaries was absolutely
convinced of the integrity of his cause, of the purity of his
motives, and that the truth of his belief was so self-
evident that ultimately it must be shared by all right-
thinking people. Each of the two rival books was de-
signed to elucidate a subject which was full of difficulties
for the unwary, and to discount the danger of false teach-
ing. Disappointment fell to the share of Fenelon. He
had striven to show that the so-called novelty in prayer,
made popular by Madame Guyon, was only the old
teaching of the saints, and he failed to carry conviction.
He did not hesitate to attribute the failure to a con-
spiracy instigated by the Bishop of Meaux, but it was
not the less disastrous on that account. It was plain
that he was in a position demanding the utmost prudence.
Unfortunately the idea of defending Madame Guyon
and of spreading the knowledge of her great discovery
made other considerations of little weight. When
sufficient time had passed after the publication of Les
Maximes to show that in France the general verdict
of disapproval was not likely to be reversed, the Arch-
bishop of Cambrai asked permission of the King to go
to Rome, that he might place his book in the hands of
the Pope and obtain judgment from the supreme head
of the Church. The request caused the King's wrath
to overflow. Fenelon was deprived of his tutorship to
* Phelipeaux : op. '/., vol. i, p. 117.
294 "Jacques Renigne Bossuet
the princes, and banished to his diocese with orders to
remain within its limits. Permission to send the book
to Rome was given, however, for the King's advisers,
of whom in all things that concerned the Church Bossuet
was chief, were as confident of the evil in the book as
was its author of its excellence.
In surveying the effect of the battle on the character
of Bossuet it is well to realize that he entered on it be-
lieving that it would be brief and decisive. He knew
that Fenelon had powerful supporters. " Monseigneur
de Cambrai relies on Cardinal de Bouillon and the
Jesuits. All his skill is being called into use, but thus
far the truth has prevailed, and will continue to do so
by the good pleasure of God."* The note of confidence
in himself and in his cause is evident in his letters at this
stage. He had indeed convinced himself that in com-
batting the doctrine of Les Maximes he was fighting
an insidious evil for which the powers of darkness were
responsible. " The whole of religion is involved in this
quarrel," he declared.f
The human interest of this extraordinary combat is so
great that it is calculated to obscure the point at issue.
And, indeed, where the relation of Bossuet to Madame
Guyon is concerned the resentment of a scholar towards
the rhapsodies of a presumptuous woman is interwoven
with the critical condemnation of the doctrine of Le
Moyen Court. His difference with Fenelon, however,
so far from being comprehensive, was acute only on one
point. The torrent of their explanations and retorts
suggests propinquity of two great intellects rather than
their divergence,^: yet the barrier between them re-
mained. Fenelon had attempted to express a doctrine
that was absolutely clear to himself, and only became
intricate when he endeavoured to propound it for the
help of others. It was the doctrine known as Dis-
interested Love, which was supposed to imply indiffer-
ence to salvation and will be found as presented by
* Correspondence, vol. viii, No. 1508. f Ibid., vol. ix, No. 1591.
$ See Analyse de la Controverse (CEuvres de Ftnelon, vol. iv, pp. ccxxi,
ccrxviii, and vol. xxiii, pp. 75, 76).
The Combat 295
him in his Maximes des Saints to support that interpreta-
tion. Only in his spiritual letters does he manifest the
full beauty of his thought. As there depicted his vision
of the spiritual submission and surrender that spurns all
calculation is infinitely inspiring. He could explain it to
himself and his disciples so that it accorded with the
teaching of Christ and of the Church, but he forgot that
the pronouncements contained in Les Maximes might
travel beyond the reach of his explanations, and that the
rarefied atmosphere in which he and his friends breathed
freely might be fatal to the spiritual health of persons less
gifted and less experienced.
Bossuet regarded the theory of Disinterested Love as
heretical in itself, subversive of the whole teaching of the
Church, and calculated to spread dissension and un-
certainty among the faithful.* The longer he con-
sidered it the more violent became his abhorrence.
Explanations were only an aggravation of the original
offence : he demanded an unconditional withdrawal, and
would not countenance any attempt at compromise.
Fenelon could not comply without denying that which
he regarded as the truth, f and therefore his appeal to
Rome became inevitable. In the history of the cele-
brated controversy that ensued there is material for
many volum.es, but its record, honestly treated, is not
edifying. The Princess Palatine described it as " a
quarrel among bishops with nothing in it but intrigue,"
and it was inevitable that, to the mass of onlookers in
Rome or Paris, the vital question in dispute should lose
significance as the interest in the stages of the actual
combat deepened. Even before the machinery of the
Roman courts was set in motion many issues that seemed
to have no bearing on the question became involved.
It was typical of the state of public feeling that the old
strife concerning the Clerical Assembly of 1682 should
grow hot again, and the cry be raised that Bossuet and
* See fitats d'Oraison, liv. iv, and liv. x : Sur I' Article xxxii
(jCEuvres, vol. xviii).
f See Instruction Pastorale, September 1697 (CEuvres de FSnelon,
vol. iv, p. 1 80).
296 Jacques Benigne Bos suet
his royal master had defied the authority which they were
now invoking.
The supporters of Fe*nelon discerned at a very early
stage that if judgment were delivered promptly it would
go against him, and they resorted to every expedient by
which the real question might be complicated. The
first committee of examiners met in August 1697, and
sat eighty-five times before, in September 1698, they
referred their report to a Congregation of Cardinals.
This august body met thirty-seven times in the five
months that ensued,* and unless the Papal authority
had intervened to hasten matters the controversy might
not have ended in the lifetime of Bossuet. We have the
testimony f of Souin, his steward, that he could ill afford
the expense in which its long duration had involved him;
and the tax it laid on brain and temper was far more
serious. It is difficult now to go back to the beginning
of the inquiry and realize his anticipations with regard
to it, but in condemning his violence it should always be
remembered that he had no doubt that he was combatting
heresy and could not regard this as a subject for dis-
putation. He was aghast at the success of a presentation
which he could only designate as a disguise, and his
powers were continually strained by the effort to expose
dissimulation in his opponent. Fe'nelon had that gift for
diverting an argument from the points at issue which is
regarded as the main support of feminine disputants.
Bossuet, vigorous though he was, had to bear the burden
of his years ; he found himself mocked and thwarted by
the rapid moves of an intellect far nimbler than his own,
and ultimately a stage was reached when his righteous
zeal was not to be distinguished from unregenerate
anger.
As the weeks passed on his unwilling perceptions
were forced to admit that the personal charm of the
author of Les Maximes was becoming an important
element in the contest. The suggestion was out-
rageous ; nevertheless, it could not be denied. The
* Serrant : L'Abbe'de Ranee" et Bossuet, p. 539.
t See Revue Bossuet (1900), p. 82.
The Combat 297
charm of Fe*nelon shone from the printed page in each
one of his Questions, his Responses, and his Explana-
tions ; he had the power to seize the imagination and
bewitch the mind, and Bossuet, whose life-work had been
built on a foundation of solid learning, whose triumphs
had been won by logic and clear statement, found himself
faced with the possibility of ultimate defeat. At the
opening of hostilities it had been the chief object of
endeavour with Fenelon's supporters to force Bossuet into
the position of accuser and individual antagonist. In
vain he asserted that his cause was the cause of all bishops
and of the whole Church,* that the battle was that of
truth against error. Fie found himself regarded as one
of the parties in a duel. Fenelon, with the genius of the
tactician, discerned that there was everything to be
gained as between himself and Bossuet by insistence on
the personal element.f
Antoine de Noailles became Archbishop of Paris in
August 1695. He was a lover of peace, and by his
intimacy with Madame de Maintenon he had a hold
upon the King. Neither he nor Godet Desmarets nor
M. Tronson desired to press the case against Fenelon ;
they believed that a peaceful settlement was possible
even after the publication of Les Maxtmes, and it was
Bossuet who refused to let the matter rest. He judged
that the dexterity of the offender (afterwards turned
against himself with disastrous effect) made him a danger
to the Church. " If it were not for me the whole affair
would drop ... I stand alone, "^ he wrote in the June
of the fatal year 1697. Phelipeaux, who was deeply in
his confidence, describes his solemn denunciation of his
colleagues for their timidity : " You can do as you will,"
he said, " but I warn you that I shall proclaim these
heresies, to which you cannot pretend to be indifferent,
before Heaven and earth. I will make my voice heard
* CorresponJance, vol. viii, No. 1541.
f See, for instance, pamphlet of January 1699 beginning " Monseigneur,
je m'adresse a vous, comme a la source de tous les desseins formts contre moi "
(CEuvres de Ftnelon, vol. ix, p. 59).
\ CorresponJance,vo\.\m,No. 1515.
298 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
in Rome and throughout the world. At least it shall
not be said that the cause of righteousness slipped from
the hands of cowards. If you leave me alone none the
less I will go forward, for God has shown me the peril
that threatens souls, and I am confident that He will not
desert me or His Church and that truth will prevail."*
Neither Noailles nor Desmarets was competent to
sustain a contest with Fe'nelon even if they had wished
to do so. The genius displayed by the Archbishop of
Cambrai was a source of amazement to friends and
enemies alike. The volleys of letters and pamphlets
fired continuously towards Rome and Paris gave example
of his skill j~ alike in persuasive eloquence and in vehe-
ment abuse. He never flagged in ardour or in wit, and
in the seclusion of Cambrai he wrote with his eye upon
that world-wide audience which his imagination con-
jured up.
" He is on fire with cleverness ; he is immeasurably
cleverer than I am "^ so Bossuet had declared before
warfare became inevitable, and it is clear that if the case
against Les Maximes had not been overwhelmingly
strong Fe'nelon would have triumphed. As soon as
the examiners of his book had been nominated, and
he could feel war was declared, his kinsman the
Abb de Chanterac, the most adequate representative
he could have chosen, was sent to Rome from Cambrai.
And from that moment every thread of influence that
he could by any means command was woven into the
fabric of his purpose. He meant to justify himself, to
emerge from a time of trial welcomed and acclaimed by
an admiring world, having silenced the harsh and in-
sistent voice of that aged champion of the Faith to whose
opinions he had professed himself as so ready to defer.
Chanterac, no less than Fe'nelon, owed his training to
* Phelipeaux : op. cit., vol. i, p. 264.
t During the year 1698 Fe'nelon was responsible for thirty-eight
separate publications. See Cherel : Fe'nelon au i8 me Siecle (^Tableaux
Bibliographiques) .
% Correspondance, vol. viii, appendix iii, p. 506.
Delplanque : Fe'nelon et ses Amis, p. 286.
The Combat 299
M. Tronson, and his record was worthy of the best
traditions of St. Sulpice. It must be remembered,
however, that the Sulpician school of thought was very
different from that of Bossuet's circle, and it was possible
for the ingenious to twist certain expressions of M.
Olier * into accordance with the teaching of Madame
Guyon. The innate good sense of M. Tronson had dis-
tinguished between the dangerous subtleties of Fenelon's
doctrine and the mysticism of M. Olier, thereby preserv-
ing the Conferences of Issy from dissension, but Chanterac
found in Fenelon's theory of Disinterested Love a
natural development of the convictions they had both
acquired at St. Sulpice, and his loyalty to his leader never
faltered. In this matter of representation as in others
that made appeal to sentiment and imagination
Fenelon had the advantage over his adversaries.
An unfortunate chance placed the affairs of the ac-
cusing bishops in the hands of the young Abbe Bossuet, f
nephew of the Bishop of Meaux. He had gone to
Rome with the Abbe Phelipeaux, his uncle's vicar-
general, in May of the previous year, and his return,
fixed for June 1697, was stopped that he and his com-
panion (in whose prudence and acumen Bossuet had
confidence) should undertake to watch the case against
Les Maximes. Jacques Benigne the younger is in a
great degree responsible for the shadows at the close
of his uncle's life. The great theologian, as his years
advanced, became more occupied with the studies to
which he had been called and less balanced in his view
of ordinary matters, and he did not bring his power of
discrimination to bear on the character of his brother's
son. All that was softest in his nature was displayed
in the affection that he bestowed upon his namesake
during youth and early manhood, but as time passed
indulgence degenerated into weakness. The young man
was clever, and must have had attractive qualities,
and if his position be considered fairly the severe test
* Giry : Vie de M. J. J. Olier, p. 49 (1687).
t MSS. Bib. Nat., ff. 11431: Vie de Messire J. B. Bossuet; and
Jovy, E. : Une Biographie ine'dite.
300 Jacques Benigne Bos suet
to which his character was subjected must be acknow-
ledged. A sudden chance assigned to him a conspicuous
place for which his antecedents had not prepared him,
for his thirty-four years in the world had been passed
without distinction. In his voluminous letters from
Rome the self-importance induced by the great charge
consigned to him may be traced in gradual development
until it reaches the stage of impudence when he ad-
monishes the Pope.* If he had occupied the sub-
ordinate position which would naturally have fallen to
his lot, and missed the temptations of extravagance and
self-aggrandisement to which his life in Rome exposed
him, his real affection and admiration for his uncle f
might have dominated less worthy tendencies. As
events fell out he did grave injury to those interests
which he was commissioned to protect, in spite of the
success which he achieved. In the methods of this war-
fare there was such endless scope for cunning. The
pamphlets, written and printed secretly on either side,
depended on the method of distribution for their efficacy
in altering opinion. If the latest pamphlets, arriving
post-haste from Paris, could not fulfil their purpose by
fair means there was no backstairs intrigue to which the
Abbe" Bossuet would not stoop to gain advantage.
Frenchmen were often baffled by Roman guile, but he
was swift in adapting himself to methods that roused
his admiration. And the agent compromised the reputa-
tion of the principal. " Bossuet and his nephew were
completely in accord in their views and intentions over
this affair of Quietism " so runs the chronicle. ||
The struggle lasted two years, impoverishing and
demoralizing both principals and agents. In March
1699 the judgment of Innocent XII, condemning Les
* Correspondence, vol. xi, Nos. 1838, 1858, 1901, 1903.
t See Ibid., No. 1 864 ; and J. B. Bossuet, Svlquede Troyes Lfttres et
Instructions Pastorales (1733), showing understanding and reverence for
Bossuet's teaching.
t For intimate revelation of intrigue see appendices to Correspondence,
vols. viii, ii, i, xi Lettres sur le Qui/tisme.
$ Jovy, E. : op. '/., p. 6.
|| Hid., p. ai.
The Combat 301
Maximes, was pronounced. Nominally Fenelon was de-
feated, but he had succeeded in his deliberate endeavour
to win the sympathy of his audience. The honours of
the day were his although he had been disarmed in the
sight of all men. His book was condemned as contain-
ing errors, but his opponents had learnt to regard his
personality as a danger infinitely greater than his book,
and he was not discredited. The Pope's decision did
not alienate a single one of his disciples ; it merely
touched a volume he had written of which everyone was
already weary. And yet his fate was hard, for the exile
that began when he appealed to Rome was maintained
until he died, and year by year he hoped persistently
for the recall that never came.
In July 1697 Cardinal Bouillon had written to Madame
de Maintenon : " When a matter such as this is referred
to a higher tribunal it may be in the interest of the
purity of dogma, but assuredly it will not conduce to the
peace of the Church."* He showed himself a true
prophet.
The effect of that struggle upon the character as well
as the reputation of Bossuet was infinitely to be deplored.
During the sixteen years of his episcopate at Meaux,
in his pre-occupation with intellectual and literary
labour, he had allowed his spiritual nature to become
less sensitive. The knowledge of that danger, which
he would have termed the " pride of life," did not leave
him, but he had ceased to be on the alert against it.
" I tremble to the very marrow of my bones when I con-
sider the lack of depth in myself : I am frightened at the
thought of it ; nevertheless, if anyone were to suggest
that I was wrong in anything I should defend myself
with any number of arguments. Ah ! when will God
be my sole desire ? " So had he written when he was
tutor to the Dauphin, but a long space had intervened
and he had learnt to convince himself that the assertion
of his will was not an expression of personal desire but
a part of the peculiar responsibility of his vocation.
" He had made himself Pope in France " wrote
* Revue Bossuet (October 1902).
3<D2 Jacques Benigne Bos suet
Chanterac " and having denied the infallibility of the
Pope in Rome he claims recognition of that quality in
himself from all the world."*
That was a venomous saying, the more poisoned be-
cause it held a strong element of truth. Moreover, as he
yielded to the excitement of the duel, self-glorification of
a kind from which he had always been exempt, possessed
him. ' You can form no idea of the sensation my
' Relation * has produced " that is the note of hisf
comments on his own productions. The detachment
that had hitherto distinguished him vanished, and with
it went the habit of temperate statement and Christian
tolerance that had won him the respect of his Protestant
opponents. " M. de Cambrai is proud to a terrifying
degree.":}: " He continues in the most arrogant way
in the world to pretend to be submissive. " " He is a
man without any restraints or any scruples. "|j So in
successive stages we can watch the old man's hatred of
his foe, urged on by the waspish suggestion of his
nephew, increase in vehemence until it reached the heat
that glows from the latter pages of his Relation sur le
Quietisme. Hatred blinded him. All his life he had
maintained a sense of fitness in his conduct before the
world, sometimes he may have been pompous, but he
never failed in dignity ; it was only when the spirit of
personal rancour, having surprised his vigilance, pos-
sessed him, that act and deed were unworthy of his fame.
The controversy slipped further and further away
from its original theme and grew more and more artificial
as time went on. The Jesuits, while they were no ad-
vocates of Quietism, were predisposed to support a cause
whose success would entail the discomfiture of Bossuet,
and at the opening of the dispute all the influence of
Pere La Chaise was on the side of Fdnelon. Yet,
despite the talk in Paris and in Rome of the Jesuit
hostility to the three bishops, the House of the Society
* January 4, 1698. Correspondance de FSnelon, vol. viii, p. 309.
f Correspondence, vol. x, No. 1721 ; vol. li, No. 1855.
$ Ibid., vol. viii, No. 1539.
Ibid., vol. ix, No. 1599. || Ibid., vol. i, No. 1782.
The Combat 303
in the Rue St. Antoine was not unanimous. Pere
Bourdaloue condemned Madame Guyon, and Pere de
La Rue a popular preacher at the moment went even
further and denounced the Archbishop of Cambrai
in a sermon before the Court. The sequel to that
sermon, in relation to the state of public taste and opinion
at that moment, has great significance.*
Pere de La Rue was to preach a panegyric of St.
Bernard at the Church of Les Feuillants, and tradition
says that he composed his discourse under the eye of the
Bishop of Meaux. Certain it is that Bossuet, having
dined with the Archbishop of Paris at Conflans, returned
to Paris in time to drive the preacher in his coach to
church and to have a place among his auditors. The
allusions to the burning topic of the day were undis-
guised. There was a parallel between Bossuet and St.
Bernard, and to Fe"nelon was allotted the part of
Abelard. It may have been good policy for Bossuet to
impress upon the Paris gossips that he was not at variance
with the Jesuits, yet in that hour wherein he sat com-
placently to hear praise heaped upon himself and scorn
upon his rival, he did more violence to his own dignity
and reputation than his enemies had ever compassed.f
His intellect, sharpened by anger, had never shown
itself more brilliant than in the closing months of the
long struggle. There is work of his in the swift inter-
change that succeeded the publication of his record of
Quietism which suggests Pascal, and it was accomplished
in defiance of the strain that Fe"nelon's astounding genius
had imposed upon him. Nevertheless, the balanced
judgment that had distinguished his maturity was his
no longer. His conviction of the goodness of his cause
possessed his brain to the exclusion of every other thought
until those who most revered him marvelled at the
strange perversion of his natural kindliness. We have
the verdict of his friend and admirer, the Abbe Fleury,
on the whole melancholy history : " Monseigneur de
Meaux did allow his temper to get the better of him,"
* Cherot : Le QuiStisme en Bourgogne et a Paris, p. 3 5.
f See Correspondance, vol. x, appendix ii, p. 421, note.
304 'Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
he said. " His motives were above reproach, and any
suggestions to the contrary, when so great and good a
man is concerned, are unpardonable. But perhaps the
violence of his feelings carried him further than he in-
tended. Why was it necessary to write so much ?
Why not have been satisfied when he had denounced
the book on Les Maximes ? Why have declared at
Marly that the heresy of Monseigneur de Cambrai was
on a par with that of Luther ? Why have used so much
urgency with Rome ? If it had not been for the pressure
exerted by the King and Monseigneur de Meaux the
book would never have been condemned."*
One sentence from a confidential letter gives Bossuet's
reply to such interrogations : " Pray for the Church,
for the purity of truth is endangered by the strongest
conspiracy that was ever known. "f
* Correspondence de M. de Saint-Fonds et du President Dugas, vol. i,
pp. vi, viii.
f Correspondance, vol. ix, No. 1647 (February 18, 1698).
Chapter XXIL The Mysticism of Bossuet
THE number of English readers who are familiar
with the literature of the Quietist controversy is
probably small. To those who have been lured
into its study, and have followed with delight the combat
of two brilliant minds, the resulting impression of Bossuet
is of a fierce old man, surrounded by all the accessories
of his dignified vocation as scholar and ecclesiastic, yet
forgetful of any other aim save that of hunting the rival
who had ventured to affront him into irretrievable dis-
grace. It is not a pleasing picture, and it is not com-
pletely at variance with the facts. Only, the extenuating
circumstances were many, not least among them being
the fact of Bossuet's origin. He had a Frenchman's de-
votion to his native province : he came of a race that had
been Burgundian for many generations and the memories
of his youth clustered round Dijon ; and it was in
Burgundy, and more especially in Dijon, that the new
heresy bore its most poisonous fruit, dishonouring the
traditions that to him were sacred.
He had, besides, in the course that he had chosen
the support of those on whose opinion he set the greatest
value. The Maurists of St. Germain, with all their
weight of learning, declared against the new teaching.
The Correspondance of Mabillon shows him to have
followed every move of the controversy, and he sympa-
thized with Bossuet. ' The doctrine of Fenelon was far
too elaborate and metaphysical for ordinary people "
was the verdict of one of his correspondents, Dom
Montfaucon.* And from another his closest friend,
Dom Estiennot came that trenchant comment : " they
surrender all things to the dictates of the spirit and refuse
nothing to the desires of the flesh. "f A plaint came also
from the Carthusian Order : Le Masson, the Father-
General, bemoaned the evil wrought by Madame Guyon
and her dangerous imaginations among the nuns he
directed,:): and declared that the subtleties of Fenelon's
* Revue Bossuet, October 1903 (Bib. Nat., ff. 17701).
f Broglie, E. de : Mabillon et la SodSt/ de St. Germain-des-Pris, p.
303 (Bib. Nat., ff. 19644, folio 50).
ij: Bertrand : Correspondance de M. Treason, vol. iii, liv. v, letter liv.
306 'Jacques Benigne Bossuet
teaching were calculated to confuse and hinder those
whom God was calling to the way of prayer.* The
verdict of Le Camus on Les Maximes des Saints was to the
same effect,t and we have seen that Bossuet at all times
gave special weight to the judgment of the Bishop of
Grenoble. More important than all these, however,
was the encouragement that reached him from La
Trappe.
" I cannot understand " wrote Armand de Ranee"
when Les Maximes appeared " how a man like Mon-
seigneur de Cambrai could permit himself to drift into
opinions that contradict the teaching of the Gospels and
the tradition of Holy Church. ... I pray that God's
blessing may be on your pen, and that He will endow
it with such force that every stroke may tell. God has
called you to uphold the truth in these present times,
monseigneur, and you have fulfilled your part to such
good purpose hitherto that I am confident of your victory
on this occasion also."
" More than all else I desire the confidence and sym-
pathy of such souls as dwell near God " Bossuet wrote
to Madame d'Albert, when his Etafs d'Oraison was on
the eve of publication. But in this instance he was not
indifferent to appreciation of a less edifying kind and
rejoiced at the applause with which the book was hailed
in the great world. " As soon as it came out everyone
devoured it" writes Saint-Simon " not a man or woman
at Court who did not take delight in reading it and exult
in having read it. For a long time it continued to be the
favourite topic everywhere. The King expressed his
thanks to Monseigneur de Meaux publicly." ||
What wonder if such tributes confirmed the author
in his belief that God had called him to his task and
equipped him for it ? Yet his conviction of his own
integrity did not make him invulnerable to the shafts of
* Bertrand : Correspondence de M. Tronson, vol. iii, letter ir.
t In gold : Lettres de C. Le Camus, No. 379.
% Correspondence, vol. viii, No. 1478, and appendix iv.
I bid., vol. viii, No. 1481.
|| Saint-Simon : Me"moires, vol. iv, p. 90.
The Mysticism of Bos suet 307
his opponent. He winced under charges of jealousy
and of hypocrisy, but the sharpest sting was conveyed in
Fenelon's contemptuous assumption of his ignorance of
mysticism. While he knew it to be undeserved it
touched a truth. He seems to have been aware of limita-
tions in himself that hindered spiritual advance. Yet he
had no rival in knowledge of the history of the Church, and
intellectually no one was better able to estimate the value
of the work of the contemplative. The great moment
in the religious history of Spain coincides with the
revolt of Luther and the division of Europe by the
Protestant heresy, and Bossuet had turned with relief
from his immense study of one development to the con-
trasting characteristics of the other. It is to mis-
understand him altogether to deny his appreciation of the
Spanish mystics, although his understanding of their
sufferings and triumphs and the glory of their ultimate
goal was theoretical. It is true that he rarely refers to
St. John of the Cross, but the omission implies knowledge
rather than ignorance.* The great ascetic addressed
himself to those who were already far advanced in the
way of prayer. He ignores the possibility of a normal
condition : the souls he has in view have achieved the
experience of the contemplative, and in the mind of the
neophyte his counsels are calculated to promote the
strain and artificiality which Bossuet most deprecated.
It was the part of St. Teresa to attempt to adapt sublime
knowledge for untrained capacities, and Bossuet's debt
to her is manifest in his Spiritual Letters and In-
structions.
Molinos had asserted that " a theologian had less
capacity for contemplation than an imbecile. "f Fenelon,
momentarily accepting that dangerous leadership, heaped
scorn on Bossuet for ignorance and obtuseness regarding
mysticism. His assumption was not in accordance with
fact, however, for the knowledge and sympathy of
Bossuet had enabled him to follow the mystics to the
* In his replies to Questions of Madame de La Maisonfort his reference
is unsympathetic. See Correspondence, vol. vii, No. 1347, Question iv.
f No. Ixiv of Sixty-eight Propositions condemned by Innocent XI.
308 'Jacques Eenigne Eos suet
threshold of experience, and if his intellect had been less
dominant his spirit might have carried him above the
limit of book knowledge.
In justice to Fenelon it must be conceded that the
conduct of Bossuet during the Quietism controversy did
not suggest the humble spirit and surrendered will of the
contemplative. It must be remembered, however, that
his shortcomings were all examined by the searchlight
of publicity, while the struggles and suffering of his inner
life remained in shadow. Moreover, in every generation
those who assume that the man of prayer is irreproach-
able in conduct will be doomed to disillusion. Bossuet
was no hypocrite, and in his letters suggestions of prayer
grow with the progress of his thought ; prayer was the
background of his personal life as well as of his teaching,
and, when his manifold activities and his eagerness con-
cerning them obscured the background, the lapse was
only temporary and was succeeded by remorse. He
saw and acknowledged his own failure. " The words
are mine, the doing hers," he wrote when Louise de La
Valliere broke the chain that bound her to the world's
distractions " with every word that I speak I seem to
condemn myself."
It would be easier to ascertain the true limits of the
knowledge and understanding possessed by the great
theologian if the whole question had not been confused
by the modern jargon of mysticism. It has been said
of him by a well-known writer on the subject that " all
he could grasp from the writings of the Mystics were
fragments of mysticism, and not mysticism itself. He
was either unable or unwilling to realize any aspect
in the life of the mystic which was unattainable by the
ordinary Christian."* To the student of Bossuet such a
statement is a very evident perversion of the truth.
Mysticism is a term susceptible of varying interpreta-
tions, but in the clear and simple significance which the
Church attaches to it, it represented an essential aspect
of his faith. He saw himself as the champion of the
Mystics whom the Church has honoured when he at-
* Delacroix, H. : Etudes du Mysticisme, p. 301.
The Mysticism of Bossuet 309
tacked the Quietists, and there are passages in his writings
which read like the warnings against himself so freely
promulgated by his opponents. He is as fearful as
they could be lest souls who are being drawn to God
should be checked by human interference ; only his
vision of the form of this human danger did not accord
with theirs. ' There are many even among the learned
and the spiritual who would hinder simple souls and
close against them a gate which the saints have held open
since the early centuries of the Church." And for him-
self he prays for grace " to become as a little child, and
be allowed to enter through this lowly gate and show the
way to others."*
He is never guilty of vague expression : his " lowly
gate " presented to his mind a definite image of something
that resembles the way of simplicity towards which
Ste. Chantal led her daughters. " The practice of
meditation is very useful in its proper place," he wrote,
" but it should not be regarded as the end ; for the soul
that is faithful in mortification and detachment advances
ordinarily to something purer and more intimate, con-
sisting in the simple concentration of the self on that
which is Divine, on God or His Perfection, or Jesus
Christ or one of the Mysteries of the Faith. Putting
away deliberate thought the soul maintains its quiet
in readiness to receive whatever the Holy Spirit may
instil ; it does little and receives much."t
" It is very important not to make too much use of the
brain and not to strain imagination, but to await what-
ever may be given to the soul numbly and simply,
yielding gently as God draws, surrendering to His
Spirit. . . . The self in its inmost depths must flow
towards God and His Eternal Truth. Desire must be
for God and not for delight in Him ; for His Truth,
not for the satisfaction of possessing it. Do not aspire
to excel in prayer that you may feel yourself beloved of
God ; desire only that He may draw you closer and
closer into unity with Him. The highest form of prayer
* (Euvres, vol. vii : Opuscules de P/V//, No. 7, art. xv.
f Opuscules, No. 7, art. vii.
310 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
is that which is most abandoned to the movement of the
Spirit of God within the soul."*
Such passages as these (and there are many others
on the same subject in Bossuet's Instructions to Religious)
indicate a knowledge of mysticism which was not merely
fragmentary and superficial. He had never lost the
vision to which, in that long-ago Retreat at Metz before
his public life began, he had seemed to draw so near,
and the life of the cloister, with its needs and obligations
and its infinite value to the Church, had strong claim on
his sympathy. He who was friend to Armand de Ranee*
and guide to Louise de La Valliere can hardly have
been blind to the supernatural element in life. He had
a vivid conception of the ideal of the Religious and,
as he saw it, it incorporated a surrender of desire that
hardly fell short of the " pure love " of the mystic.
A strong testimony to the degree of his comprehension
was paid by Madame de La Maisonfort, cousin of
Madame Guyon. She was a Quietist by choice and a
nun by compulsion, a prominent figure in the Com-
munity at Saint Cyr, and remarkable for her adoration
of Fe*nelon in a circle where he was ordinarily adored.
When, however, the atmosphere of Saint Cyr became
electric with the threat of the coming storm it was to
Bossuet she turned for protection, f Intercourse with
Fe*nelon was denied her, and certain instructions which
the Bishop of Meaux, in the spring of 1696, had been
invited to give at Saint Cyr suggested to her the ex-
pediency of laying before him some of the doubts which
were troubling her spirit. It is characteristic of the
voluminous methods of the time that she confronted
him with no fewer than sixty questions, many of them
lengthy and involved. To each he returned a careful
answer4 She was influenced especially by St. Francois
de Sales and Madame de Chantal, and he enters into her
difficulties with unfailing sympathy. Careful students
* Opuscules,. No. 6.
t For her own record of her relations with Bossuet see CorresponJance,
vol. viii, appendix iii.
^ Corresfondance, vol. vii, No. 1347.
The Mysticism of Bossuet 311
of St. Francois de Sales will discover for themselves that
his phraseology is not intended for literal interpretation
and that the sense of isolated passages can be strained
to dangerous effect ; and the mind of Madame de La
Maisonfort was prone to fix on a phrase without its
context. Bossuet was never at a loss, for his familiarity
with the writings of St. Francois de Sales showed him
how to discriminate between the spirit and the letter.
Where Madame de Chantal was concerned he could not
admit the existence of a difficulty ; her teaching had
peculiar attraction for him, and her essential difference
from Madame Guyon when, nominally, their practice
and their goal were similar, made reference to her parti-
cularly welcome. The Quietists might urge that she
had taught (in agreement with St. Francis) that the
simple turning of the soul towards God was a complete
fulfilment of a Christian's duty. Bossuet showed the
difference between the Quietist finality the abandon-
ment of responsibility for the rest of life by the intention
of surrender at a given moment and the constant re-
newal of intention which she inculcated; also that she
negatived the perilous separation of the higher and lower
nature which was so destructive to morality, and dedi-
cated not her prayer only but all that she was Religious,
mother, friend, directress by the same act.* It would
seem that he took pleasure in close analysis of the teach-
ing that had been put forth from Annecy, knowing its
worth and finding response to it within himself.
' To be lost in God is to be forgetful of self so that
the heart has no place save for Him only, and to be so
intent on His perfection that it is impossible to think
or do anything that is wholly unworthy of Him."f
4 We should imitate Jesus in submitting to be carried
this way and that by events without dictating to God
what is to happen in any part of our life. It is possible
to have a deep and holy longing which is against the
will of God, and by this you may realize the meaning
of uniting with His will. We must have a definite
desire for the accomplishment of God's command, and
* Correspondence, vol. vii, No. 1347; Reply, 55. f Ibid., 34.
312 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
then, as concerns actual events, accept what comes quite
simply without renouncing personal wishes with regard
to them."*
After the death of Bossuet this improvised catechism
was sent to Cambrai by Madame de La Maisonfort.
Her position between the two antagonists was extremely
difficult, for, while her personal devotion was given irre-
trievably to F^nelon, her appreciation of Bossuet had
begun before war was declared between them. Certainly
it was greatly to her interest to remain in Bossuet's
good graces, because her rebellion against the swift
reversals of opinion which Madame de Maintenon
dictated had entailed expulsion from the Community at
Saint Cyr and deprivation of intercourse with Fdnelon.
Nevertheless she does not seem to have been guided by
self-interest, and she gave her confidence to Bossuet
because she saw that he was worthy of it. He accepted
it with equal simplicity and befriended her to good purpose.
She records f that he advised her to discontinue corres-
pondence with Fdnelon for a time, assuring her that so
noble a nature must before long rebel against the er-
roneous opinions by which he was disturbed. This was
at the beginning of their disagreement, and the evident
sincerity of his original love and friendship for F^nelon
made an impression on Madame de La Maisonfort
that no subsequent events could dim. He would never
soften his prohibition regarding the letters she had re-
ceived from Fe'nelon, however. She had surrendered
to him the whole series dating from December 17, 1690,
to February 1695, an< ^ * n s pi te f many petitions he
retained them till his death. Subsequently they were
returned to her by his secretary.^
By her own desire she was transferred to the Visitation
Convent at Meaux when Saint Cyr closed its doors
against her, and she remained there so long as she could
* Correspondance, vol. vii, No. 1347 ; Reply, 37-
t Phelipeaux : op. cit., vol. i, p. 176.
$ Revue Bossuet Supplement, July 1909.
Annte Sainte de la Visitation Sainte Marie, vol. x, p. 42, indicates
difficulty of her position there.
The Mysticism of Bossuet 3 1 3
receive the protection and guidance of Bossuet. His
letters to her give convincing proof of his understanding
of that Prayer of Quiet " the prayer that of itself is ab-
solutely Divine "* towards which her mind was groping.
That which he gave her was real guidance along the path
to which she turned by instinct ; it was not compulsion.
' Turn away from human support and let your chief
reliance be in God " that was his counsel given with
knowledge of the intricate system of constant communi-
cation and direction which the Devout Circle practised.
And he showed her his vision of the vocation which she
had accepted.
' You do not seem to have a very clear idea of what is
meant by the perfection of the Religious Life " he
wrote to her. " There is the perfection of the end, which
lies solely in the love of God. There is the perfection
of the means, which are sometimes the very best when
they are most opposed to natural inclinations and to the
high idea of self that we are so willing to acquire. The
pettiest sacrifices are very often the most painful and the
most overwhelming. Whatever crushes this inward
conceit, whatever breaks personal desire, prepares the
soul for God."t
The standards of Madame de Chantal herself were not
higher than those of Bossuet when the life of the Religious
was in question. He, whose own offering was so
divided, pictured a way of holiness for those whom God
had called which demanded the courage and perseverance
of a Trappist. His visits to the Communities in his
diocese revealed to him the failure of these dedicated
lives, a failure which in many instances was to be attri-
buted to the frequency of the compulsory vocations that
were so destructive to the true spirit of religion. The
extreme seriousness with which he accepted his episcopal
responsibility in this direction is a manifestation of that
side of his nature which is ordinarily overlooked.^ It
had not been merely the Gallican bishop jealous of his
authority who did battle with the magnificent Abbess of
* Correspondence, vol. viii, No. 1494. t Ibid., vol. vii, No. 1382.
\ See Anntc Sainte, etc., vol. i, pp. 38-43, 537-543, and appendices.
3*4 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
Jouarre ; it was also the faithful Catholic jealous for the
purity of the Religious Life.
The artist in him, when he addressed a gathering of
nuns, conjured up the delights and the temptations of
their daily lives, but the picture that served him at the
moment was modified by that appreciation of their
privilege which was the habitual accompaniment of his
deepest thought. In the midst of the hubbub of his own
existence, of the constant watchfulness and labour that
his own vocation claimed, he could see the stillness of a
convent cell as offering the highest opportunity of happi-
ness. It should be " a little Paradise ; every moment
that can be spent there is of value. . . . How precious
are the moments which make us ready to hearken to the
Voice of God speaking within ourselves ; it is when a soul
is separated and entirely forgetful of all things apart
from Him that God is pleased to give Himself to her."*
The obligations of the Threefold Vow were shown to
the nuns of the diocese of Meaux as they had been
shown to the new-born Community at Annecy seventy
years earlier. Bossuet insisted on the necessity of sur-
render in its most searching form ; there was to-be no
inward clinging to anything earthly and no human
affection of a kind that could hinder self-offering to
God.f And from reflection and observation there was
borne in upon him the conviction that the remedy for
many of their spiritual ills would be found in a stricter
rule of silence. From his vision of the kneeling nun
presenting before God the grievous sins and sorrows
of her brothers and sisters in the world a vision that
offered solid comfort to one who had intimate and sinister
knowledge of the lives of his contemporaries he was
forced to turn to the reality of the chattering, tattling
women whose quarrels were so often brought before him.
In his disillusion he became dramatic, and the imprudent
Sisters who formed his audience can hardly have re-
mained unmoved. They were to imagine Our Lord
in the convent precincts, where silence was the rule
* (Euvres, vol. x : ^itme Exhortation aux Ursu/ines de Meaux,
f Ibid. : ^ieme Exhortation.
The Mysticism of Bossuet 315
near Him in one direction would be two little friends, and
a group of three in another, whispering together secretly.
And if Our Lord drew near to them, as to those other
talkers on the road to Emmaus, and asked them the same
question what could their answer be ? Would they
be able to say that they spoke of Jesus of Nazareth ?
Nothing would be more unlikely ! Almost always the
subject of these confidences between two or three was
the faults of others and the grievances of the speaker.*
' These outpourings confuse the mind with reflections
that are a grave hindrance to prayer. With your mind
full of them you attempt to pray, and you find that you
are excluded from the presence of God. You can make
no advance in prayer unless you approach God with
complete concentration, putting all other intercourse
away."f
The celebrated Abbess of Fontevrault was of one
mind with him as to this canker at the root of convent
life : " All the fruit of their austerities is forfeited by
their quarrelling and backbiting "^ was her verdict
on her nuns.
It is strong proof of his tolerance and self-command
that he did not revolt from the infinite pettiness of the
squabbles and complaints that were brought to his
notice as Visitor to the several Communities of his
diocese. His mind was ordinarily occupied by such
great affairs that the descent into puerility where holiness
should have been the rule was disconcerting, and if he
had been, as his enemies averred, the victim of self-
conceit, he would hardly have persisted in a part of his
ministry which was so unproductive and unsatisfactory.
Although unquestionably there were many moments
when pride of intellect and pride of place possessed him,
as an individual he never stood high in his own esteem.
His response, when a penitent expressed surprise at his
patience with her repeated failures, has the ring of sin-
* (Euvres, vol. x : Instruction sur le Silence.
t Ibid. : Sur les Avantages de la Retraite.
t Bellon : Bossuet Directeur de Conscience, p. 150 (Circulaire aux
Couvtnts, 21 juin, 1677).
316 Jacques Eenigne Eossuet
cerity : " Can I do otherwise, my daughter ? God
bears with me 1 "*
And if he had set enormous value on his powers and
his time he would not have put himself at the disposal
of individuals desiring spiritual help. There was one
who had difficulty in speech itself and in all expression of
thought, from whom he received a general Confession
that lasted three hours, and his answer to remonstrance
at such exaggerated complaisance expressed a principle
which he applied in all his spiritual dealings.
" Eh ! For what purpose am I here, my daughter ?
Has not this soul been bought by the Blood of Christ ;
is she not as much the object of His love as is the pos-
sessor of high rank and brilliant gifts ? "t
This is not the language of pretension. As confessor
and director Bossuet is never at fault in the practice of
humility. Only two of his spiritual charges were of the
mental calibre which could appreciate him, and it was
not the brilliancy of Madame de La Maisonfort or the
scholarship of Madame d' Albert that secured for them
the privilege of his guidance ; it was their need and his
conviction that they were entrusted to him by the Will
of God. When once he was assured of that he gave un-
reservedly of all he had. His sense of the supernatural
in all direct influence on souls was unvarying ; the desire
to command was altogether lacking. " I have read and
pondered over your letters I have not yet been given
an answer for you. The direction of souls is a mystery,
and it is needful that God should be working in it on
both sides. I strive to be faithful in passing on what is
given to me ; when I seem to have received nothing I
yield the whole to God and beseech Him to compensate
for my deficiencies. "$
That thought appears repeatedly. The world has
judged him by the veneer of arrogance which was as-
sumed only before the world ; beneath it lay the spiritual
diffidence of one who has studied and thought and prayed
with unwavering faith through a long life. In the heat
* Correspondance, vol. iv, appendix ii.
t Ibid. \ Ibid., vol. v, No. 698.
The Mysticism of Bossuet 317
of controversy he boasted with justice that he was single-
minded and sincere,* yet his habit of reserve proved as
deceptive as deliberate hypocrisy. " His misjudgment of
me " wrote Madame Guyon " was only the result of his
ignorance of the mystic authors whose works he had never
read, and of his own dearth of experience of the interior
life."f She and many others believed that statement
to be a fair presentation of the truth ; in fact, they were
deceived by his habitual abstinence from those exuberant
expressions in which the Quietists indulged so freely.
Their contempt did not disturb his practice of reserve,
however. " Let them say what they like about my
ignorance of the interior life," he wrote to Madame
d'Albert,^: " it is by pretending to know too much that
one misleads oneself and others."
The writings which were not intended for the world
are Bossuet's defence against this charge of ignorance
which the world was so ready to accept. They were the
fruit of his many Retreats at La Trappe, and of the days
of solitude which might sometimes be achieved at
Germigny, and it may be presumed that if they had been
communicated to the Devout Circle at Versailles, by
whom he was definitely ostracized,^ its unanimity of
condemnation might have been disturbed. There are
passages in a meditation on Mary Magdalene that are
peculiarly illuminating with regard to this hidden mind
of the great thinker. As we read them the contro-
versialist is overshadowed by the mystic. ||
" But one thing is needful : those sacred words for all
their gentleness come as a thunderbolt to devastate the
soul. . . . O God ! who shall declare the terrors of the
summons that those words contain ? They condemn
the soul to the solitude and deprivation from which the
* Relation sur le Qui/tisme, section vi, part v.
j" Madame Guyon : Vie par elle-meme, part iii, ch. liv.
% Correspondance, vol. viii, No. 1550.
" M. de Chevreuse tourne la tete quand il me rencontre^ je n'en suis
pas mains son ami et son serviteur" (CorresponJance, vol. x, No. 1718).
|| MS. discovered and published by 1'Abbe Joseph Bonnet 1909,
from Bib. Imp., St. Petersburg. Authenticity recognized. See Revue
Bossuet Supplement, June 1911.
31 8 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
flesh revolts, for this one thing means annihilation. . . .
Thus deprived, and with all that was superfluous de-
stroyed, the one thing needful takes possession of the
soul with overwhelming force. Even so did this sen-
tence do its work in the heart of Mary Magdalene.
Its meaning came to her first as a thunderbolt ; over-
turning and consuming all but one sole desire, and then
from that emptiness aspiring towards the one thing
needful she was uplifted and absorbed by it completely.
Thus was Mary Magdalene bound heart to heart to
Jesus. Thenceforward she had no life apart from Jesus,
and why should we wonder if she followed where He
went in His journeys, in His sufferings, and even in the
terrors of His Sepulchre ? "
' What is your aim, O Jesus, in claiming hearts so
irresistibly, in making them so utterly your own and
then withdrawing from them without warning ? This
is the way that Christ deals with us : His ordinary
method. He draws souls to Himself, He gives them a
hunger that cannot be satisfied, He wins them, masters
them, binds them, He holds them so intimately that they
have no life apart from Him, and when they are chained
and all escape impossible He withdraws Himself, He
vanishes, and tests them by the most dreadful desola-
tion. . . . What sayest thou, Madeleine, to Jesus, thy
beloved ? Dost thou think thyself deceived ? Ah, no !
He does not deceive us, or if He does so it is not that He
deserts us, but that He makes us more intimately His
at just that moment when we are most conscious of
being alienated from Him. Thus must love be dealt
with during our pilgrimage. It must feed on faith and
live only by hope ; it must grow in loneliness and the
most overwhelming desolation, for it is needful not only
that the self should die, but also that it should die as the
martyr of Jesus Christ Himself : that its own longings
should be its death wounds."
In language and in thought alike this is unquestionably
the work of one who understands the mystic vision, to whom,
indeed, it is so familiar that suggestion is not elaborated.
When he speaks most from the heart he is most insistent
The Mysticism of Bossuet 319
on the Prayer of Quiet, on the avoidance of fixed subjects
and methods, on silent waiting for a whisper of the
Voice of God. " The peace of which you are conscious
comes from God, but because neither it nor the tumult
which is contrary to it is God Himself you must rise
above both one and the other. You must seek God
because He is what He is. This calm that has mastered
and possessed your heart after such violent tempests,
this adoration of God in silence, is the first essential for a
Christian. It is our shame that we go so far afield before
we come to it. You give perpetual offence to God by
your impatience. You must accept your lack of
patience ; patience is no substitute for love. To grasp
the meaning of privation and the Cross signifies more
than to be patient and to be mistress of yourself. There
are occasions when there is more danger in too much
virtue, too much confidence, too much correctness
than in too little."
Thus Bossuet to a penitent of whose identity we have
no knowledge, but whose need is not peculiar to herself.*
She had craved direction in the detail as well as in the
theory of prayer, and he was always ready to begin at
the beginning. ' We have not control over the state
of our mind, still less over the follies of our imagination,
still less again over the assaults of the Evil One ; but
we can regulate our time and our patience and the dis-
position of our bodies, and that is sufficient for us, or
rather it is sufficient as a foundation on which to build.
" Set apart a certain amount of time morning and even-
ing, whether the mind be filled with God or not, doing so
with no other object than the adoration which is the duty
of His creature. Adore Him with all the capacity you
have, yet without anxiety as to the degree of your success
or of your love, as to whether you are concentrated on
God or on yourself, whether your time is profitable or
wasted.
" You must not say : It is more worth while to fight
against evil, to confess my sins, etc. There should be
* Pamphlet in writing of Bossuet entitled Oraison, Bale Library
(621/36, Briefe Franz. Celebritaten). See Revue Bossuet, December 1 906.
320 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
no confusion among the obligations of Christian life,
and this one which has direct relationship to God is
apart from all others and independent of them.
1 You must not say that you have not passed through
the stages of prayer which should precede this one.
There is no question now of stages of prayer. We are
concerned only with adoring God without any motive
save that we are in duty bound to do so, without any
desire save to offer adoration or, if we fail in this, to ac-
cept failure with patience and humility. . . . The value
of our prayer depends on the degree to which we die to
self in offering it. There is no place for calculations and
precautions. Strive to adore and let that be sufficient
for you ! Nevertheless, if it should come to pass
that God accepted your adoration, your surrender, and
your heart was transformed by perfect love and pene-
trated by truth and light, then yield yourself completely
without reflection, without regard of self."
Once more we approach that vision which to him,
with his restless brain and active nature, remained a
vision only. He was lavish with time and thought to
the humblest of the nuns who sought his help, because
for any one of them life offered the opportunity which
was beyond his reach. Perhaps it may be said of him
that he became entangled by his vocation, for even the
silence of thought, essential to the man who would listen
for the Voice of God, is hard to achieve in the midst of
unremitting intellectual labour. And Bossuet had know-
ledge of that silence ; he could describe it and desire it ;
only he gave himself so ardently to his manifold activities
that he had no time to foster such desires. Perhaps such
intellectual eagerness as his checks the complete develop-
ment of spiritual capacity, certainly there are indications
that for him the Promised Land of those who pray grew less
and less accessible as old age approached. The impression
that he left with his contemporaries, and which has sur-
vived him, was the natural result of the way of life that he
accepted. He had scope for his great capacities, and his
intellectual triumphs' are unquestioned : the eminent
ecclesiastic, wise in his own conceit, intolerant of con-
The Mysticism of Bossuet 321
tradiction, maintained and still maintains his stand
before the world.
It is only in the light of his rare devotional writings
that he reveals himself in another and a less familiar
guise. Whether the background be Meaux or Ger-
migny or Paris the majestic figure of tradition fades,
and in its stead we see a lonely scholar, intent upon his
task of confuting error and setting forth the truth, yet
conscious, as he pored over his books and manuscripts,
that all his triumphs had left him empty-handed.
Chapter XXIIL The Nun of Jouarre
THE knowledge of Bossuet that comes to us through
the convents in his diocese is peculiarly valuable
because it differs so materially from the familiar
records of him. The kindly counsellor revealed in
letters and addresses to the nuns of Meaux has few
points of similarity with the aggressive being depicted
by the followers of Fe"nelon, or even with the oracle
to whom all students of theology deferred. The nuns
themselves are for the most part shadowy figures ; it is
only here and there that one stands out among them.
Chief of these, as entrusted with a mission which none
of her Sisters shared, was Henriette d'Albert, the nun
of Jouarre.*
We have seen her already supporting episcopal
authority against the abbess of her convent, and on this
account she had some claim to her special place in
Bossuet's regard. He did not accord it merely out of
gratitude, however ; it is quite evident that there was
an intellectual affinity between them and that she could
give him a response for which he sought in vain else-
where. She was a scholar, and possessed such remark-
able mental and spiritual gifts in addition to her learning
that Bossuet desired her opinion on some of his writings,
and expressed satisfaction when her views regarding the
life of devotion accorded with his own. He was her
director ; nevertheless, his share in their correspondence
is not representative of his spiritual letters his own
personality is reflected in them and constantly the desire
for self-expression is apparent.
The first of his letters to her which has survived was
written in March 1690, and their correspondence con-
tinued till her death nine years later. No judgment of
Bossuet can be formed with any pretence at justice
if study of those letters be omitted, and Madame d'Albert,
by virtue of her relation to him, becomes an important
person. No one made sharper demand upon his
patience ; the fact that he recognized in her an intelli-
gence of no common order can only have aggravated
* See Correspondance, vol. iv, pp. 64, 65, note.
The Nun of Jouarre 323
the annoyance of her scruples and exaggerated intro-
spection, yet he grudged no sacrifice of leisure when
there was question of her peace of mind.
It is evident, and Bossuet must have been the first to
realize it, that the failings to be deplored in Madame
d'Albert were the direct result of her training at Port
Royal. The education of the children entrusted to La
Mere Angelique Arnauld prepared them for the Re-
ligious Life as she understood it, and it was not a good
preparation for any other vocation. At fourteen, when
she was thoroughly imbued with the sombre tenets of her
instructors, Henriette d'Albert was banished from the
only home she knew by the royal edict which withdrew
pupils and postulants from the care of the refractory
Community. She found a haven at Jouarre, but it was
difficult to transpose the principles of loyalty and obedi-
ence learnt under the Arnaulds to suit the requirements of
Madame de Lorraine. Nevertheless, three years later,
in 1664, she and her sister, Madame de Luynes, were
received into the Noviciate, and at the ceremony of
Clothing her father invited the Abbe* Bossuet to preach
the sermon. Of the period that succeeded there is no
record. She emerges again from the obscurity that
should shroud the life of the true Religious when the
battle between their abbess and their bishop won un-
enviable notoriety for the nuns of Jouarre. Probably
the twenty-six years that lay behind her had been years of
tension. The tradition of Port Royal was part of her
being, and she was of the fibre that could have grown in
holiness under the rigorous demands of the Arnauld
discipline. For her the laxity of Jouarre must have en-
tailed spiritual miseries of the most poignant kind, yet
to seek relief from them was to offend against the spirit
of obedience. As we have seen, Bossuet waited for the
propitious moment before he struck at the false authority
which made mockery of the Threefold Vow, and his
observations during the interval showed him how hardly
Fate had dealt with the nun of Jouarre. It was well for
her that his close knowledge of Port Royal, and the
ideals it represented to those who came within its orbit,
324 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
was unmarred by prejudice. Because he had acknow-
ledged the purity of those ideals, even while he was
striving to curb the arrogance that brought them into
obloquy, he was the helper most fitted to calm the fever
of uncertainty which had been draining strength and
courage from Henriette d'Albert for so many years.
It is worth while to consider this woman and her lot.
It can hardly be said of her that she renounced the world
on the day of her Profession, for she had never known
the meaning of its allurements, and she had been nearer
to the life of the cloister in her schoolgirl days than in
the Community to which she gave obedience. The
confessors of the convent aided and encouraged the
abbess in her irregular practices, and were quite unfitted
to guide the upward aspirations of a soul desiring per-
fection. Madame d'Albert, by nature sensitive to the
point of morbidness, was isolated in the midst of the
Community by just those standards and desires which
seemed to her to be the reason of her being. The
travesty of a holy thing which was presented by the
habits of the aristocratic Communities outraged reason
as much as conscience, and the earlier period of her life in
religion must have contained many moments of despair.
For Madame de Luynes, whose antecedents were identical
with those of Madame d'Albert, there was always possi-
bility of consolation in the thought of a day when she
should herself attain to the position of authority natural
to her rank.* This was her dearest hope, and the only
impediment to its fulfilment was the prejudice against
her Jansenist upbringing. No such prospect suggested
alleviation of present suffering to the younger sister,
however ; for her the years that stretched ahead were
likely to be as desolate as those behind.
And then when she was forty-two her whole life was
altered by the intervention of Bossuet. She knew him
as the Bishop of the diocese, and revered him as a master-
craftsman in the field of letters and the greatest scholar
of his day, but her despondent temperament would not,
assuredly, have permitted her to dream that he would
* Corrtspottdance, vol. vi, No. 977, and notes.
The Nun of Jouarre 325
make her his especial charge and give to her such a
measure of his confidence as had never before been be-
stowed upon a woman. She had borne the burden of an
unfulfilled vocation : a pain that is not less great be-
cause the world accords to it no recognition. Bossuet
restored to her the vitality that was gradually fading, and
by his vigorous dealing with the affairs of the Community
he gave her the background against which she could
develop the aspirations that had been hers from child-
hood. Yet to the end her history is the record of a
thwarted nature, for the check upon development was not
entirely removed when the Bishop of Meaux inter-
rupted the aimless laxity of the routine at Jouarre.
That incident marked the opening of another chapter
which was to contain her great discovery of intellectual
friendship and with it a new experience in suffering.
Bossuet, the great scholar, descried in her a mentality
capable of answering to his own ; she stood out from
among the many groups of Religious with whom his
office brought him into contact, and he did not hesitate
to show her that with him she held a place apart. Her
response was the display of powers of understanding
that had been dormant, but, even by their use, she woke
to new possibilities of self-suspicion. The thought of
him possessed her. She had reached middle life un-
touched by any individual influence, and he, by his
condition and his age (he was sixty-two when their
correspondence began), disarmed misgivings. Yet the
scruples fostered by her Port Royal training could not
be stilled. She feared the warm delight of human
sympathy, and made a torment of that which might
have been the consolation of her closing years. Her
enquiries as to the possibility of sin in her attachment
to Bossuet were constantly reiterated, although his re-
plies conveyed unfaltering assurance that any comfort
she could derive from him was a gift to her from God.
He himself found solace from perplexity and labour in
their intercourse, and he turned to it in the midst of
combatting Jurieu and Protestantism, or Fenelon and his
Quietist supporters. When he cast a thought towards
326 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
Jouarre, as he bent over his books at Meaux or Germigny
or in his library in Paris, no flash of intuition revealed to
him his own significance among the forces that had
made experience for Henriette d'Albert. The business
of his life had left no space for study of the character of
women, and he was disposed to assume in others a
simplicity equal to his own. His commentary on him-
self, when Madame Guyon was in question, reveals this
inherent quality of guilelessness.
" It is too much to say that my penetration is too keen
to be defied," he wrote to Madame d'Albert ; " you
cannot say more than that I am cautious and try to be
on my guard against any trickery that can be employed.
One may be as much misled by not believing enough
as by believing too much."*
Yet Madame Guyon managed to set his boasted
caution at nought and to deceive him endlessly. He
was not less blind concerning Madame d'Albert. And
so in leisure hours, especially at Germigny, writing to her
became a pleasant habit indulged without misgiving.
He tells her of his literary plans, he asks her opinion
and advice, he sends her his books, he even desires her
assistance in the guidance of one of his spiritual charges,
Madame Cornuau, with whom she was intimate, and
is ready to defer to her counsels.f In the early days of
their friendship he refers to his affection in such terms
as these : " The question now is not of my need of your
help " she was gathering information that he needed
" you yourself are dear to me, and it is God who has given
us this friendship."^: Further he assures her that her
letters never weary him however long they may be ;
and as it is plain that they were often of portentous
length this assurance should be given its full weight as
evidence of friendship.
The warmth of his feeling was obvious, and he meant
that it should be so. Yet it was hard for her to believe
that she was cherished as friend and confidante by the
greatest thinker of the day : so hard that she needed
* Correspondance, vol. vii, No. 1249. t Ibid., vol. vi, No. 989.
\ Ibid., vol. iv, No. 646. Ibid., vol. v, No. 701.
The Nun of Jouarre 327
constant reassurance, while he, having once established
a compact of confidence between them, was puzzled
beyond measure when she lamented his withdrawal from
it and plied him with questions as to his sentiments
towards her.
" I wish greatly, my daughter, that you would grasp
once and for all that I am not changeable towards my
friends, and less so towards you than anyone in the
world . . . there are times, however, when I acknow-
ledge that it is difficult for me to write "* from such
remonstrances we learn how far Henriette d' Albert fell
short of his ideal of the friend by whom his declining
years might have been cheered. Her ineradicable self-
consciousness could not accept his simplicity, and her
sense of her own failure in this respect was not the least
part of her suffering. Neither of these two, however,
would have regarded the happiness of human inter-
course as an object in itself. If it had been possible for
Madame d'Albert to be satisfied she would have found
reason for alarm in the sense of satisfaction, while
Bossuet, when the solace of friendship failed him, re-
turned with undiminished zest to the intellectual labour
from which it was only a transient distraction. There-
fore his theory that a Divine purpose lay behind their
intimacy, and that there was a mutual obligation between
them, was not disturbed by the incompleteness of their
understanding.
Even the close study of his sermons hardly prepares
us for the deep spirituality of some of his letters of
direction. He attributed all that was precious in his
personal teaching to inspiration : ' That which I say
to you does not imply that I possess the penetration re-
garding the purposes of God which you attribute to me.
It is enough for me that at the moment when the
souls of which He has given me charge have need He
enriches my poverty for them, and most especially for
yours. "f " Concerning that which you remember I
said to you about the close association of confidence
and love I wish I was able to repeat it, but such things
* Correspondance, vol. vi, No. 1148. f Ibid-, vol. vi, No. 1157.
328 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
as these pass from me altogether. They seem to be
given to meet the particular moment, and at the moment
I give what I have received. The foundation remains
with me always, but these testimonies leave no trace
when they are made. I cannot go back on them if I
would."* " As to my own conditions there is little
to be said save that by my office I am a channel which
carries enlightenment to others, and I have grave reason
to fear that I am that and no more. But at least one
must pass on and spread that which one has been given
so far as is possible, and strive to make some drop of it
one's own."f
This was no transient theory ; in long-past dealings
with Bellefonds the same thought had possessed him.
The self-confident theologian became diffident and awe-
struck before the responsibility of that charge which
seemed to him directly and essentially supernatural. How-
ever much she may have suffered Henriette d'Albert
was supremely fortunate, for the guidance she received,
in difficult years when mind and spirit were moved with
crowding thoughts and longings, could hardly, under
human limitations, have been more clearly of Divine
infusion. Her pilgrimage, although it seemed to her so
isolated, was along a path that many other feet have trod,
for, when she emerged from the maze of difficulty in
which the spirit of a lax Community involved her, the
first exhilaration over her deliverance was clouded al-
most at once by the mysterious shadows of which aspiring
souls, and these only, have knowledge.
It seemed to her that as she sprang forward seeking
certainty of God's abiding Presence she met the Devil,
and that he laid violent hands on her. She believed the
experience to be individual to herself, and that it revealed
a moral obliquity of which, in the flat indifference of the
years that lay behind, she had had no inkling. Bossuet
when he touched a question never left it till he had gone
to its root. The pressure of many occupations was not
too great for him to give himself to the task of healing
* Correspondence, vol. iv, No. 614, and vol. xii, No. 1966.
f Ibid., vol. vi, No. 1137.
The Nun of Jouarre 329
this sickness in the soul with which God had charged
him. He placed himself beside Henriette d'Albert
and brought the calmness of his mind to still the feverish
distress of hers.
" As regards these miseries," he wrote to her, " I
suspect that your condition of nerves is much concerned
with them, and that it is being used by God for His
own ends and also by the powers of evil for theirs.
God tests you, brings you into subjection, forces you to
recognize and to experience your own lack of power that
the overwhelming power of His Grace may triumph in
your heart. On the other hand the Evil One tempts
you to indolence and to despair. Refuse everything
except the knowledge of your own nothingness and go
forward hoping against hope 1 "* It was not his
method to underrate her trials, but rather to secure the
utilizing of them. " I do not desire that you should
covet suffering" he said, reverting to the Port Royal
ideals and phraseology " all that I ask is that you should
submit to the Will of God by which it comes to you."f
This idea of the Will of God even in temptation and distress
was the keynote of his instructions to her ; it counter-
acted the terrors with which Jansenist doctrine had im-
bued her and taught her that love burnt at its brightest
behind the shadows that seemed most impenetrable.
' We must not try and regulate the species of discipline
which it may please God to impose upon His servants ;
we must yield ourselves to His Hands that He may im-
print the Cross of Our Lord upon us in whatever form
He pleases. And we need not trouble to discriminate
between the results of our own weakness or the expression
of His Will, because, if the first and most likely explana-
tion be correct, it is none the less true that God can fulfil
His purpose by using means which were not of His in-
spiration. He holds all things in His Hands, even our
follies and our desire of evil and our sins themselves.
He can mould it all to serve towards our salvation."^:
This was not teaching that Bossuet could have applied
* CorresponJance, vol. iv, No. 582.
f Ibid., vol. vii, No. 1249. \ Ibid., vol. v, No. 738.
33 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
to general use ; it was susceptible of twisting into a
semblance of that doctrine which he most abhorred,
for the Quietist declared that his sin was no contra-
diction of his complete surrender to the Will of God.
But Henriette d'Albert ran no risk from Quietist allure-
ment ; her nature was utterly devoid of self-complacency,
and the direction she received was for herself alone,
there was nothing stereotyped about it. The work
of such suspected writers as Malaval on the one hand,
and Saint Cyran on the other, was innocuous for her.*
The wider the field permitted to her thought the greater
was her chance of spiritual and mental health, and she
had good reason to be thankful that, at a period when
prejudice and narrow judgment ruled the system of
direction, she found a guide who recognized her need of
special treatment and could relax accepted rules for the
formation of a good Religious. The sense of his Divine
commission shows itself at many differing points in the
career of Bossuet, but never more plainly than in his
relation to Madame d'Albert. At those moments when
he is confident that God is using him for her he demands
absolute trust, and he arrogates to himself the most
complete authority. " The time has come when it is
necessary that you should trust yourself to me entirely,"
he told her in 1694, and he exhorts her to conceal nothing
from him that he may help her to fulfil whatever God
demands of her.f His insistence is characteristic. His
acceptance of her as a charge from God had the same
completeness as if it concerned the undertaking of an
intricate controversy. He could not consent that any
knowledge of her spiritual state should remain outside
his grasp.
It is not likely that he foresaw the degree to which
she would test his patience. To him a decision once
given precluded need for repetition, while she went back
again and again to her starting-point. He never seems
to have failed her, however, and it is only now and then
that there is a note of severity, a clear injunction that
* Correspondance, vol. vii, Nos. 1219, 1224.
f Ibid., vol. vi, No. 989.
The Nun of Jouarre 331
certain questions must not be asked again nor the sense
of their replies evaded : " Always understand that when
I give you a decision I am forbidding what is contrary
to it."* ' You give yourself needless distress by saying
that I do not answer you on certain points. The answer
lies in the principles I give you and you must find it for
yourself. It is often desirable to resort to this method
of answering because a soul can learn by it to seek
Eternal Truth within herself ; that is to say, to listen for
its verdict. "f But his attempt to enforce discipline and
to ignore the repetition of questions when sufficient re-
sponse had once been given collapsed before the dis-
tress that severity evoked in Madame d'Albert, and
rebuke faded into mild remonstrance at the waste of time
which each might have been using to far better purpose.
He made his endeavour to temper sympathy with firm-
ness because the free indulgence of her scrupulosity
entailed grave risk of ever-recurring miseries, and failed
altogether to understand the difficulties by which
their intercourse was entangled ; yet the dilemma was
part of the responsibility he had accepted. " Perhaps
God sends you these perpetual questionings as a test
of your patience and of mine " he wrote, giving simple
application to his theory of " the Invisible Hand that is
guiding all things and works through the temperament
of each of us to lead us wherever we are to go."||
And all that stood for failure in the temperament of
Henriette d'Albert does seem to have been of profit to
Bossuet. She knew an intimate agony of soul which was
outside his personal experience, and his appreciation
of its reality and its importance only came to him by
his endeavour to comprehend the difficulties that claimed
solution before he attempted to give guidance. His
own habit of spiritual reserve did not facilitate such com-
prehension, and he could never bring himself to approve
the self-scrutiny she practised : " Above all, avoid the
fashion of seeking to discover what stage you have reached
* Correspondance, vol. iv, No. 610. f Ibid., vol. vi, No. 939.
\ Ibid., vol. vi, No. 1014. Ibid., vol. vi, No. 1056.
|| Ibid., vol. v, No. 713.
Jacques Benigne Bossuet
in prayer. I do not approve of the plan of seeking to mark
out each step and of making rules for God to show Him
what ought to happen as each one is reached, saying :
1 this is the mark of such and such a stage.' Secret pre-
sumption is at work in this, and self-love runs riot.
For my part I hold that God may put a very perfect soul
back to the alphabet of prayer without its suffering loss,
and advance another to perfection while it thinks itself
entangled in its earliest hindrances."*
This is wise counsel, and its giver may have learnt as
much in the reflection that produced it reflection
foreign to his ordinary lines of thought as did its
recipient. Theologian and student of human nature
though he was, he never learned that his own simplicity
was not the invariable complement of sincere devotion
until the soul of Henriette d'Albert was laid bare before
him.
" Do not try to discover if God is satisfied with you,
my daughter ; that is a secret which He does not re-
veal." " Do not allow yourself to reflect on the kind
of grace bestowed upon you . . . the more you free
yourself from such inquiry the better ; you cannot give
yourself too freely to the leading of the Holy Spirit who
prays in you as He wills and not as you intend "t to
him such obvious truths needed no saying, but her
anxious questioning required their constant repetition.
Although she had no Quietist proclivities she gave him
new knowledge of the aspiring souls to whom Quietism
was so grave a peril, and some of his letters to her show
him engaged in puzzled study of this science of intro-
spection which to Fe'nelon was as second nature. One
sentence held his rule for the spiritual life : " It is
enough if one's whole heart can say ' My God, I love
what Thou lovest and I renounce all that is not pleasing
to Thee," and it was by that standard that he judged
himself to have failed. His sense of his own continual
shortcomings was shown in his frank acknowledgment
* Correspondence, vol. vi, No. 1127 (see also to Madame Cornuau,
vol. iv, No. 541).
t lbid. t vol. vi, Nos. 1067, 1013. \ Ibid. t vol. vi, No. 975.
The Nun of Jouarre 333
that the difficulty felt by many a good Religious in finding
subject for Confession had never come within his personal
experience.*
There were moments, however, when Madame
d'Albert succeeded in enticing him into the self-dis-
section which was her delight. He yielded under pro-
test, but he did yield. " I do not know why you should
wish to know these things ; there is no use in knowing
them," he wrote, but before such a letter ends he is
endeavouring to satisfy her curiosity " you are right
in guessing that I have been given infinite longing for
the virtue that you speak of so much so that it appears
to me to be the true foundation of sanctity ; but it is
one thing to long for it and quite another to make it my
own in the measure that God requires of me."f
Even to her he gave this type of confidence very rarely,
yet by her speculations she did contrive to force denial or
acknowledgment. " It is true that my idea of poverty,
inward and outward, is so high that I feel my love for it
to be as my love for Jesus Christ. All that I have seems
to be merely borrowed, and all that suggests advance-
ment only shows me the complete emptiness of my natural
self. And how can I hope to be satisfied or ever to
escape from vacancy so long as I am content to snatch at
shadows with eager hand and gaping mouth ? "^ Perhaps
it was salutary to be forced by her insistence and his
native honesty to reveal the severance between his vision
and his practice. Many years earlier he had recognized
his capacity to guide where he could not follow, and in
those intimate communings of his later life his self-
arraignment became more direct.
' It is the last beatitude that stands for perfection
and on which Our Lord was most insistent ... to
grow pure the soul must pass through the fire of suffering.
Alas, I have not the courage for it. Pray that God will
give it to me."
His candour did not lower him in the esteem of
Henriette d'Albert or lessen her deference to his direc-
* CorresponJance, vol. iv, No. 621. f Ibid., vol. vi, No. 1102.
\ Ibid., vol. vi, No. 1114. Ibid., vol. iv, No. 649.
334 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
tion. He saw in her the capacity for sanctity, and for her
he visualized conditions that were beyond his own en-
deavour. The isolation essential to the mystic had been
clear to his imagination forty years earlier, and it grew
clear to him again ; only experience had shown him
dangers that were not patent to his early musings.
" Silence and withdrawal are necessary for the prayer
of contemplation, but if withdrawal was meant to keep
us fixed on the thought of God within ourselves Jesus
Christ would not have called on us to say daily ' Our
Father, which art in Heaven.' "*
That is the caution of the practised theologian to
whom the vague phrases of the pious were intolerable,
and Madame d'Albert benefited by the quality in
Bossuet which alienated Madame Guyon. She had the
scholarly instinct that responds with confidence to the
truth conveyed in justly measured words, and his
spiritual direction aided the development of her richly
gifted mind. In the last ten years of her life she lived
anew ; she had a mission towards the learned bishop,
the great celebrity, and the imperfections of her manner
of fulfilling it did not lessen its importance. For her
own peace, and possibly for her full spiritual growth,
he impressed himself too much upon her. (And here
comparison with Frangois de Sales is unavoidable, and
we are reminded of the wide gulf that divides the intel-
lectual from the saint.) The director of Henriette
d'Albert was, as he so constantly averred, the channel
rather than the depository of grace, and the disturbance
which undoubtedly he brought to her was due to the
domination of his mind over hers. It was to her
capacity for intellectual response that she owed his
friendship, but if he had concerned himself only with
her soul perhaps her debt to him would have been
greater. The letters she received from him in 1698,
when he was distracted by the anxiety of the Quietism
controversy, leave no doubt as to the consolation
her sympathy afforded him. In this she had reason
to esteem herself supremely favoured. The true mystic
* Correspondence, vol. vi, No. 939.
The Nun of ' Jouarre ^ 335
has no need of favour, however, and surrenders earthly
friendship without dismay, and we cannot judge of the
real spiritual capacities of Madame d'Albert because
she was never subjected to the test of deprivation. In
1699 she died.
Chapter XXIV. Bossuet the Director
ONE of the melancholy results of the Quietism
controversy is the fashion of contrasting Bossuet
and Fe*nelon, and of assuming that where the one
succeeded the other was of necessity a failure. The
Dauphin's tutor would be judged far less severely if the
Duke of Burgundy had not responded so readily to
discipline ; and more might be known of the quiet work
of the Bishop of Meaux as a director of souls if the fame
of the Archbishop of Cambrai in that capacity had been
less world-wide.
The Fe*nelon of tradition is interpreted by his spiritual
letters ; his personal impress is upon each one, while the
counsels of Bossuet to his penitents reveal the individual
to whom they are addressed and the capacity for self-
repression in the director rather than his personality.
The Spiritual Letters of Fenelon are among the classics
of devotional literature while those of Bossuet are over-
looked, and by this fact alone the inferiority of Bossuet's
method is proved beyond dispute. Nevertheless his work
as a director, in its relation to his character and its
contrast to the work of Fenelon, demands particular
attention. The divergence of their respective theories
is evident. Fenelon claimed implicit obedience to a
system ; it was one which accorded with his own
sentiments, and which evoked admiration from persons
of great spiritual capacity ; he applied it unvaryingly
to all who appealed to him, and his letters have enshrined
it for the benefit of succeeding generations. He was
credited with possessing a panacea for every spiritual ill ;
he had only one, however, and to obtain it it was neces-
sary to place unwavering trust in a physician who never
altered or adapted his treatment to differing tempera-
ments. The method justified itself, for Fenelon had no
rival as a spiritual guide. His success suggests that his
insistence on absolute surrender was the secret of his
fascination for many of his disciples-; had he been less
rigid he would not have sustained their fervour.
The attractiveness of spiritual despotism and its com-
parative value among spiritual forces is a theme for the
Bossuet the Director 337
psychologist, and the correspondence of Fdnelon should
be of assistance in its study. It is curious, on the other
hand, to find Bossuet, the typical autocrat in matters of
Faith, approaching the office of director with diffidence.
" I make no reply because God had given me nothing
for you." " I must wait and see what God suggests to
me." Phrases of this kind occur repeatedly in his letters
to his penitents, and in his relations with them his humi-
lity is beyond question. Assuredly he had no thought
that his counsels would ever be made public, but a year
after his death his Letters of Direction to Madame
Cornuau * were submitted to Cardinal de Noailles.
The impression of the Quietism controversy was still
fresh in the mind of one so intimately connected with it as
the archbishop ; he had good cause to remember the
temporary aberration of passion and intellectual jealousy
to which Bossuet had yielded, and these Letters, some of
which were written during the combat, came to him as a
revelation. He saw their importance in any future effort
to establish the reputation of the great theologian on its
true basis. ' They are proof," he declared, " of the
light of the interior life which this great mind received
from God. So many people maintain that he was
lacking in such light. This should show them their
mistake, "f
A mistake of this nature, however, is difficult to cor-
rect, and it is due to the Religious Houses in his diocese
that the real character of Bossuet has emerged from the
skilful calumnies of his enemies. The fact that his
richest knowledge was only given form for the assistance
of the nuns in the many convents surrounding Meaux
is in itself significant.
" On the Feast of the Holy Innocents he gave us a
meditation so full of the Spirit of God that we lamented
all the important affairs which are depriving the world
of his works of piety ": that is the testimony of a
Superior of the Visitation in 1698 when the Quietism
controversy was raging.
* See Note on Madame Cornuau (CorresponJance, vol. iv, No. 507).
f Revue Bossuet, October 1904. f Ibid,, December 1907.
338 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
Long before that date he had begun to circulate
written copies of his Instructions among the different
houses under his jurisdiction. On the manuscript of
his celebrated Traite de la Concupiscence it is noted that
he wrote it at the desire of a Religious in his diocese,
and the name he gave it was Considerations of Some
Words of St. John. The first suggestion of his In-
structions on the Sacred Mysteries and of his Meditations
on the Gospels * may have come to him when he was
tutor to the Dauphin, but it was the nuns of the Visitation
who claimed their full development, and in the twenty
years of study of his Master's teaching that intervened
he had added to his discoveries. Indeed, it is hard to
understand how the time-worn fable of his ignorance of
mysticism can survive in face of those Meditations on
the Gospels.
There is close connection between his devotional
writings and his work as a director of souls, and in both
he was governed by the same instinct of reserve and of
austerity. He drew from the richest treasures of his
thought when he wrote for the inmates of provincial
convents, and he lavished his solicitude on spiritual
charges with no claim on worldly importance. And here
it is fair to ask whether some part at least of Fe"nelon's
celebrity was not due to the halo of aristocracy surrounding
all his penitents. Their magnificence was indeed a
legitimate basis on which to build his reputation, for it
was one of the privileges of greatness to command the
most skilled spiritual assistance. His popularity among
the pious duchesses testified to his capacity. It was
characteristic of Bossuet, however, in the later years
when the direction of souls made insistent claim upon his
time, to ignore social significance in a spiritual relation-
ship ; even when his ambitions were most vivid they were
held in a place apart from the hidden source of his de-
* A curious instance of the strength of party spirit was given in 1731
and 1732 when the Jesuits attacked these books then newly-published
as being unorthodox and in favour of " the heresies of Quietism and
Calvinism." See J. B. Bossuet, v$que de Troyes : Instruction pastorale
au sujet des catomnies avance"es dans le " Journal de Trfooux " (1733)-
Bossuet the Director 339
votional life. There were, no doubt, many individuals
in the world and in religion who asked and obtained
assistance from him during his years of ministry in Paris,
yet this side of his priest's vocation had not been de-
veloped. To prove it we have the testimony of Pheli-
peaux that curiosity was aroused by his long interview
with Madame Guyon in 1694 in the convent in the
Rue Cassette, " because it had never been his custom
to allow his precious time to be thus occupied."*
It is clear that his time did not become less precious
as his years increased, and therefore some craving in
himself must have impelled him to occupy a portion of it
in tasks of personal direction. Through his penitents
he could see the simple practice of the Faith and its effects,
and he was weary of striving to visualize the mental out-
look of the unbeliever and to disentangle the complicated
webs of truth and heresy which the scholars of his day
seemed to delight in spinning. His attitude of mind is
best exemplified in his dealings with Marie Cornuau.
The Abbe Bossuet, whose whole being was concentrated
on the quest of souls in Paris, would never have accorded
intimate direction to that devout widow ; but the
Bishop of Meaux, thirty years later, gave without stint
from his wealth of knowledge and experience to the un-
lettered woman of the middle class who forced herself
upon his notice. Her character is reflected in the letters
addressed to her. Evidently she was an eager, restless
being, given to small ambitions and to small calculations
tending to their achievement, and she was fully alive
to the value of a celebrated name, and had formed the
deliberate intention of securing for herself a share in
Bossuet's renown. Her nature was in sharp contrast
to that of Madame d'Albert, yet a close friendship
existed between them, and from this it is fair to assume
that Madame Cornuau has done herself less than justice
by her methods of courting publicity. Moreover, in the
regard of the observant the sincerity and force of her
admiration for Bossuet must counterbalance the folly
of her little tricks and egotisms ; and the laboured
* Phelipeauz : op. cit., vol. i, p. 84.
34 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
affectation of the preface she composed for her collec-
tion of his letters will not lessen the value of the book
itself. Indeed, when she published these Instructions
which during fourteen years she had received from
Bossuet she placed a rich storehouse of wisdom at the
disposal of the world.*
Marie Cornuau was born in Paris in 1653 ; at fifteen
she married the bailiff of the Comte de Bellay, and was
left a widow fourteen years later. She had relatives at
La Ferte*-sur-Jouarre, and withdrew thither with her
only child. Certain devout women in that locality had
united themselves under a Superior, Madame de Tan-
queux, in one of the educational endeavours which were
so popular among charitable persons in that period.
In 1691 this experiment was absorbed in a regular
Community founded by the celebrated Madame de
Miramion, which had had great success in Paris.f
When Madame Cornuau was enlisted among its sup-
porters, however, its purpose and regulations were still
undefined, and their incoherence supplied the new re-
cruit with opportunity to prove her capacity for enter-
prise. Bossuet had just been appointed bishop of the
diocese, and as soon as there was reasonable hope of
attracting his notice to herself and her Community she
applied to him for sanction of the rule. This was the
beginning of the connection which was the joy and glory
of her existence. Bold and skilful manipulation as well
as patience must have been demanded before she attained
the goal towards which she aspired, but she did actually
construct for herself from the most unpromising materials
a position of interest and importance. The process was
laborious. The devout ladies of La Ferte*-sur-Jouarre
were not Religious and their labours were of a normal
and ordinary kind ; among the many claims upon their
bishop theirs cannot have assumed any special prominence,
and between 1682 and 1686 Madame Cornuau did not
advance very far towards the personal intercourse with
celebrity which she coveted. So small was the result
* See Correspondence, vol. iv, appendix ii.
f See Revue Bossuet, June 1905.
Bossuet the Director 341
of her first efforts that, in consonance with Bossuet's
theory of the supernatural ordering of all events, she
could claim that her success was not attained by in-
dividual endeavour. Indeed, the degree of her success
exceeded all reasonable anticipation. It was in 1686
that the bishop's wide benevolence moved him to give
Instructions to the Sisterhood, and in response to an
earnest petition from La Soeur Cornuau he received her
confession after a Retreat. Evidently he was quite un-
conscious of the immense importance that she attached
to this event (had he been aware of it her plea would have
been more likely to meet with a refusal), and their sub-
sequent correspondence indicated that at the time he
felt no special solicitude regarding her spiritual progress
his sympathy was more readily attracted by simpler
natures. She had her part to play towards him,
however, and that which her pertinacity could hardly
have achieved unaided did come to pass by gradual
degrees.* A few years later she was writing to him with
the freedom and frequency of the privileged corres-
pondent.
These details indicate the inherent quality of the
woman to whom so large a number of Bossuet's spiritual
letters are addressed, and the interest of them is enhanced
by the evidence of their practical effectiveness. The nun
of Torcy mourning the loss of a wise director and a
kindly friend when the great bishop died was a very
different person from the restless, scheming dame who
had been the centre of so many petty jealousies in the
lay Community at La Ferte. Her tendency to deceit
always remained ; she juggled with his letters, f altering
dates and representing every passage of interest she
could collect from others as intended for herself ; never-
theless, she was susceptible to the impress of those deep
convictions and high standards which were so much
more prominent in her experience of Bossuet than
eloquence or learning. " Pressing and important as
were his labours, no pains were too great to expend on
* Revue Bossuet (1904), pp. 205-208.
f Correspondance, vol. iv, appendix ii.
34 2 Jacques Benigne Bos suet
the humble and unworthy charge that he had under-
taken. . . . He said that he recognized only the seal
which was set by God upon a soul, and did not regard
high birth and distinction as giving added value."*
Such was her enthusiastic tribute to the principle on
which Bossuet accepted spiritual responsibility.
So far as her capacity allowed Marie Cornuau re-
sponded to the immense privilege accorded to her, and
when it was secured she ceased to have ambitions that
were separable from the devout life. The vanity that
in the world finds satisfaction in small social triumphs
demands, under the influence of conversion, to excel
in the practice of austerity, and seeks visible methods
of manifesting fervour. She began by requiring a
rule that was far stricter than that of her companions ;
she wished to fast, to keep night watches, to use the
discipline, to feel herself set apart from others by a
higher call. This was the opening stage of her new
venture, and Bossuet's method of dealing with it sug-
gests his dearth of experience where this type of spiritual
aspirant was concerned. At first he encouraged her
eagerness and consented to her suggestions ; his common
sense was not long in coming to his aid, however,
and he saw that direction cannot wisely be given to one
of a group of women without reference to its effect
on others. La Soeur Cornuau was not perhaps adverse
from the discovery of her secret severities, for it is clear
that such discoveries were not infrequent and caused
a certain amount of sensation in the Community. Her
director had too much native wisdom to put any sudden
check upon her, but the tidings that reached him of her
visible extravagances gave him the clue to her hidden
failings. " It is not advisable that you should rise earlier
than others if this, even in the smallest degree, is a cause
of annoyance to your sisters. . . . Kindliness and
obedience are of much deeper value than prayers and
penances. "f " People are disposed to imagine that
" Premier divertissement pour les Lettres " (CorresportJance, vol. iv,
appendix ii).
f CorresponJance, vol. iv, No. 619.
Bossuet the Director 343
nothing is beyond their reach if only they torment
themselves sufficiently."*
Either of these observations was calculated to dis-
turb the pleasing vision of herself which Marie Cornuau
was cherishing. The heroism of getting up at dawn
appealed to her imagination, while the virtue of consider-
ing the foibles of her fellow-workers presented no attrac-
tion. Bossuet, when he paused in the midst of labours
that concerned the faith of millions, watched her with
eager interest, and she had much to teach him. It was
by his endeavour to guide her through the labyrinth of
spiritual follies into which she strayed, that he learnt how
to write his studies of the Sacred Mysteries so that the
unlearned might realize the deepest things as being
also the simplest. His penitent, aided by a vivid
imagination and an undeveloped mind, discovered the
pitfalls in paths that seemed to him devoid of peril.
His many Instructions intended for the Religious of his
diocese make provision for the tendencies of pious souls
to stray into extravagance, and this element of caution is
nowhere more remarkable than in the study of " The
Life Hidden in God " t (written at Easter 1692), which in
its small compass holds convincing proof of his under-
standing of the life of prayer. Plainly he was grateful
for the opportunity to bring into the light the treasures
he had been garnering in secret. In 1695, wnen ne was
groaning under the overwhelming pressure of other
labour, he wrote to Madame d'Albert that he was work-
ing at his Instructions for the Community, and that this
" involved no weariness but rather was a refreshment."^:
The sense of sympathy in those for whom he wrote was
an inspiration to his hard-worked brain weary with a life-
time of contention. " Keep this letter, for some day I
may want a copy of it and of my last. Sometimes I am
asked for an opinion on these questions of prayer, and I
know that I never reply to such good purpose as when I
am dealing with those for whom God holds me answer-
able." That is clear evidence that he was conscious
* Correspondance t vo\.'\v,No.6^i. t CEuvres, vol. vii.
Correspondence, vol. vii, No. 1235. $ Ibid., vol. vi. No. 1127.
344 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
of his own debt to those who claimed from him the
deepest knowledge that he had to give. Once when
the two sisters at Jouarre, whose appreciation meant so
much to him, expressed their wonder at his power to in-
spire and convince them, he said that when he had teach-
ing to communicate he was careful first to absorb it
thoroughly himself.* He was, indeed, too learned to
imagine that the time for learning could pass while life
endured.
It was this grave simplicity of his that impressed and
steadied that restless little egotist, La Soeur Cornuau,
until her quest for novelties in penance gave place to a
deeper longing, and all that was frivolous and erratic
in her nature became subordinated to the great idea that
took possession of her. We do not know if the sugges-
tion of her own vocation as a Religious came to her from
any human source ; certainly it was not derived from her
director, who was disposed to regard it as a passing fancy.
In the gradual development of her purpose, however,
Marie Cornuau drew from Bossuet many letters that are
full of precious teaching. It is possible that he was
never 'convinced that the vocation of which he heard so
much had absolute reality ; the Community at La Ferte
gave scope for self-surrender, for humility, for the
practice of obedience, and the spirit of the true Religious
might have rested in it until a clear call to some other
field was audible. La Soeur Cornuau spurned the idea
of uniting her supernatural aspirations with her use of
the conditions in which she found herself, but the
wisdom of her director turned her self-assertion to good
account. When she demanded " rules of perfection "
in the evident hope of an opportunity for impressive fasts
and deprivations he gave her these : " Not to regard
her own concerns but rather the concerns of others
because if she followed the precept of St. Paul closely
in this she would never give way to temper or yield to
her own desire, but would be mindful, in all that she said
and did, of the best means of bringing comfort and help
to others. And for this end another reminder of St.
* Ledieu : MJmoires, p. 1 20,
Bossuet the Director 345
Paul was the best incentive : ' Even Christ pleased not
Himself.' "* Soaring aspirations are not easy to recall
to the familiar ground of our duty to our neighbour, and
the strength of Bossuet's influence over his erratic
penitent is proved by her acceptance of such prosaic
directions.
In sixty years of life he had learnt very little about
women, and the fact that Marie Cornuau belonged to a
type that is extremely common in every generation
would have afforded him no help in forming his judgment
of her. He approached her without prejudice, and, when
she professed an overwhelming desire to enrol herself
among the Poor Clares in the neighbourhood of La
Trappe, he considered the suggestion in all its bearings
before pronouncing it to be impracticable. At that
time it did not occur to him that to dream of herself as a
Poor Clare gave a tinge of romance to the monotonous
routine of service that made up the life of a Sister at La
Ferte. He became more enlightened as the months
went by. It was in December 1691 that she began her
intercourse with Jouarre, and the Sisters there with whom
she had acquaintance introduced her to Madame d'Albert.
Bossuet consented to her visits provided they were not
entangled with petty mysteries and jealousies " such as
women are apt to indulge in."f Thenceforward there
were no more interludes to her periods of restlessness.
The impression of stateliness at Jouarre appealed to her
imagination, and, by contrast with the dignity of an
ancient Order, the Community at La Ferte, with its ex-
perimental rule and constitutions, became insupportable.
And thereupon the shadowy sense of vocation crystallized
into a certainty that, in defiance of all reasonable possi-
bility, she would be admitted to the companionship of
the Ladies of Jouarre.
" I do not know why it is that you have such clear
vision on these points while mine is so dim " Bossuet
wrote to her " unless it be that God means to test you
by giving you a great desire for which accomplishment
* Correspondance, vol. iv, No. 563.
f Ibid., No. 664.
346 'Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
is not intended."* That was a favourite theory of his.
' When God calls us to embark on something which He
does not allow us to fulfil He confers a twofold benefit :
first we are uplifted by a high desire, and afterwards we
become the stronger and the humbler by His refusal
of it."t
In a long life that had held its share of disappointed
hopes he had tested for himself the full worth of the
teaching he instilled, but it was not palatable doctrine
to an eager, self-willed woman. It is plain that in his
regard for La Soeur Cornuau there was no vestige of the
yearning sympathy he gave to Madame d'Albert ; he
watched her rather with the eyes of the spiritual physician,
marking symptoms, but never deviating from the principle
of treatment on which he had decided. She tried his
patience by her perpetual demand on his attention.
" All this talking is not required to guide a soul "
he told her " when you have said what needs saying my
silence should be sufficient reassurance."^: There was
no danger, as with Madame d'Albert, of checking her
too briskly ; La Soeur Cornuau was irrepressible, and
Bossuet with a touch of humour suggests that when
she is writing one of her long letters she should put
any question requiring prompt reply on a separate sheet,
because the main communication is always set aside
till he has ample leisure.^
Yet when she wearied him most he gave only the more
generously, for he had accepted her as a charge from
God, and God's work in her must needs be accomplished
under his guidance. Even if she deceived herself in her
wish to be a nun he regarded her suffering on account of
this unaccomplished longing as having absolute reality,
and he held that all suffering faithfully accepted brought
benefit to a Christian soul.
' You are misled by your great desire and you create
your own misfortunes," || he told her when she bemoaned
her disappointments. " You ask me to consider the
likelihood of that which is utterly impossible. Let the
* Correspondance, vol. vii, No. 968. f Ibid., vol. vi, No. 1040.
\ Ibid., vol. v, No. 809. Ibid., No. 740. || Ibid., No. 839.
Bossuet the Director 347
matter rest. Do not think that I want to thwart you,
my daughter, but I cannot bear that you should have so
much distress to no purpose."* From the fruitlessness
of his exhortations he concluded that her obsession was
as true a part of the Divine intention for her as if her
vocation to Religion had been self-evident. " In many
directions your desire only brings you unhappiness ;
on the other hand its effect on you is that of a purifying
fire which consumes your faults and restlessness, and
makes you more worthy of your Lord."f
Marie Cornuau idealized herself and her imagined
future, and her constant preoccupation with an ideal was
useful in its effect although her vision had small relation
to reality. Bossuet had the skill to turn her follies to her
profit ; possibly he was not aware of the full extent
of them, but if some of her expressions of fervour and
plans for self-torment were prompted by the desire to
arrest his attention they were converted into the text for
invaluable counsels. He showed her that if her love
was real it would not express itself in outward act so
much as in that inner surrender to the Will of God of
which she had not grasped the rudiments. She might
not cling even to the delight she found in prayer. " All
things are transitory, that which God gives as much as
the rest. He only is unchanging, and He gives and
withdraws His gifts according to a law that is immutable,
but is known to Him alone." " During this life we
must go forward groping and ask God that during each
moment we may leave our will within His grasp and be
untroubled. That is what reality of love implies, my
daughter." " To worship God truly is the highest
vocation of all ; for that assumes such perfect conformity
with the Will of God that there can be nothing higher
and nothing of self-will is left ; without this the truth
is not in us, for the truth consists in being absolutely
conformed to whatever God requires of us, however un-
expected it may be.":}:
It was to this lesson of complete abandonment that
* Correspondence, vol. v, No. 825. j~ Ibid., vol. vi, No. 924.
\ Ibid., vol. vi, Nos. 1059, 1029 ; vol. v, No. 864.
348 Jacques Eenigne Eos suet
he always returned in the teaching of his later years, and
it was particularly applicable to the feverish doubts and
longings of La Soeur Cornuau. She had become so un-
settled in her relations with her own Community by her
friendship with the Ladies of Jouarre that Bossuet made
interest with the Abbess and obtained permission for
her to take up her abode with them. She was very
anxious for the change, but it brought her no nearer to
peace when it was accomplished, and her position at
Jouarre was anomalous. If the benevolence of her
director appears excessive the explanation is to be found
in his confidence in the promise of her future, a con-
fidence that was not disturbed by his growing compre-
hension of her weaknesses. He had allowed distractions,
intellectual and worldly, to hamper his own endeavour
after personal holiness, but there was no limit to his
aspirations for the souls entrusted to his care.
Nevertheless, in spite of her personal devotion to him
he failed to imbue La Sceur Cornuau with his own view
regarding the vocation of all Christian souls and her
vocation in particular. " There can be only one call
from God to a Christian soul " he told her " and that
is to follow wherever He leads, renouncing or receiving
with equal readiness. God has an infinite number of
ways by which He leads us, my daughter, and all His
ways are good ; it may be said even, as He is Leader,
that all are of equal excellence."* In direct contra-
diction to these tenets she insisted on the way she had
chosen for herself as the only way that could lead her to
salvation, and would not accept the tranquillity which he
saw to be within her reach. In the routine of practical
usefulness at La Ferte" she had longed to have a share in
the life at Jouarre ; once this was attained she was
maddened by association with a condition of privilege
in which she was denied full participation. She seemed
to him to be bruising herself against a closed door instead
of lifting the latch, but his patience with her was infinite,
and he had faith that the Divine purpose would use even
her obtuseness. " We understand so little of God's
* Correspondance, vol. vii, No. 1196.
Bossuet the Director 349
dealing with us ; it is His secret ; it is not for us to try
to penetrate it ; enough that we should worship and
submit. No change in circumstances, whatever the
cause of it, can be a barrier that withholds the grace of
God from you. In His Wisdom He may seem to leave
you to yourself, a prey to temptation and despair. It is
thus that the soul is taught its own feebleness in the
struggle of the powers of good and evil, and the supreme
strength of the power of God."*
He believed that the life of prayer was really her
objective and that she was groping after the prayer of
contemplation. The place he had made for her at
Jouarre gave her every facility for the consecration of
herself to this glorious purpose ; he had acceded to her
desire for it on that account, and he was firm in refusal
of her petitions to be allowed to try other experiments.
In his own weariness and overwork he may well have
envied her her opportunities, and when at length the
door which she believed to be barred against her opened,
and she made her vows as a Religious, her position as
God's chosen servant seemed to him neither less nor
greater than it had been before. In 1696, when Madame
de Luynes became Superior of the Priory of Torcy,f
Marie Cornuau was allowed to follow her from Jouarre,
and two years later Bossuet preached at the ceremony of
her Profession.
The astonishment (not devoid of vanity) with which
she regarded the care he bestowed upon her was justified.
She must have given him reiterated disappointment and
never any clear reason for satisfaction in her advance.
His patience with her sprang from the deep fount of
humility within him which taught him to attribute her
shortcomings to his own errors. His sense of these only
spurred him to renewed vigilance, and his simplicity
proved the best tonic for a conscience weakened, as was
hers, by the disease of unreality. One of her letters has
survived in which she describes her jealousy because he
* CorresponJance, vol. vii, No. 1250.
t See Jovy : Etudes et Recherche*, Art. v, for notice preserved in
Archives Nationales of Madame d'Albert and Madame Cornuau at Torcy.
35 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
wrote at greater length to Madame d* Albert than to her-
self : " I feel that I would rather have died than have
the shame of acknowledging anything so contemptible."*
His response was a recommendation to Madame d'Albert
to refrain from showing his letters, f and he allowed the
culprit to wait in vain for the remonstrance or rebuke
which, so obviously, she desired to elicit from him. La
Soeur Cornuau suffers by comparison with Madame
d'Albert (so tragically sincere in the midst of morbid
terrors and intricate scruples). She was, as she frequently
protested, unworthy of her privilege, for she remained
a successful schemer to her life's end. Yet her record
at Torcy was that of a good Religious. Madame
d'Albert died in her arms, and she was cherished and
favoured by Madame de Luynes. Moreover, she never
slackened in the exercises of devotion and austerity that
she had adopted under Bossuet's direction, although the
standards he had placed before her those standards
which in practice bring Heaven down to earth re-
mained outside the range of her endeavour. " This nun
was very audacious, very insinuating and apt at flattery,
and nothing daunted her." Such was the epitaph
framed for her when she died by one who knew her wel!4
In fact, in the two years that had elapsed since the death
of Bossuet she had wound herself into the good graces
of Madame de Maintenon, had obtained a money allow-
ance from the King and the spiritual direction of the
Cardinal de Noailles. The success of her efforts must
be held to justify these strictures from Bossuet's secre-
tary, the Abbe* Ledieu.
Yet those who love the memory of Bossuet will
recognize that the tribute of La Soeur Cornuau was
needed to complete the record of his life of labour.
Without it some characteristics, such as his independence
and humorous wisdom, must have remained unknown.
And her shams and insincerities were sins of tempera-
* Corrtspondancc, vol. vi, No. 1151.
t Ibid., vol. vii, No. 1 21 1.
% Ledieu : Journal, vol. iii, p. 191.
Coircspondance, vol. iv, appendix ii.
Bossuet the Director
ment not combatted because not recognized. She was
sincere in faith, in her desire for self-dedication, in her
loyalty and devotion to her director. In her relations with
him she played a part of which a more elevated char-
acter would have been incapable, and for the manner
in which she played it every student of human nature in
all subsequent generations owes her a debt of gratitude.
Chapter XXV. Bossuet and his Vocation
GENTLENESS was the distinguishing feature of
Bossuet's system of direction ; we find him dis-
couraging external austerities and refusing to
acknowledge sin in many of the supposed offences which
his penitents described to him. In this he was avowedly*
the disciple of Francois de Sales, and the readiness with
which he responded to the confidences of the devout
women under his care suggests that it was a relief to
allow himself to be tender and indulgent. Indeed, he
was by nature gentle, and it was only by a gradual pro-
cess that he equipped himself with the sternness needful
to the Guardian of Orthodoxy in France. That office
once assumed, however, he was relentless in his search
for heresy. Even those with whom he was closely in
agreement feared his censoriousness, although they
realized the inestimable value of his judgment. When,
in 1699, the Benedictines of St. Maur were completing
their great edition of St. Augustine, in the midst of a
veritable tornado of accusation and abuse, f it was Mabil-
lon's part to write the preface. Infinite caution and
discretion were needed as well as immense learning,
and Mabillon asked counsel widely and wrote and re-
wrote. No one was in deeper sympathy with the pro-
ject than Bossuet, and each volume of the new edition
as it appeared had been added to his library ; moreover,
his intimacy with Mabillon had remained unbroken.
Yet when the preface was submitted to him for a final
revision his criticisms ^ were so numerous and so search-
ing that the rewriting of the whole became necessary.
It is recorded that Mabillon, faced with the sum-total
of his friend's demands, wept with disappointment and
annoyance.^
If he was thus ruthless towards those whom he ad-
* CorresponJancf, vol. vi, No. 1 104. Cf. (Euvres, St. Franfois de Sales,
vol. vi, ch. xxi, Annecy edition.
t For account of this singularly interesting episode see Butler : Bene-
dictine Monachism, p. 342 ; and Ingold : Hist, de I'e'dition be'ne'dictine de
St. Augustin, ch. vi, xi, and appendix ii, pp. 155193.
% Printed Revue Bouuet (1904), pp. 145-150.
Revue Bossuet, April 1900.
Bossuet and his Vocation 353
mired there was little hope of quarter for such un-
fortunate persons as aroused his wrath. In August 1 694
he sent to Madame d'Albert, as a friendly token,* his
Maximes sur la Comedie^ which had just appeared. Her
verdict on it is not recorded, and her esteem for the
giver would have prejudiced her in favour of the gift,
yet it is reasonable to suppose that its contents must have
astonished her as being so unlike the expression of the
mind of Bossuet with which she was familiar. This
little book f is notable in many ways, and not least as
an example of his capacity for concentration. There
were occasions when he would seize on a disputed
question and expend on it a wealth of accumulated
knowledge altogether out of proportion to its actual im-
portance, and it would seem that reflections upon modern
drama had been germinating in his brain for thirty years,
awaiting their opportunity for utterance.
A Religious of the Theatine Order, Pere Caffaro,
whose Sicilian origin may have been responsible for his
ignorance of ecclesiastical prejudices in the land of his
adoption, gave occasion for the celebrated pamphlet
upon Comedy. He wrote a preface, described as " A
Letter from a Theologian," to the plays of Boursault,^:
published in 1694, in which he contended that the pre-
sentation of Comedies was not injurious to public morals.
If this imprudent theologian had challenged an article
of the Creed he could hardly have aroused greater ex-
citement. A storm of Refutations and Responses and
Decisions overwhelmed the unassuming " Letter," and
the author, having received a private intimation from
Bossuet that his offence could not be overlooked, together
with an elaborate remonstrance regarding the impropriety
of the opinions to which he had committed himself,
sought the only refuge open to him and disclaimed all
responsibility for the printing of his work. With the
* Correspondance, vol. vi, No. 1094.
f (Euvres, vol. xxvii.
In fact Boursault did not offend against morality, and his son, a
Theatine Religious, supplied the link to Caffaro. See Des Granges :
La Querelte de Moliere et de Boursault,
354 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
unconditional surrender of the culprit it might have been
supposed that the necessity for exposure of his errors
would have ended, but the act of writing to him had
opened out a train of thought in the mind of Bossuet
which clamoured for expression. He was engaged just
then on the examination of Madame Guyon's writings,
for which he had put other tasks aside, yet he found
time for the duty that seemed to be imperative, and bore
his solemn testimony against the stage and its attractions.
In the seclusion of Germigny perhaps his mind went
back to the Paris of his youth, and once more he was
stirred to wrath by the remembrance of Moliere and
the flashing of his mockery, by which the eyes of men
were blinded to the things that concerned their peace.
Bossuet was inhuman in that he did not feel the need
for mental relaxation nor allow for it in others. He
urged Madame Cornuau to restrain a friend from mis-
cellaneous reading, as if the practice were deliberate sin.
He wrote that he could not understand how she could
take pleasure in the work of secular writers ; " a passing
glance at them is excusable, but it may be a serious check
to the purposes of God upon her if she gives way to such
a taste. Is it possible really to care for books in which
Jesus Christ has no place ? I cannot believe it."*
And to Santeul, the poet " after so many years of
intimacy with the Scriptures, which are the fount of truth,
I find a certain emptiness in the inventions of human
fancy, "f Of the same temper is his treatise on the evil
effect of Comedy. Francois de Sales had not made the
theatre forbidden ground for Philothe'e so long as she did
not allow her pleasure in it to absorb her4 It may be
urged, however, that the gentle saint had small experience
of cities and their dangers, and never dreamed of magic
weapons such as Moliere wielded, and it was the re-
membrance of Moliere, although he had been dead
for twenty years, that stirred the soul of Bossuet to
* CorresponJancf, vol. vii, No. 1280.
f Ibid., vol. vi, No. 1071. See also his comment on Ttttmaque as
lacking in the gravity that befits a priest, vol. xii, No. 1926.
$ Introduction & la Fie de"vote, ch. xxiii.
Bossuet and his Vocation 355
righteous indignation as he mused upon the prevailing
folly and feebleness of human nature. No preacher had
ever held and swayed the people as did that godless
player, and Bossuet saw in him the incarnation of the
spirit of levity and licence against which every professing
Christian was called to battle. And yet it was impossible
for one who was himself entrusted with the creative
faculty, who was himself an artist, not to recognize
genius when he saw it. They may have had no single
thought in common, yet they worked in the same field,
and it is the resentment of a rival rather than the con-
sidered judgment of the censor that prompts the bitter-
ness of Bossuet's attack. In his thunders against
Moliere, in his complacent confidence that too great
a love of laughter will be rewarded by an eternity of
tears,* Bossuet is shown in his most repellent aspect.
He qualifies for a place among the Puritan divines whom
Cromwell favoured, and it is curious to see how his
tolerance and generosity withered at thought of Moliere.
The playwright made a cult of nature and upheld the
law of impulse, he created men and women and gave
them life, but he gave them no religion. Bossuet as
scholar and as artist could discern a masterpiece, and his
sense of the greatness of the gift increased his wrath
at its perversion. His duty as a priest required him to
renounce the freemasonry of art ; he adhered strictly to
his duty, and in so doing became merciless.
That stout non-juror, Jeremy Collier, fought a similar
battle with Dryden and Congreve across the Channel,
and was not ashamed to borrow arguments from Bossuet ;
he held equally that the giving of delight was an un-
worthy object and " opened the way to all licentious-
ness, "f Nevertheless, he had a tenderness for Moliere
and is at infinite pains to exclude him from his censure.
Perhaps it was a characteristic that they held in common,
even more than their divergence in points of principle,
* Maximei sur la Come"die, part v.
f Collier, J. : A Short View of the Immorality of the English Stage,
p. 290. See also, for earlier English opinion, Cambridge History of
Eng. Lit., vol. vi, ch. liv.
356 'Jacques Benign e Bos suet
which made the antagonism between these giants of
French literature so virulent. In either case it is im-
possible to separate the man from the work that he
achieved ; it is one with his identity, and by it he is
set apart from the mass of ordinary humanity. The
same quality in Bossuet was accountable both for his
triumph in the field of learning and of letters, and for
a certain lack of insight in ordinary human affairs.
He could husband his intellectual power by the use of
his capacity for concentration, but the adept in con-
centration loses in vision for the actualities of natural life.
Had he lived normally, following harmless impulses,
receptive to transitory impressions, it may be questioned
whether his brain could have performed the tasks he
required of it ; yet his renunciations were not conscious
or deliberate, and their significance, and the limitation
of outlook that resulted from them, became evident for
the first time in his admonition to Caffaro.
There is more personal revelation in this small pamphlet
than in many volumes of his accustomed work. Sixty-six
years of life lay behind him, and each, since he had had
capacity for choice, had been directed by an unfailing
purpose. If in those years he had made room for pleasure
the clear lines that marked the way of his vocation must
have been broken. Instead he centred all his ardour on
his tasks, and so excluded the temptation of amusement.
To impose the same habit of repression on all Christian
men and women appeared to him the surest remedy for the
sins and follies by which society was poisoned. It was
easy to support his view from the writings of the Fathers,
especially from St. Augustine, and he found a passage
of St. Chrysostom that pronounces laughter to be un-
becoming to a Christian. Also his recent study of the
Epistle of St. John was still vivid in his mind, and in all
good faith he associated the pleasure that a man may find
in Comedy with that lust of the eyes and love of the world
that banishes the love of God. Happiness he acknow-
ledged to be a part of the Divine intention for the lives
of men,* but he repudiated all connection between
* CorresponJartce, vol. v, No. 793.
Bossuet and his Vocation 357
happiness and the vain delight sought by the play-
goer.
It would seem that his own inclinations drew him
in the direction of display ; he loved authority and the
outward show for which his office gave him opportunity,
while the excitement he denounced had no dangers for
him. Nevertheless, he did not write ignorantly ; he
had been a playgoer in his student days,* and there were
later occasions when in his association with the Court he
was a spectator at special performances.t Moreover,
he had ample opportunities of obtaining knowledge of
each succeeding comedy that caught the public fancy.
The fault of his Maximes is the personal bias with
which he entered on them and not lack of data. He
allowed himself to write as if love-making and laughter
in themselves were reprehensible and their presentation
in counterfeit before the public eye the gravest of
iniquities. He argued further that, as the enjoyment
of the spectator depended on his capacity to associate
himself with the characters impersonated, fictitious pas-
sion and fictitious sin disseminated its counterpart in
actuality on each occasion that it was presented. He was
supporting the teaching of the Church, for in France a
comedian was denied the Sacraments in his life-time:): or
Christian burial at his death, but his vehemence is greater
than loyalty required. In fact, he magnified the danger.
He forgot that, ordinarily, the theatre affords only a
passing respite from the cares and entanglements by
which the lives of individuals are darkened, and the
influence of the stage, as it appeared to him, bore no
relation to its actual effect on men and women in the mass.
The gravity of his warning, while it was a tribute to the
art of Moliere, bears testimony to the dramatic instinct
in himself. He also, with his eyes upon an audience,
* Ledieu : Me"moires, p. 24.
f In March 1 699 he witnessed a performance of " Le Misanthrope "
at Versailles by royal amateurs (Revue Bossuet Supplement, July 1909).
In 1 7 1 9 Cardinal de Noailles relaxed this rule so far as to license an
Italian chaplain to minister to a troupe of Italian comedians (Corres-
pond ance Saint-Ponds, p. 99).
358 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
could calculate effect and play upon emotion, and he gave
undue importance to the results. It was hard for him
to realize that in general the impressions produced from
the pulpit or the stage were transitory ; * he judged them
by the exceptional cases where they had proved
permanent.
Caffaro was the most invertebrate of all the offenders
against whom the thunder of Bossuet's wrath was
launched, and if there had been no Moliere it may be
doubted whether his ill-judged experiment would have
excited notice. The bitterness with which the play-
wright was attacked by the representatives of the Church
is now impossible to understand ; they descried an
insidious evil in the comedies that was, apparently, a
greater danger to the community than open vice, and
it is interesting to remember that it was Harlai, Arch-
bishop of Paris, as profligate an ecclesiastic as that
licentious age produced, who refused Christian burial
to the body of Moliere.f Yet there can be no question
that Bossuet took action in absolute good faith. The
violence of his Maximes sur la Comedie is the true ex-
pression of his mind upon that subject at that moment,
and it is another instance of his refusal to consider any
opinion differing from his own. By comparing it with
his Letter to Port Royal in 1665 it is possible to measure
his accession in intellectual arrogance during thirty
years. It would appear that he was most aggressive
when he engaged in single combat. Fe*nelon, when he
turned the Quietism controversy into a duel, revenged
himself upon his adversary, for his own loss in fortune
through that battle was not greater than the loss in
reputation sustained by Bossuet. Yet the attack on
Quietism, although it would appear to be the most
celebrated in the history of the great champion, was only
one of many attacks delivered during his episcopate at
Meaux, and in each and all he was equally self-confident.
The conviction of mistake, which is the salutary ex-
* Cf. Madame de SeVigne" : " Toute touchte du sermon vous passez A la
ie, cela est excellent, ma belle " (Lettres, vol. vii, No. 957).
f Voltaire : Vie de Moliere.
Eossuet and his Vocation 359
perience of ordinary mortals, never seems to have
overtaken him. His decisions justified themselves. In
the case of Ellies Dupin, for instance, the sequel gave
adequate reason for a severity that seemed at the time to
be excessive.*
Dupin was a doctor of the Sorbonne and a man of
immense learning and industry. He embarked upon a
vast study of ecclesiastical literature which eventually
filled fifty-eight volumes. In 1691 Bossuet became
suspicious of his orthodoxy, and would not be satisfied
by any professions of submission. He drew up a memoir
regarding him for M. Pirot, the official censor, and no
intervention was of any avail in softening his judgment.
There are some very charming letters from Fenelon,
who seems to have been well disposed towards the
culprit, which were calculated to divert severity and open
the way to an amicable understanding, but Bossuet had
convinced himself that Dupin was heterodox at heart
and would give no quarter.f Had he been able to fore-
tell the actual form of Dupin's eventual offending his
denunciation would have been even more vehement.
His reputation as a Gallican had made him the more
anxious to insist that spiritual submission to the decisions
of Rome was the first essential of Catholicity, and when
it dawned on him that the faith of the Anglican differed
from that of Calvinist or Lutheran in that it claimed to
be the Catholic Faith he shrank from it as the most
insidious of all forms of heresy. It was the great desire of
Dupin, on the other hand, to steer the Church in France
towards Anglicanism. His celebrated correspondence
with Archbishop Wake on the question of reunion re-
veals an attitude of mind which is the antithesis to that
of Bossuet4
The fact that the champion of Gallicanism demanded
a profession of allegiance to the Pope as a preliminary
to any terms of reunion must never be forgotten. We
* Correspondence, vol. iii, No. 591 and note.
f See Correspondence, vol. iv, Nos. 729, 730, 731, and notes.
\ Lupton : Archbishop Wake and Project of Union ; and F. G. :
U Projet a" Union Correspondance entre Wake et Dupin.
360 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
may find him striving, with an insistence that savoured of
dictation, to draw opinion at Rome towards the con-
cessions which he regarded as essential if the Protestant
nations were to be won back ; but always the advances
were to be made from the Seat of Supreme Authority ;
the independence that set a limit on spiritual obedience
received no countenance from him. Undoubtedly his
Exposition had suggested an idea of tolerance which was
not sustained by his actual negotiations with Protestants.
By his refusal to parley with the English form of protest
he lessened the hope of unity in that direction, and when,
from a centre of Reform, an overture towards peace was
made he met it with a rigidity that should have satisfied
the severest critics of his book. For him the suggestion
that there might be neutral ground between the full
Faith and open heresy was an outrage upon reason.
Consequently his celebrated correspondence with Leib-
niz,* which had as its original object the reconciliation
of the Protestants of Hanover with Rome, was doomed
to failure from the beginning. The project of reunion
emanated from the Emperor Leopold in 1691, and
Molanus, Professor of Theology in Hanover, drew up a
scheme of mutual concession by which the Protestants
offered obedience to the Pope in exchange for his recogni-
tion of their Churches. Leibniz, who was nominally a
Lutheran, was chosen to represent Hanoverian opinion,f
and Bossuet was regarded as the mediator in whose hands
the project had most possibility of success. Both
selections were unfortunate. Leibniz avowed that he
was a Catholic at heart, but that the essence of Catholicity
was not exterior communion with Rome.:}: Bossuet re-
quired recognition of the spiritual authority of Rome
before he would consider any claim made by the Pro-
testant Churches. Nevertheless, at the least suggestion
of reunion he became prodigal of time and thought ;
the correspondence continued for ten years and some of
* " En vue de la reunion des J?g/isfs." See Correspondence, vol. v,
appendix vi.
f Broglie, A. de : Leibniz Systeme Religieux.
CEuvres de Leibniz, vol. i, p. 163.
Bossuet and his Vocation 361
his letters reach the proportions of a pamphlet. In 1700*
he was still hopeful of some good results, although the
enthusiasm prompting the original scheme had faded.
In fact, it was always hopeless ; Leibniz was a dilettante
in belief an interested observer who remained until his
death in possession of an open mind and as such he was
incomprehensible to Bossuet. They were mutually at-
tracted, and it cannot be said that their association was
fruitless because we owe to it the series of letters from
Bossuet to Leibniz, which, as a record of his processes
of thought, are of extraordinary interest.
In relation to the absorbing object of his life, however,
the intercourse with Leibniz was mere dallying. The
progress of events that concerned the Church had shown
him the futility of holding the door wide to welcome
Protestants if wolves were harrying the flock within the
fold, and the spirit in which he faced the future was at
once defiant and apprehensive. Yet the charitable inten-
tion with which his career began had never altered, the
desire for reunion among all Christians remained his
chief desire ; it was the simplicity of his original method
which was no longer tenable. He had acknowledged in
his youth that it was mainly to the sins of Churchmen
that the great Protestant revolt was due, and as his years
advanced he saw in their disloyalty and rashness the most
insuperable obstacle to the recall of the lost nations.
It was in vain to paint a picture of the Church as a haven
of peace and charity awaiting the struggling sects when
they grew weary of internecine warfare, so long as self-
opinionated adventurers protruded questions that sowed
discord among the faithful. The long series of contro-
versies that engaged him justify his conviction that there
was need for a defender of the Faith, and when, in 1687,
he renounced the personal triumphs of the orator, he
set the seal on his self-dedication to a laborious and
thorny task.
In the last and stormiest period of Bossuet's career
there were occasions when his zeal betrayed his charity,
yet the impression of petulant interference is due less
* Ledieu : Journal, vol. i, p. 3.
362 'Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
to his own pugnacity than to his isolation. It was the
tragedy of his position that those who had the intellectual
capacity to aid him in the fight were tempted from their
allegiance by the independence that led to heresy.
No better allies in warfare against Protestants than the
scholars of Port Royal could be imagined * if there had
been no taint upon them, and, when their loss had been
accepted, there came Fe'nelon's disaffection, with its in-
calculable injury f to the defences of the Church. Such
reflections may have acted as irritants and helped to
bring the mind of Bossuet under the dominion of a fixed
idea in those last years. Old age did not manifest itself
in failing powers, but, with the inevitable waning of
youthful optimism, the consciousness and prescience of
assaults upon the Faith from all directions left him no
peace. " My business is none of it my own it is that
of the Church.":]: " There is nothing human in any of
my undertakings." " It is well known, thank God,
that I have no love of writing for itself. When I write I
have no object save to declare the truth " such ex-
pressions indicate his mental attitude.
If it had been possible to recognize the Bishop of
Meaux as censor of all theological publications the strain
upon him would have been far less. The office was in
other hands, however, and he was harassed by perpetual
fears that damaging books might elude his vigilance and
work harm that could never be retrieved before he could
denounce them. It may well be imagined that he was
the terror of the younger generation of theological
writers, and his integrity was so well known that none
might hope to escape his censure by favour or cajolery.
He took prompt and relentless action when the danger
justified it. We have seen how he dealt with Dupin and
Caffaro. He himself has described an opening episode
in a struggle that lasted twenty-five years and gave another
* Sainte-Beuve : Hist, de Port Royal, vol. iv, pp. 445, 446.
t Cf. Bossuet's lament over " Us grands services qu'il est capable de
rendre s'il s'ttait tourne" d'une autre sorte" (Correspondance, vol. xi, No.
1879).
$ lbid. t vol. vi, Nos. 1156, 1 1 57.
Bossuet and his Vocation 363
of the many instances of his severity. An Oratorian
named Richard Simon devoted himself to the study and
translation of the Scriptures. He possessed that fami-
liarity with Hebrew which was lacking to the equipment
of the Port Royalists,* and in 1678 he prepared a criticism
of the Old Testament f and secured for it the approval
and authority necessary for its publication. Four days
before that on which it was to appear it was brought to
the notice of Bossuet4 The care of the Dauphin's
education does not seem to have delayed the royal tutor
in his investigations. The preface and index which had
been placed in his hands gave him sufficient data on
which to act, for the subject of one of the chapters was
' That Moses cannot have written all the books attributed
to him," and that alone was a sufficient summons to the
champion of Tradition to take up arms. " I saw that the
book was a mass of profanity. I went at once to the
Chancellor (Le Tellier) it was the Thursday in Holy
Week and he gave a warrant to M. de La Reynie to
seize every copy. The gentlest way is always the wisest,
and we made every effort to save the book by inter-
polation and correction, but it was so full of dangerous
suggestion that after a close examination M. de La Reynie
had orders to burn every copy there were twelve or
fifteen hundred."
Richard Simon was the Modernist of the seventeenth
century, and with the exception of Fenelon he was the
most exasperating of Bossuet's antagonists. It was im-
possible to refuse him credit for prodigious learning, and
coupled with it was a self-confidence that left him un-
abashed before rebuke. His Criticism of the Old
Testament was printed in Holland when he found
there was no escape from the sentence of Le Tellier,
and although the pressure of Bossuet and the Port
* Sainte-Beuve : Port Royal, vol. ii, p. 361, note.
t Histoire Critique du Fieux Testament.
\ Card. Bausset makes Antoine Arnauld responsible, but the testimony
of Simon points to Eusebe Renaudot. See La Broise : Bossuet et la
Bible, p. 338 ; and Margival, H. : Essai sur R. Simon, p. 90.
(Euvres, vol. iii, p. 374.
364 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
Royalists secured his expulsion from among the
Oratorians and deprived him of the use of their library,
Simon continued his researches * and from time to time
published critical studies on the Scriptures.
In 1701 he completed a translation of the New Testa-
ment which was submitted to examiners appointed by
Bossuet and Cardinal de Noailles. A year later the
book was printed at TreVoux with the approval and
recommendation of Bourret, the great authority on Holy
Scripture at the Sorbonne. Even so impressive a
sanction did not satisfy Bossuet ; his conclusion with
regard to Simon was that every new production of his
brain would infallibly contain new errors, f and he
devoted six weeks to the study of the Trevoux Testament.
There was only one result possible from those weeks
of study. If two scholars approach the same subject
from opposing points of view the violence of their con-
flict will be in direct ratio to their enthusiasm. Bossuet
and Simon were both enthusiasts. Simon took delight
in research for its own sake. Unfortunately, while he
disliked the doctrines of the Protestants and of the
Jansenists,|| and believed sincerely that his investigations
would strengthen the defences of the Church, he lacked
the virtue of humility that is often the distinction of
great scholars, and his love of adventure was not balanced
by respect for the master-minds of bygone centuries.
Towards the teaching of St. Augustine in particular he
showed complete indifference.^ Now Bossuet had been
striving for perfect assimilation of his mind with that
of St. Augustine throughout his life. Wherever he
* See Batterel, L. : MJmoires domestiques four servir a 1'histoire de
rOratoire, vol. iv, pp. 233-295.
f Ledieu : Me'moires, p. 202.
^ " En fait de critique Bossuet n'Stait yu'un apprenti aupres de Richard
Simon " (Bremond : Bossuet, etc., vol. iii, p. 139).
As the best means of reconciling Huguenots he recommended
" lesfaire rentrer a coups de bdton dans l'glise " (Lettres choisies, vol. ii,
P- 336).
|| Margival : Richard Simon, p. 84.
5 Margival : op. fit., p. 20. Cf. Arnauld, A. (Lettres, vol. vii, p. 155):
" La maniere dont il y parle de St. Augustin est insupportable."
Bossuet and his Vocation 365
went a volume of St. Augustine went with him ; he had
one large edition at Meaux, another in Paris, his writings,
whether controversial or devotional, abound in reference
to his master,* and it may truly be said of him that
he was impregnated with the Augustinian spirit.
Moreover, he regarded the smallest attack upon Tradi-
tion as an attempt to strike at the foundation of the Faith ;
the Truth, sufficient and unalterable, had been delivered
to the Church, and for fifty years it had been his sacred
task to defend it from all aggression.
In the long-past days at Versailles, when he knew
that his judgment would be final on a question of theology,
he could afford to be patient with an audacious scholar ;
at seventy-six the time for dallying was past. He de-
clared that this question was the most important with
which he had ever had to deal, for he saw in Simon's work
an attempt to dispute the authenticity of Scripture, and
his consternation deepened when he realized that the
world looked on unmoved while sacrilegious hands
plucked at its holiest treasure. It must be acknow-
ledged that he did not carry public opinion with him.
The Cardinal Archbishop was only half-hearted in con-
demnation of work admired by the Sorbonne ; and the
Chancellor, Pontchartrain, went so far as to refuse to
license the printing of Bossuet's attack on Simon until the
official censor had approved it.f It was the last battle
of the aged champion, and it was a hard one. He had
never been more convinced of the Tightness of his cause
and he had never been more isolated. He had made
some enemies by his firmness over Jouarre and many by
his Quietism victory, and the time was past when men
sought his favour for their own advantage. There was
a prospect of a species of defeat in the matter of Pont-
chartrain, small in itself but great in the contempt that
it implied, and in his old age the drawback of his un-
* Ledieu : MJmoires, p. 5 1 .
f Ledieu : Journal, vol. i, p. 310.
^ For vigorous letter written from Meaux to Cardinal de Noailles re
Simon, published by Pere Griselle, S.J., see Revue de Lille (December
1899).
366 Jacques Eenigne Eos suet
distinguished origin once more was evident. Family
interest near the Throne would have relieved him from
the degrading necessity of continual appearance at
Versailles to plead his cause ; without it he had no other
hope of evading the insolent requirement of the Chan-
cellor. Day after day he was forced to be in attendance
on the King, and his mind was occupied with devising
schemes to gain the ear of Madame de Maintenon.*
Eventually his main object was attained, although he
bought success at the cost of humiliating compromise.
His denunciation of Simon became public, and in the
dioceses of Paris and of Meaux the New Testament in
the TreVoux version was proscribed. He had desired to
follow up his triumph by the publication of his Defense
de la Tradition et des Peres^ undertaken more than ten
years earlier to counteract those evils for which he con-
ceived the Oratorian scholar to be responsible. But
opportunity and power failed him, and the absorbing
interest which his book offers to readers of the present
day did not come within the limits of his purpose.
What he wrote stands actually as the first chapter in the
history of Modernism. And while it perpetuates the
name and the endeavour of Richard Simon it is an
illuminating revelation of the mental position of Bossuet
himself. For his thunders are not directed solely against
Simon ; he makes it plain that he would preclude all
Biblical criticism. He upholds dogmatic orthodoxy op-
posed to Modernism, and the system of tradition,
religious and political, against all innovation. In him
the spirit of the Conservative, without mitigation or
alloy, becomes incarnate. Standing as he does at the
opening of that century which was to see the Old Order
overthrown he is a tragic figure.
* Ledieu : Journal, vol. i, p. 330.
Chapter XXVI. The End
IT was in September 1702 that Bossuet preached for
the last time. The priests gathered at Meaux for the
Episcopal Synod assembled in his private chapel, and
the terms of his address bear witness to a premonition
that it was his last. As old age approached the thought
of death was not so present with him as in his youth ;
the excitements and anxieties of life overwhelmed it,
and the sudden end of Harlai, Archbishop of Paris, in
1695, without sacraments or preparation, seems to have
recalled him with a shock to his own carelessness. As a
reminder he set apart a sum to ensure an annual service
of requiem for his soul on September 21, and while he
lived a special mass was to be said to commemorate his
consecration as bishop.* He felt the reminder to be
salutary, and his references to it in his letters show that
it needed effort to keep the thought of death before him.
The three last years of his life were recorded in detail
by his secretary. In 1684, at the suggestion of Mabil-
lon,f the young student Francois Ledieu was engaged
as secretary to the Bishop of Meaux, and he retained his
office until the death of his employer. He was a man of
painstaking and industrious habits, but not distinguished
by special gifts in mind or character, and he was never
admitted to his master's confidence. Nevertheless, his
observations in his Journal and the Memoir he compiled
from his reminiscences after the death of Bossuet have
the vivid interest of intimate personal knowledge. From
them it is possible to construct the picture for which
he had not vision. In those three years the conflict of
opposing forces that since he reached maturity had
distracted the inner life of Bossuet was especially severe.
In following the statements of Ledieu, however, it must
be remembered that the emphasis in each direction is
determined by the predilections of the writer. The
Court and public business had the highest claim on
notice, and after that all that concerned the intellect
and the world of books. Literature, as understood at
* Correspondance, vol. viii, No. 1421.
f Revue Bossuet Supplement (June 1911).
368 Jacques Benigne Bossuet
Meaux, was synonymous with theology, but it was no less
a business than affairs of State, and hardly less alienated
from personal religion. In the mind of the secretary
his master's dealings with the Court were of infinite
moment, and his unvarnished record of them is painful
reading. That the end of a fine and worthy life was
marred by a lack of dignity and judgment is incon-
testable. Bossuet in his prime had protested that he had
no desire to benefit his family at the expense of the
Church, but in his old age the curious failing which has
been so common a snare to high-placed ecclesiastics
overcame his principles ; he was devoted to his nephew.
The correspondence relating to the Quietism contro-
versy conveys an unpleasing impression of the Abbe
Bossuet which is not counteracted by any later evidence
regarding him. Even his enemies did not deny his
cleverness, however, and in his own view he was
supremely fitted to succeed his uncle as Bishop of Meaux.
The clouded close of Bossuet's life is chiefly due to this
unfortunate ambition. He felt himself to be under
obligation to his nephew for the success achieved in the
miserable contest that for so long had dislocated his
plans and habits. It was said of them that they were
of one mind in their conduct of the battle, and the
ascendancy the young abbe gained over his uncle seems
to have been a result of their joint victory. When he
returned from Rome in triumph he took command of
the bishop's palace at Meaux, and then by gradual de-
grees achieved some measure of dominion over the
bishop himself.
Bossuet had never pressed for favours ; had he done
so he might have mounted higher, but a certain natural
dignity restrained him. It would seem that his hopes
of the purple were never entirely extinguished,* yet he
did not protrude his claim before the King. The post of
Almoner to the Dauphine had been conferred upon him
when his tutorship concluded, and on the marriage of the
Duke of Burgundy in 1697 he seems to have suggested
that, as his earlier appointment had lapsed by death,
* Correspondance, vol. viii, Nos. 1527, 1531 ; vol. ix, No. 1694.
The End 369
it should be renewed in the household of the young
duchess.* He had been appointed Counsellor of State
in June f of that year, which proved that his favour with
the King was sufficient to justify a claim to further honour.
When that petition was granted^: he asked no more for
himself, for his solicitation for support against Richard
Simon was ostensibly in the public interest. It must be
acknowledged that he was familiar with the methods of a
courtier, however. At the time of the great Clerical
Assembly of 1700, when a censure of the system of
casuistry was in question, it was by his persistent and
indefatigable cultivation of Madame de Maintenon's
interest that he was able to achieve the result he desired.
He would be in attendance on her at seven in the morn-
ing, and proceed to the levee of the King after his inter-
view was over. He said Mass only when these duties
were accomplished. He was seventy-three at this time,
and his secretary was moved to enthusiastic admiration
by this evidence of his zeal and energy. According to
the standards of the time his cultivation of Court interest
to support a special policy did not derogate from the
dignity of his years and office. It would claim no com-
ment had it ended there. Unfortunately this was not his
last appearance as a courtier. His nephew seized on
success in a public matter as a good omen for a personal
petition, and from that time the aged bishop was more
assiduous at Court than he had been since he entered on
his charge.
In the summer of 1701 || he was following the King
regardless of bodily fatigue, and taking trouble to im-
press on others his claim to a place among the favoured.
He gained nothing by his visits to Versailles, and as the
futility of his solicitations became increasingly apparent
* Ibid., vol. viii, Nos. 1403, 1408.
f Ledieu : Mf moires, p. 206.
\ Limiers, a contemporary historian, says : " M. de Meaux avail
recherch^ avec empressement la charge de Premier Almonier , M. de Cam-
brai avait paru aussi la souhaiter mais sans faire de brigues pour I'obtenir "
(Hist, du Regne de Louis XIV, vol. vii, liv. xiii, p. 96). Limiers is inimical
to Bossuet on all points, however.
Ledieu : Journal, vol. i, pp. 51, 86, 145. || Ibid., pp. 197-199.
2 A
370 'Jacques Benigne Bossuet
he seems to have been more and more goaded to their
renewal by the Abbe* Bossuet. In the summer of 1703
his efforts, valiant in themselves yet pitiable in result,
to maintain his right to office were exciting the derision
of the Court. His tottering limbs hardly supported
him through the ceremonial incumbent on him,* yet the
resignation of his place as almoner would deprive him of
excuse for appearance at Versailles, and his nephew
refused to accept the defeat implied. In August serious
illness seized him, and Madame de Maintenon persuaded
Fleury to convey to him the protest that was on the lips of
all who knew him, friends as well as enemies " his
weakness in yielding to his nephew was dishonouring
him ; his reputation demanded that he should leave
Versailles. "f On September 20 he moved to his house
in Paris, where he remained until his death.
For the last eighteen months of his life Bossuet drew
the revenues of his bishopric and never visited his diocese,
and for a time he joined the begging crowd who cringed
for favours from the King and wasted the precious hours,
so sorely needed for his unfinished manuscripts, in
cultivating such persons as might be useful to his nephew.
These are facts that cannot be refuted, and he is not less
to blame because he was not self-seeking ; that which he
did ran counter to the principles on which his life was
founded. His defence rests on the failure of his powers
and on the loneliness of his old age. His intimate
friends were few Ranee*, Bellefonds, his brother
Antoine,^ and Henriette d'Albert and he had outlived
them all. As long as he retained the keenness of his
mental vision his work engaged him so completely that
he had no observation for his nephew's faults, and in
time the position of the young abbe* was secure because
he was the object of an old man's love. It was thus that
Bossuet fell from the dignity of conduct maintained
* " // donna un triste spectacle qui affltgea sfs amis " (Ledieu :
Journal, vol. i, p. 468).
t Ibid., vol. ii, p. 4.
\ At his brother's death he wrote : "je me trouve si seul yu'a peine
mepuis-je soutenir " (Correspondence, vol. ii, No. 1865).
The End 371
throughout a lifetime, and the world was not slow to
recognize his fall.
There were other sides to the picture, however, of
which his contemporaries knew little. He had laboured
from his boyhood and he died in harness. Truly no
shadow of dishonour falls on the figure of the aged
scholar as he strained, in those last months, to carry
out the plans made when the tide of energy was high
and laid aside for the event of leisure. That which de-
graded came from without, it did not express the
character that had been manifested during forty years of
public life. And in his study the change in Bossuet was
less evident, for his intellect survived his will. Ledieu
is on familiar ground when he treats of his master's
literary labour, and the account he gives is worth atten-
tion. During those last years his ardour was unabated.
At seventy-three he resumed his old custom of rising
in the night to avoid interruption to his writing. Two
years later the diarist's report is full of such phrases as
" he does nothing but work " ; " he will not leave his
work for a moment." At seventy-six the tidings that
a Jesuit (Pere Daniel) was writing on the criticisms of
St. Augustine by Grotius aroused him to the ardour
of his youth. It was intolerable that a subject so pecu-
liarly his own should be touched by another hand, and
he applied himself once more to the Instruction on the
Fathers which had been destined to cover the disputed
ground.* Two months before he died it was still his
dearest wish to finish it, but the failing of his powers
could no longer be ignored,
" I am conscious that this piece of work becomes too
much for me. God's Will be done. He can raise up
defenders of the Faith."
It was the last struggle (and perhaps the first surrender)
of a war-worn fighter, and even then he did not finally
lay down his arms. There was so much to finish, and
as his thoughts passed from one to another of his manu-
scripts each one seemed the essential. There was the
scheme of Government as designed by the authority of
* Ledieu : Journal, vol. ii, p. 31.
372 Jacques Benigne Bos suet
Scripture, begun while he was tutor to the Dauphin.
Six parts had been completed then, but more than half
remained unwritten, although during twenty-six years
at Meaux he could not accuse himself of any idleness.
It was to have been finished for the benefit of the Duke
of Burgundy,* but his dispute with Fe*nelon had inter-
vened, and he did not return to it till the winter after the
Clerical Assembly of 1 700. From that time forward its
importance weighed upon his mind. He believed that by
means of this book, if he could finish it, the young
would be taught that absolute monarchy was of Divine
institution, and he had no fears for the future of the nation
if that principle was generally accepted. At Meaux and
Germigny he was indefatigable in toiling at it until the
affair of Richard Simon distracted him. Finally, in his
last miserable sojourn at Versailles some stirring of his by-
gone hero-worship moved him to pay his final tribute
to the greatness of the King's Majesty, and he took his
manuscript in hand again. Plainly he had a keen desire
to complete it, and if his secretary had influenced him
it would have received the final touches at whatever cost
to other undertakings. The old scholar was not in-
fluenced by his secretary, however, and his mind, despite
its feebleness, groped through the intellectual temptation
and seized on the one study that was still of consequence.
The hour for controversy or politics or the display of
scholarship was past.
Bossuet had lived in the world of books ; its fascina-
tion had grown upon him as his years increased until it
could be said, even when he was in residence at Meaux,
that " he was chiefly occupied with study."f Neverthe-
less, in moments of reflection he allowed himself no
illusions regarding the literary vocation. His verdict
on it suggests that, when he felt the end approaching, his
survey of the years that lay behind was not brightened
by undue satisfaction in his use of them. " I pause here "
he wrote in the midst of notes on the philosophy of
Aristotle " to consider the usefulness of reading. It
* (Euvres, vol. xxiv : Remarques hlstoriques, p. iii.
f Ledieu : Journal, vol. i, p. 169.
The End 373
illuminates, awakens, arouses curiosity just as conversa-
tion does. The first is the more deliberate, the second
more spontaneous. On the other hand reading is apt
to dazzle ; it teaches us to borrow thoughts from others
and keep them as our own, it burdens memory, confuses
judgment, blights originality. We are pleased to have
reached a conclusion when we have discovered what is
thought by someone else."*
It is a severe indictment, and the more worthy of
notice because it is lodged by a prolific writer, but we
have seen that Bossuet's authorship did not spring from
the desire to produce a book ; he had always a cause
to be upheld, and his pen was the only weapon that would
serve his purpose. " He tried to rouse himself to defend
the Truth, and reproached himself for his uselessness
and inability to work." Thus Ledieu describes him at
seventy-six, and it shows that the passion of a lifetime
was hard to quench. In the secretary's mind the im-
portance of his master's literary undertakings dwarfed
every other consideration. Indeed, his desire for their
completion prompted him to reminders that some-
times provoked Bossuet to a measure of impatience.
" If I do not get on with it it is because I have not
time. After all, I prefer not to divide my head into four
pieces. "f In that remonstrance he enters into momen-
tary fellowship with the scribes and students of every
generation. His brain was overtaxed and he acknow-
ledged it.
Yet, though he rebelled at importunity, the lust of
finishing possessed him. The picture of his last two
years is painful ; it shows him perpetually turning from
one to another of his manuscripts and books, eager to bring
his published work to more absolute perfection and to
complete his many literary projects. And in considering
the courage he displayed when illness and old age had
clutched him it is well to notice that Bossuet did not
write with facility. The thoughts of Fe*nelon clothed
themselves in words without effort, and the pages of his
* Revue Bossuet (January 1902). (MS. Bib. Nat., ff. 12830.)
f Ledieu : Journal, vol. i, p. 237.
374 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
manuscripts are fair.* To the uninitiated it must have
seemed that the intellectual cost of their voluminous
controversy was equally divided. This was not the case,
however, and the fact of his disadvantage increased the
wrath of the old champion. His manuscripts are scored
and corrected and interlined : they witness to the spirit
of the artist, to the discontent that is unappeased by the
admiration of the world. He might glory at a later
stage in the effect produced by brilliant style and ruthless
logic, but in his study with pen on paper he sought the
language that would satisfy him as the medium for his
thought and he was never satisfied.
Henriette d'Albert, jealous of the preoccupation that
spoilt their correspondence, pressed for a description of
his methods. " Why should it be known whether I
write easily or with great labour," he answered ; " it is
God who gives me my time and I have no misgivings
that I am wasting it."j"
At the moment he feared Fe"nelon and his superiority
in cleverness, but that reply, joined to the confusion of
his original pages, suggests the reality of toil in the long
hours spent before his desk. In spite of all that is im-
plied by that acknowledgment of toil, however, he had
the courage to embark upon another book. It saw the
light two months before he died, and between its covers
we may seek the key to his real mind during his long
ordeal of pain and solitude. In May 1702, being at
Germigny and still in health, he said he was trying to
prepare for death and was saying Psalm xxi very often,
going to sleep and awakening with the words of it
on his lips. He added that it had been specially con-
secrated by the use Our Lord had made of it, and that
within it might be found " the confidence in God that is
needful for the great journey " ; % he believed the
* " Jamais personne n'a tcrit avec tant de facititt que M. de Cambrai.
11 me'ditait bien sa mat'the, apres quoi il se mettait a t"crire avec tant de
rapiditt qu'il ne levait la plume de sur le papier que pour prendre de I'encre "
(Corrcspondance Saint-Fonds, p. 88).
f Correspondance, vol. vii, No. 1 300.
j Ledieu : Journal, vol. i, p. 289 (see Psalm xxii in Eng. version).
The End 375
essential preparation lay in this confidence. Subse-
quently Ledieu became more interested in other de-
velopments of his master's thought, and there was the
sordid interlude of Court attendance to record. The
subject seems to be forgotten until November 1703,
when he notes that he is once more employed in
transcribing the Meditation on Psalm xxi. And three
months later it was printed and bound and presented to
the King.*
It is safe to assume that the production of one month,
when failing powers and constant suffering made literary
effort difficult, had been mellowing in a long period of
profound reflection. With these pages open before us
the detail of the previous chronicle the entertainments
given at Versailles to high-placed persons, the jewelled
ear-rings worth ten thousand francs that were the aged
bishop's wedding gift to a nephew's wife, the calculation
and display in all dealings with the outside world
all this assumes a different aspect. We have seen an old
man yielding lamentably before the insistence of un-
worthy kinsfolk, yet in things essential there was no
surrender. He became docile beneath his nephew's
government in all external matters because domestic
strife taxed his enfeebled powers unbearably. This is
the condition that the secretary's Journal presents to us.
And it is clear that there remained to him an inner
sanctuary to which neither Ledieu nor the Abbe Bossuet
had access. He had told Henriette d'Albert that she
might follow the abbess on a journey without scruple
because he knew that at heart she was always in Retreat, f
and it may be that, in his distress and weakness, he gave
himself a similar dispensation and took the way of least
resistance in the knowledge that his real desires were set
unalterably. And so, while his outward dignity slipped
from him and, to a mocking world, he seemed to have cast
away the standards of unworldliness towards which he
had pointed others, his inner vision was fixed upon the
one thing needful. Jesus upon the Cross in agony and
* (Euvres, vol. ii, p. 264.
\ Correspondance, vol. vi, No. 1051.
376 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
desolation, the Risen Jesus rejoicing before God, this was
the theme for which his comprehension was unclouded
and to which he gave the final labour of his laborious life.
The last chapter of his Commentary demands particular
notice. Here, as in isolated passages of his other
writings, he lifts the veil unconsciously, the theologian
ceases to expound, and there is revealed the struggling
human soul hard pressed by human frailty. It is in his
study of Christ upon the Cross facing the horror of the
sins of men that we get into momentary touch, at this last
stage, with the mind of Bossuet. Through a long life
he had held inflexibly to certain principles, but it cannot
be maintained that the gulf betwixt ideal and practice
grew less as the years passed. There is repeated evidence
that he was aware of his own failure, that he desired
to rise above it, and yet was so entangled by the tempta-
tions of the work which he believed to be his work for
God that self-accusation ended in fresh compromise.
And it would seem that, looking back over the years,
he saw the truth, and the despondency that in a weakened
mind may breed despair laid hold of him. It was well
that he had not completely forfeited the simplicity of
early days ; by virtue of it he took to himself the healing
he had been required so often to dispense. Of all his
books the last holds the most comfort for a dying Chris-
tian. He had written, among the meditations intended
for the Religious in his diocese, one on preparation for
Death ; * in it the thoughts of a spiritual mind are ex-
pressed in stately prose ; but between it and his explana-
tion of the Psalm there is the difference that divides
theory from experience.
In his book on the Sacred Mysteries he had dwelt
on the effect of mental habit, and shown that the brain
retains the impress of frequent meditation. ' Those
whose study had been fixed on the Life and Death of
Christ would find that subject returning in hours of
disturbance or weariness," he wrote.f His own habit
was so fixed that his secretary, after twenty years' associa-
* (Euvres, vol. vii : Opuscules de PiM, No. 17.
t Ibid., 4 m e semaine ; 8 me dl^vation.
The End 377
tion, accepted it as part of the ordinary routine, un-
necessary to note in a daily chronicle. In the Memoir
of him, however, we are told that he knew the Bible
almost by heart and yet read and reread it every day.*
Here and there, also, in the daily record of feverish
literary enterprise and unworthy social effort, there is a
sentence easy to overlook yet charged with meaning.
" Monseigneur showed great pleasure in reading the
Gospel, especially such passages as regard detachment ;
it is on this that his heart is set." " I read him Fifteenth
Chapter, St. John. He said : ' My sole consolation
is in this.' ' ' This evening (it was just two months
before his death) Monseigneur began reading the
Epistle to the, Romans ; for quite six months or more he
has read and reread the Gospels, chiefly St. John, and in
St. John the parts that claim most reflection ; he has also
read the Acts of the Apostles through twice, and now
he is going on to the Epistles of St. Paul. Every morn-
ing, also, he goes back to his own Meditations sur I'Evan-
gile and corrects something in it, but he says this is done
without method or intention, and is only for his own
satisfaction."
In his own hour of disturbance and weariness the
meditations of a lifetime served him in good stead.
' The foundation of all knowledge is the Scriptures.
Of that Book one can never have complete knowledge."t
So he had written in his youth, and he was still making
fresh discoveries. In those last weeks the residue of his
other studies became the most painful of distractions
we are told of the night when his fevered brain vainly
pursued the Odes of Horace through many hours of
wakefulness, and could not rest till they were read aloud.
It is well that that picture of mental agony can be balanced
by the thought of his continual meditation on St. John.
The Fourth Gospel was too indelibly his own for any
nightmare of shifting memory to haunt his musings on
it.
In leaving his diocese for Versailles and Paris Bossuet
left behind him the persons and associations most calcu-
t Ledieu : Mtmoires, p. 4.8, ^ (Ewres, vol. xxvi, p. 109.
37 8 Jacques Eenigne Bossuet
lated to uphold him in hours of desolation. He had
done much to raise the standard of the Religious in the
many Communities under his care to a high level of
spirituality ; he had urged on his priests that the de-
mand of their vocation was the continual endeavour to
be perfect,* and, in Meaux itself, he had made the
Seminary a centre of pure teaching and example. Thus
he had created the atmosphere most calculated to bring
him peace, and there he would have had at hand better
companions in hours of suffering than Ledieu or the
Abbe Bossuet. The Abb St. Andre* f was a leading
spirit among the clergy of the diocese, and to him,
whenever he could leave his duties and come to Paris,
Bossuet turned with special confidence. The account
that he has left of the closing scenes in the house in the
Rue St. Anne bears witness to an understanding of the
dying man in which Ledieu was lacking. His account
carries conviction because it is the natural sequel to the
spiritual life story which can be traced behind the great
events of a notable career. It shows us once again the
friend of Bellefonds and Henriette d'Albert with his
sudden self-revelations and his deep humility ; and the
mystery of penitence rather than the glow of sanctity
envelops him. The long procession of the years, as he
reviewed them, held many memories that did not make
for peace, and he was dismayed at the approach of death.
One day, when St. Andre" had been reading the Bible
with him, he remained for a long time lost in thought, and
then, rising up suddenly as if an idea possessed him, he
exclaimed : " I cannot believe, O God, that Thou hast
given me this certainty of Thy lovingkindness for
naught. My salvation is a thousand times more as-
sured in Thy keeping than by my efforts. I desire to
surrender myself absolutely, to live apart from Thee is
to fall into despair.":}:
* " Le sacerdoce est un e"tat de penitence et de gtmissement " (CEuvres,
vol. xii, p. 92).
f For high standing of St. Andre" see Letter of Cardinal de Bissy to M.
de Fe"nelon, July 12, 1731 (Revue Bossuet (1904), p. 51).
\ Relation de M. de St. Andre" (Ledieu : Mtmoircs, appendix, p. 265).
The End 379
That is the cry of a troubled soul to whom despair is
not impossible. But the clouds lifted as the end ap-
proached. " Pray often," he said, " but only shortly,
because I am in pain. Say the Lord's Prayer over and
over again. Pause at the words ' Adveniat regnum
tuum, fiat voluntas tua ' that is the perfect prayer for a
Christian."
In the presence of St. Andre Ledieu made a charac-
teristic effort to cheer his master by telling him of the
high-placed personages who asked for him and lamented
his suffering ; he assured him, also, that everyone was
talking of his value to the Church and to the nation.
" It would be better to talk to me about my sins," he
answered, " and to ask God to pardon them and to give
me grace that I may praise Him for His mercy. As to
my suffering, it cannot be more than I deserve."
The time had passed when Bossuet could find solace
in the greatness that his secretary pictured. In long night
watches and slow days of pain the old man had put off
the arrogance which was the aftermath of his battles and
his triumphs. He knew that none of his acquirements
would help him to face death, and at the end he went
to meet it as a child might do. He asked for help in his
preparation, and St. Andr expressed astonishment that
he, whom God had enlightened so far beyond his fellows,
should need anything a simple priest could give. The
answer of the dying man reiterated the disavowal of
spiritual privilege with which in former times he had
astounded those who revered him most. " Make no
mistake," he said ; "a man may be given much for the
help of others and have no light by which to guide him-
self."
It is clear from all the evidence that he shrank with
more than ordinary dread from pain and from the ap-
proach of death. When he had long attained to three-
score years and ten his vigour was unabated and his grip
on life was hard to loose ; thus he who had preached
to others of resignation rebelled himself. The shadows
hang thickly over the last year, and any impression of
him that we can distinguish is of a trembling figure, for-
380 Jacques Benign e Bos suet
lorn in its isolation. And yet, though the darkness may
have been full of terrors, in the midst of it he found his
way to peace. Perhaps the truest summary of this stage
of his long journey is in the concluding passage of his
last book: " When the soul is so troubled that it is near
the point of agony let us learn to say with Jesus His
prayer in the Garden that courageous prayer : * Not
as I will but as Thou wilt.' '
His suffering ended early in the morning of April 1 4,
1704, while St. Andre" watched beside him, and he met
death without distress.
Appendices
Appendix L Chronological Table
EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF
BOSSUET
1627 Birth
1642 Goes to College of Navarre
1653 Ordained Priest, resident at
Metz
1655 First Book Printed
1658 Mission at Metz
1 66 1 Preacher Before the King
1665 Dealings with Port Royal
Nuns
i666\ Treats with Paul Ferry for
1667 / Reunion
1669 Appointed Bishop of Con-
dom
1670 Appointed Tutor to the
Dauphin
1671 V Exposition Published
1678 Conference with Claude
1681 Appointed Bishop of Meaux
1 68 2 \Writes Defense de la D/-
l685/ cl oration
1687 The last Oraison Funebre
1688 Publishes Histoire des
Variations
1690 Reforms Abbey of Jouarre
1694-1 Examination of Quietist
16997 Doctrine
1704 Death
PUBLIC EVENTS IMPOR-
TANT TO HIS CAREER
1624 Richelieu First Minister
1642 Death of Richelieu
/I > The Fronde
1656 Pascal's First Provincial
Letter
1659 Moliere plays in Paris
1 66 1 Death of Mazarin
1663 Six Articles Propounded by
Sorbonne
1 666 Death of Anne of Austria
1668 Conversion of Turenne
1670 Death of Madame
1675 Death of Turenne
1680 Marriage of the Dauphin
1682 Declaration of Clerical
Assembly
1685 Revocation of Edict of
Nantes
1688 English Revolution
1689 Death of Innocent XI
1697 Fenelon's Maximes des
Saints
1699 Condemnation of Lei
Maximes
1700 War of Spanish Succession
begins
Appendix II. Houses in Paris occupied by Bossuet
1671-1682 Doyenne de St. Thomas du Louvre
1682-1694 Place Royale 17 (second from Rue des Francs-
Bourgeois)
1694-1698 Rue Plastriere (now Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau)
1698-1702 Place des Victoires (on right from Rue des Petits-
Champs)
1702-1704 Rue Ste. Anne 46
Appendix III. Mile, de Mauleon and the
Marriage Libel
IT has been alleged * that Bossuet contracted a secret marriage.
The charge was examined and refuted by Cardinal de Bausset
in the biography published in i8i8.f According to his view
the scandal originated with the publication of a book by a renegade
priest, J. B. Denis, who had held clerical office under two succes-
sive bishops of Meaux and afterwards withdrew to London.
This book, Memoires anecdotes de la Cour et du Clerge de France,
appeared in 1712 and contained many details \ regarding the
alliance between his former employer and a certain lady known as
Mile, de Mauleon. It is obvious, however, that the attempt of
such a man as Denis to blacken the memory of Bossuet would have
been completely ineffectual if he had relied on his own powers of
invention for material. M. Charles Urbain has made this question
the subject of careful investigation, the result of which is published
in his pamphlet Bossuet et Mile, de Mauleon. He has verified the
existence of a letter written in 1704 referring to the rumour, with
the comment " Je sais qu'on parle Rome de ce mariage," and
shows that the proceedings of Bossuet's heirs must have been in-
spired by a fear of scandal. For Bossuet and Mile, de Mauleon
were known to each other for more than forty years, and during
half that period they had business dealings, yet not a single note or
memorandum of correspondence between them has survived.
Moreover, on the death of the lady, Louis Bossuet contrived to be
at hand, and it was he who set seal on the doors of her apartment
until the King's officers should take possession. || The excessive
prudence of his nephews has proved injurious to the memory of
Bossuet, and is in marked contrast to the methods which he him-
self pursued. He was ingenuous to the point of folly, and it may
fairly be assumed that he conceived his personal character 5 to be
* See especially Voltaire : Siecle de Louis XIV, ch. xxxii ; Hist.
Universe lie, part vii ; and Legendre: M/moires, pp. 2656.
f Pieces justificative*, liv. i.
$ pp. 108-118.
p. 13. (MS., Archives Nationales, L 737.)
|| Ch. Urbain : Bossuet et Mile, de Maulton.
5 Frotte, another renegade priest from the diocese of Meaux, writing
in 1690, is lavish in accusations (among others, that Bossuet heard Mass
in his dressing-gown), but makes no charge of immorality. See Some
Particular Motives of the Conversion of P. F. t London, 1691.
Appendix III 385
beyond reach of calumny. His reply when Jurieu assigned to him
" neuf enfants et plusieurs concubines " is a model of dignified
disdain,* and the records of his life contain no instance of an at-
tempt to hide his actions or intentions. During his last illness
Mile, de Mauleon paid repeated visits to the sick-room in the
Rue Ste. Anne,f and when death was very near the dying man
sent her a message that he " would remember her to the end."
The facts which lie behind the scandal may be summarized as
follows : Catherine Gary, afterwards known as Mile, de Mauleon,
lived with her uncle, Nicolas Melique, in an apartment of the
Doyenne de St. Thomas du Louvre. After his death in 1647
she remained there with her aunt. At a baptism, registered at St.
Germain 1'Auxerrois in 1664, J. B. Bossuet and C. Gary were
godfather and godmother. This proves their acquaintance during
Bossuet's residence at the Doyenne. In 1682 Catherine Gary ob-
tained judgment in her favour at the end of a protracted lawsuit,
and a contemporary document contains spiteful reference to the
interest employed on her behalf by the Dauphin's tutor. On
March 23 of the same year he became her surety with a
lawyer named Rene Pageau for a loan of forty- five thousand
Iivres4 ^ n 1687 two letters to Madame de Beringhen contain
references to her. In 1694 he and she stood sponsor to
the child of a converted Huguenot. The Journal of Ledieu
shows Bossuet paying the interest on the Pageau loan, and im-
mediately after his death Mile, de Mauleon made a claim on his
estate. At that time she was herself insolvent, and the claim
concerned the debt to Pageau. Responsibility for this debt was
accepted by the Abbe Bossuet, and as it was never discharged the
rumour to which it had given rise was never laid to rest. More-
over, his complicated dealings with his uncle's financial affairs
fostered the impression of mystery and of dishonour j| which the
great man's enemies had managed to suggest. But, in fact, the
* 6 me Avertissement aux Protestants, part ii, Ft. civ.
t M. Urbain shows that some of the references to her in the Journal
of Ledieu have been erased (L'Abbt Ledieu : Notes critiques).
% Ch. Urbain : Bossuet et Mile. Mautton and Les HM tiers de I'Avocat
Pageau.
Correspondance, vol. iii, Nos. 427, 436.
|| Nevertheless Spanheim, Protestant Envoy of Elector of Brandenburg
a severe critic of Bossuet as controversialist refers to " la rfgularite"
de sa vie et de ses mceurs " (Relation de la Cour de France, p. 448).
2 B
386 Appendix III
connection between Bossuet and Catherine Gary finds its explana-
tion in the character of the lady. M. Urbain's investigations have
discovered the chief points in her career, and she stands revealed
as a dexterous schemer with a notable capacity for turning persons
and events to the service of her interests. Bossuet, always negli-
gent in business matters, might easily have become the victim of
her money-making plots without realizing all that his liability in-
volved. His dealings with Madame Cornuau show that he was
not proof against pertinacity, and Mile, de Maule"on imposed upon
him, as did also his nephew the Abbe Bossuet. If he be held to
need any defence against this ancient calumny the most complete
is that of his first biographer : * " Effectivement que Ton suive
M. Bossuet depuis sa plus tendre jeunesse jusqu'a la fin de sa vie,
on le verra tourner toutes ses vues du cote" de I'figlise, n'gtre occupe
que de I'dtude, et mener une vie vraiment ecclesiastique des son
enfance sans aucune dissipation. II est centre toute vraisemblance
qu'un homme a qui ses plus grands ennemis n'ont jamais pu Hen
reprocher, se soit oublie" a un point de violer essentiellement la
discipline ecclesiastique dont il fut toujours un des plus ze"les d6-
fenseurs."
* LeVesque de Burigny : Vie de M. Bossuet, p. 96.
Appendix IV, Notes on Qallicanism
SIX ARTICLES FORMULATED BY FACULTY OF
THEOLOGY ASSEMBLED AT THE SORBONNE,
MAY 1663*
I
Ce n'est nullement la doctrine de la Faculte que le souverain
Pontife ait aucune autorite sur le temporel des rois.
II
C'est la doctrine de la Faculte que le roi tres-chretien n'a que
Dieu au-dessus de lui pour le temporel ; que c'est son ancienne
doctrine de laquelle elle ne se departira jamais.
Ill
Que les sujets du roi lui doivent une fidelite et une obeissance
dont ils ne peuvent tre dispenses sous quelque pretexte que ce soit.
IV
Que la meme Faculte n'approuve et n'a jamais approuve aucune
de ces propositions contraires a Pautorite du roi, aux libertes de
1'figlise gallicane etaux canons recus dans le royaume, par exemple,
que le Pape peut deposer les evques centre ces mmes canons.
V
'( , Que ce n'est pas la doctrine de la Facultd que le Pape soit au-
dessus du Concile.
VI
Que ce n'est pas aussi la doctrine de la Facult6 que le Pape soit
infaillible sans quelque consentement de 1'Eglise.
Qallicanism in 1682
NOTES OF CLAUDE FLEURY ON LAST ACT OF
ASSEMBLY OF I 6 8 2
(Nouveaux Opuscules, pp. 138-140)
Chancellier Le Tellier et archevSque de Rheims avec Pevfique
de Meaux en font le projet principalement pour regale. Roi
voulut qu'evque de Meaux en fust. Personnes d'autorit.
* See Jourdain : Hist, de /' University de Paris ; pp. 220-223.
388 Appendix IP
Question de l'autorit du Pape regardee comme necessaire h
traitter par 1'Arch. de R. et son pere. On ne la decidera jamais
qu'en temps de division. v. de M. repugnait, hors de saison.
vque de Tournay voulait la decider. De"tourne par eV. de M.
On augmentera la division que Ton veut dteindre. Beaucoup
que le livre de /'Exposition ait pass6 avec approbation. Gardens
notre possession. A 1'Arch. de R., vous aurez la gloire de 1'affaire
de la regale qui obscurcie par ces propositions odieuses.
Arch, de Paris ordre du Roi de traitter cette question. P.
Lachaise joint. Pape nous a pousses s'en repentira. v. de
Meaux propose examiner toute la tradition pour pouvoir alonger
tant que Ton voudroit. Arch, de Paris dit au Roi que dureroit
trop. Ordre de conclure et decider sur Pautorite du Pape.
M. Colbert pressoit.
Ev. de Tournay charge dresser les propositions : mal et scolas-
tiquement. v. de Meaux les dresse, assemblies chez 1'Arch. de
P. ou examinees. Disputes. On voulait y faire mention des
appellations au concile. v. de Meaux resista : ont 6t6 nomme-
ment condamne'es par des bulles de Pie II et Jules II : engages a
Rome a les condamner. Ne reculent jamais. Ne donner prise a
condamner nos propositions.
Appendix V. List of Works Published in the
lifetime of Bossuet
1655 Refutation du Cattchisme de Paul Ferry.
1670 Oraison Funebre de la Reine aAngleterre.
1670 Oraison Funebre de Madame.
1671 Exposition de la Doctrine de l'glise catholique.
1 68 1 Disc ours sur /'Histoire universe lie.
1682 Sermon de VAssemblee du Clerge.
1682 Conference avec M. Claude.
1682 Communion sous les deux especes.
1683 Oraison Funebre de la Reine.
1685 Oraison Funebre de la Princesse Palatine.
1686 Oraison Funebre de M. Le Tellier.
1686 Exposition augment 'ee.
1686 Lettre pastorale aux Nouveaux Catholique s.
1687 Ca techi sme de Meaux.
1687 Oraison Funlbre de M. le Prince.
1688 Histoire des Variations (4 tomes].
1689 U Apocalypse.
1689 Explication de la Messe.
1689 Prieres ecclesiastiques.
1689 Recueil a" Or at sons Funebres.
1 690 Pieces et Memoires sur FAbbaye de youarre.
1690 Avertissements aux Protestants.
1 69 1 Defense des Variations.
1 69 1 Liber Psalmorum.
1 69 1 Statuts et Ordonnances synodales.
1692 Lettre sur f Adoration de la Croix.
1693 Libri Salomonis.
1 694 Maximes sur la Comldie.
1695 Or donnance sur T Oraison.
1 696 Meditations du Jubile".
1697 Epistola quinque Ecclesiee prasulum (centre le Cardinal
Sfondrat}.
1697 tats a" Oraison.
1697 Declaratio trium episcoporum.
1697 Summa doctrines.
1698 Divers crits> etc.
1698 Re'ponse a Quatre Lettres.
1698 Relation sur le Quittisme.
390 Appendix VI
1698 Quastuincula.
1698 Remarque s sur la Rfyonse.
1698 Ordonnance synodale sur la Celebration des Ffoes.
1699 Lettre a"un Theologien.
1 699 Reponses aux prejugh.
1 699 Passages eclaircis.
1 699 Mandement pour I' execution de la bulle centre M. de Cambrai.
1700 Premiere instruction pastorale sur les promesses de PEglise.
1700 Quatre ecrits latins contre " la probabilite."
1 701 Seconde instruction pastorale sur I'Eglise.
1 702 Meditations sur la remission des peches pour le Jubile.
1702 Ordonnance contre le Nouveau Testament de Trevoux.
1 702 Instruction sur la version du Nouveau Testament de Trevoux.
1703 Seconde instruction, etc. (avec une dissertation sur la doctrine
de Grotius}.
1704 Explication d'Isaie vii, 14, et du Psaume xxi.
Appendix VL PostKumous Publications
1709 De Institutione Ludovici delphini.
1709 Politique tiree de I'ficriture Sainte.
1709 Lettre a la Rev. Mere Abbesse et Religieuses de Port Royal.
1710 Justification des "Reflexions sur le Nouveau Testament"
(de Pere Quesnel}.
1722 De la Connaissance de Dieu et de soi-meme.
1727 Elevations sur les Mysteres.
1730 Defensio Declarations.
' * > Meditations sur l'vangile.
1731 Trait e du Libre Arbitre et de la Concupiscence.
1737 Tr ait t de I' amour de Dieu.
1746 Lettres spirituelles de Messire J. B. Bossuet a une de ses
penitentes.
1747 Abrlgi de I'Histoire de France.
Bossuet reaped no financial advantage from any of his books. He
received one hundred copies for presentation. All profits remained with
printer. See Bourseaud, H. M. : Hist, des MSS., etc., introduction.
Appendix VTL Bibliography
(Being a List of Books consulted for foregoing Study)
(Euvres de Bossuet, edition Lachat, 31 vols. (1866).
Correspondence, edition Urbain et Levesque, 12 vols.
(Euvres Oratoires, edition Lebarq.
Instructions sur les tats a"0raison, Seconde Traite (decouvert par
T. Delmonf],
U Amour de Madeleine (decouvert par M. J. Bonnet) (1909).
Brunetiere : Sermons choisis.
Cagnac : Lettres de Direction.
HISTORIES OF THE PERIOD
Lavisse : Histoire de France, vols. vii, viii.
Cambridge Modern History, vol. v.
Gaillardin, C. : Histoire du Regne de Louis XIV, vols. v, vi.
Legendre, L. : Histoire du Regne de Louis le Grand (1698).
Limiers, H. P. de : Histoire du Regne de Louis XIV, vols. v, vi,
vii (1718).
Dreyss : Memoires de Louis XIV, 2 vols.
Voltaire : Siecle de Louis XIV, 2 vols.
Robillard d'Avrigny : Histoire universelle de I' Europe, 1600
1716(1757).
Jacquet, A. : La Vie litteraire au XVII Siecle.
Nisard, D. : Histoire de la Litterature Frangaise, vol. iv.
Druon : Histoire de J' Education des Princes, 2 vols.
Sainte-Beuve : Histoire de Port Royal, 7 vols.
Jacquinet : Des Predicateurs du XVll me Siecle.
Hurel : Les Orateurs sacres a la Cour de Louis XIV.
Clement, P. : La Police sous Louis XIV.
CONTEMPORARY LETTERS AND MEMOIRS
Madame de Sevign : Lettres, 14 vols. Edition Regnier.
Madame de Motteville : Memoires, 5 vols. (1723).
Mile, de Montpensier : Memoires, 4 vols.
Saint-Simon : Memoires, 25 vols. Edition Boislisle.
Saint-Simon : Merits inedits. Edition Faugere.
Lefevre d'Ormesson : Journal.
Legendre, L. : Memoires.
Cosnac, D. de : Memoires.
392 Appendix VII
Madame de La Fayette : Memoires.
Rapin, Rene : Memoires.
Primi, Visconti (traduits par J. Lemoine) : Mtmoires.
La Fare, Marquis de : Mtmoires.
Dubois (valet de chambre de Louis XIII) : Memoir e fiddle.
Dangeau, Marquis de : Memoires.
Madame de Caylus : Souvenirs et Correspondance.
Madame (Princesse Palatine) : Correspondance, edited P. G.
Brunet.
Huet, P. D. : Lettres^ ditees A. Gaste.
Aubigne^ F. d' (Madame de Maintenon) : Entretiens sur I' Educa-
tion.
Aubigne, F. d' (Madame de Maintenon) : Lettres^ 9 vols. (1757).
Colbert, J. B. : Lettres, Instructions, et Memoires, 7 vols.
Le Camus, Cardinal : Lettres. Edition Ingold.
Tronson, L. : Correspondance, 3 vols.
La Valliere, L. de : Reflexions sur la Misericorde de Dieu (1688).
Denis, J. B. : Memoires Anecdotes de la Cour et du Clerge de
France.
Correspondance de M. de Saint-Ponds et du President Dugas
(published 1900).
Spanheim, E. : Relation de la Cour de France en 1 690.
Burnet, Gilbert : Tracts, 2 vols.
Chabod, T. F. : Lettres sur la Cour de Louis XIV, 1660-1670.
BIOGRAPHIES AND STUDIES OF BOSSUET
Ledieu, F. : Memoires sur la Vie de Bossuet, 4 vols.
LeVesque de Burigny : Vie de M. Bossuet (1761).
Bausset, Cardinal : Vie.
Floquet : Etudes^ 3 vols.
Floquet : Bossuet Precepteur du Dauphin.
Thomas, M. J. : Les Bossuet en Bourgogne.
Reaume : Vie.
Lamartine : Vie.
Rebelliau : Bossuet.
Lanson : Etude.
Dimier : Etude.
BrunetieYe : Bossuet (1913). Collected articles. See also Etudes
Critiques^ vols. ii, v, vi, vii.
Appendix VII 393
Jovy, E. : Etudes et Recherches^ 3 vols.
Plieux, A. : L'Episcopat de Bossuet a Condom.
Druon : Bossuet a Meaux.
Gazier, A. : Bossuet et Louis XIV.
Longuemare, E. : Bossuet et la societe francaise.
Bellen, E. : Bossuet Directeur de Conscience.
Urbain, C. : U Abbe Ledieu : Notes critiques.
Delmont, T. : Autour de Bossuet.
Poujoulat : Lettres sur Bossuet.
Nourrisson, J. F. : La Politique de Bossuet.
Nourrisson, J. F. : La Philosophic de Bossuet.
Arnauld, L. : La Providence et le Bonheur tfapres Bossuet.
Lebarq, J. : Histoire critique de la Predication de Bossuet.
Vaillant, V. : Etudes sur les Sermons de Bossuet.
Gandar, E. : Bossuet Orateur.
Jacquinet, P. : Oraisons Funebres de Bossuet.
Revue Bossuet , 1900-1911.
Revue des Deux Mondes. Series of articles on Correspondance of
Bossuet by M. Rebelliau (beginning 1919).
SOCIETY IN THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV
Walckenaer : Memoires touchant la vie de Madame de Sevigne^
5 vols.
Ramsay, A. M. : Hist, du Vicomte de Turenne.
Picavet, C. G. : Les Demieres Annees de Turenne.
Cousin, V. : Madame de Hautefort.
Cherot, H. : Bourdaloue : sa Correspondance.
Griselle, Eugene : Bourdaloue^ 3 vols.
Soyez, E. : Nicolas Cornet, Grand Mattre du College de Navarre.
Bellet, C. : Hist, du Cardinal Le Camus.
Chantelauze : Pere de La Chaise.
Courtaux : P. D. Huet, 1630-1721.
Petit, N. : La Vie de M. le Due de Montausier.
Roux, A. : Un Misanthrope a la Cour de Louis XIV.
Lair, J. : Louise de La Valliere et la Jeunesse de Louis XIV.
Brulart de Sillery : La Vie penitente de Madame de La Valliere.
Anon. : La Vie de la Duchesse (1708).
Cladel, J. : Madame de La Valliere.
Panthe, L. : Madame de La Valliere.
394 Appendix VII
Houssaye, A. : Madame de La Palliere et Madame de Monte span.
Duclos, H. L. : Madame de La Valliere et Marie Therese d*Au-
triche.
Clement, P. : Madame de Montespan et Louis XIV.
Clement, P. : Une Abbesse de Fontevrau/t au XVlIme Siecle.
Funck Brentano : Le Drame des Poisons.
Noailles, P. de : Hist, de Madame de Maintenon, 4 vols.
Saint-Rene Taillandier : Madame de Maintenon.
Pilastre, E. : Vie et Caractere de Madame de Maintenon.
Perrins : Les Libertins en France au XVII Siecle.
GALLICAN CONTROVERSY
Bre"chillet, Jourdain C. : Histoire de /'University de Paris.
Baillet, A. : La Vie d'Edmond Richer.
Puyol, P. E. : E. Richer. tude historique, 2 vols.
Gerin, C. : Louis XIV et le Saint-Siege, 2 vols.
Gerin, C. : L'Assemblee de 1682.
Gerin, C. : Une nouvelle Apologie du Gallicanisme.
Loyson, J. T. : UAssemblee de 1682.
Burnet, Gilbert : News from France (1682).
Maistre, J. M. de : (Euvres.
Fleury, Claude : Opuscules, 5 vols. (1780).
Fleury, Claude : Nouveaux Opuscules, 6dite J. A. Emery (1807).
Le Roy, A. : Le Gallicanisme au XVlll me Siecle.
Guettee, F. R. : Hist, de l'glise de France, vol. xi.
Jervis, W. H. : The Gallican Church, 2 vols.
Sparrow-Simpson, W. J. : Roman Catholic Opposition to Papal
Infallibility.
Anon. : Le Bouclier de la France (1691).
Anon. : L Esprit de Gerson (1692).
Bossuet : Defense de la Declaration, 3 vols.
QUIETISM CONTROVERSY
Fnelon : (Euvres^ 23 vols. Versailles edition.
F6nelon : Correspondance, 1 1 vols.
Guyon, Madame : Vie tcrite par elle-meme.
Guyon, Madame : Recueil de divers traitez (1699).
Phelipeaux : Relation du Quietisme.
Crousl, Le"on : Fenelon et Bossuet.
Appendix VII 395
Matter : Le Mysticisms au temps de Fenelon.
Guerrier, L. : Madame Guyon.
Masson, M. : Fenelon et Madame Guyon.
Delplanque : Fenelon et la Doctrine de r Amour Pur.
Griveau, H. : La Condamnation du livre des Maximes des Saints.
Denis, J. : Quietisme ; Fenelon et Bossuet (1894).
Griselle, E. : Fenelon.
LemaTtre, J. : Fenelon.
Cherot : Le Quietisme : en Bourgogne et a Paris.
Rousselot : Les Mystiques espagnols.
Griselle, E. : Le Quietisme. Lettres inedites du frere de Bossuet.
Jovy, E. : Une Biographic inedite.
St. Cyres, Viscount : Franfois de Fenelon.
Cherel, A. : Fenelon au XVlllme Siecle en France.
Janet, P. : Fenelon.
Broglie : Fenelon a Cambrai.
Bremond, H. : Apologie pour Fenelon.
Navatel, L. : Fenelon : La Confrerie Secrete du Pur Amour.
Cherel, A. (ed.) : Explication des Articles d'Issy.
Sonnois, Mgr. (eU) : Reponse inedite a Bossuet.
CONTROVERSY: PROTESTANT AND OTHERS
Douen, E. : La Revocation de I* Edit de Nantes a Paris, 3 vols.
Antin : UEchec de la Reforme en France au XVl me Siecle.
Rebelliau, A. : Bossuet I'Historien du Protestantisme.
Crousle, L. : Bossuet et le Protestantisme.
Tabaraud : Hist, de Pere de Berulle.
Basnage de Beauval, J. : Hist, de la Religion des Eglises reformees,
2 vols. (1690).
Lemoine, J. : Memoir es des Eveques de France (1698).
La Bastide, M. de : Reponse a M. de Condom (1680).
Claude, J. : CEuvres posthumes^ 5 vols. (1688).
Claude, J. : Considerations sur les Lettres circulaires de I' Assem-
ble, etc. (1683).
Claude, J. : Reponse au livre de M. rfiveque de Meaux (1683).
Jurieu, P. : La Politique du Clergt de France (1682).
Frotte : Some Particular Motives of the Conversion of P. F. (1691).
Broglie, A. de : Leibniz : Systeme religieux.
Foucher de Careil : CEuvres de Leibniz.
396 Appendix VII
La Broise : Bossuet et la Bible.
Simon, R. : Lettres choisies, 4 vols. (1730).
Margival, H. : Essai sur Richard Simon et la critique biblique.
Margival, H. : Essai sur Richard Simon et la critique biblique au
Xnime Siecle.
Batterel, L. : MSmoires domestiques pour servir a rHistoire de
rOratoire^ vol. iv.
Delmont, T. : Bossuet et les Saints Peres.
Lupton, J. H. : Archbishop Wake and Project of Reunion.
F. G. : D'un Projet a" Union. Correspondance entre Wake et
Dupin.
Wake, W. : An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England
(1686).
Hickes, G. : Several Letters to a Popish Priest (1705).
Nelson, Robert : Life of George Bull (1714).
Le Grand, J. : Lettre a Mr. Burnet (1691).
Clagett, W. : A Second Letter to the Vindicator of the Bishop of
Condom (1687).
Lambin, G. : Les Rapports de Bossuet avec PAngleterre (1672
1704).
JANSENISM
Arnauld, A. : Lettres, 9 vols.
Quesnel, Pasquier : Correspondance, 2 vols.
Rebelliau : Bossuet et le "Jansenisme.
Ingold : Bossuet et le Janstnisme.
Delmont, T. : Bossuet et le Jansenisme.
Delmont, T. : Bossuet et le Pere Quesnel.
Barbier : Le Theologal de Bossuet.
MISCELLANEOUS
Autour d'une Brochure. Sept Lettres sur le prftendu manage
de Bossuet.
Urbain, C. : Bossuet et Mile, de Mauleon.
Urbain, C. : Les Heritiers de FAvocat Pageau.
Bossuet (v. de Troyes) : Instruction pastorale au sujet des Calom-
nies,etc. (1733).
Griselle : Monument de Bossuet.
Verlaque, V. : Bibliographie raisonnie des (Euvres de Bossuet.
Appendix VII 397
Bourseaud, H. M. : Histoire des MSS. et des editions originates.
Catalogue des livres de la Bibliotheque ds Messieurs Bossuet (1742).
LA TRAPPE AND THE BENEDICTINE ORDER
Serrant, M. L. : UAbbe de Ranee et Bossuet.
Dubois : Hist, de FAbbe de Ranee.
P. F. B. : Origine et /'esprit de la Reforme de FAbbe de Rand.
Le Nain : Vie de Dom Le Bouthillier de Ranee (1719).
R. P. : Reglements de FAbbaye (1718).
Gonod, B. : Lettres de Le Bouthillier de Rand.
Le Bouthillier de Ranee : Lettres de Piete (1701).
Le Bouthillier de Ranc6 : De la Saintete de la Vie monastique
(1683).
Broglie, E. de : Mabillon et la Societe de St. Germain-des-Pres
1664-1707.
Gaillardin : Les Trappistes au XIX Siecle.
Buder, C. : Benedictine Monachism.
Ingold, A. M. : Histoire de /'e'dition benedictine de St. Augustin
avec le journal inedit de Dom Ruinart.
Index
Index
BELARD, PETER, theologian
(1079-1142), 303.
Albert, Mme Henriette d',
Religious of Jouarre, 222,
237, 238, 242, 270, 273, 306,
316, 317, 322-335, 339, 343-
346, 35, 353. 370, 374, 375.
378.
Alexander VII, Pope, 179.
Ambrose, St., 130.
Anjou, Due d', son of Louis XIV,
150.
Anne of Austria, 14, 18, 19, 24,
36, 75. 95. 9 8 > 213-
relations to Bossuet, 23, 40,
82, 89, 97.
Arnauld, La Mere Agnes, 49.
Angdique, 49, 50, 51, 323.
Antoine, Doctor of the Sor-
bonne (1612-1694), 34,
47, 60, 8 1, 140, 246.
Marie Angdlique, Religious of
Port- Royal, 49.
Augustine, St., 47, 356, 364, 365,
371-
Avila, Juan d', Spanish mystic
(1500-1569), 31, 286.
BASIL, ST., 15.
Basnage de Beauval, Jacques,
Protestant minister (1653-
1723), 267.
Bayle, Pierre, historian and critic
(1647-1706), 245.
Beauvilliers, Ducde, 152, 273, 274.
Bellarmin, Cardinal, Jesuit theo-
logian (1542-1621), 52, 178,
181, 202.
Bellay, Comte de, 340.
Bellefonds, Bernardin de, Marshal
of France, 42, 46.
relations to Bossuet, 1 14-11 8,
120, 125, 129, 142, 149,
150, 161, 167, 169-171,
217, 230, 32 g 37, 378.
relations to Louise de La
Valliere, 114-121, 124.
Beringhen, Mme de, Abbess of
Farmou tiers, 225.
Bernard, St., 303.
Be'rulle, Cardinal de, Oratorian
(1574-1629), 53, 179.
Blois, Mile de, daughter of Louise
de La Valliere, in.
Bona, Cardinal, 63.
Bossuet, Antoine, 7, 108, 370.
Bossuet, Be*nigne, 7, 60.
Bossuet, Jacques Be*nigne, Bishop
of Meaui (1627-1704).
at Dijon, 7, 8, 213, 305.
College of Navarre, 8, 9,
12.
Metz, 7, 12, 14, 16-18,
20,22-39,69, 152,234,
235. 3i-
Meaui, 97, 152, 166, 172,
188,208-216,219, 229,
230, 232, 234, 248,
258-262, 271, 290,
3 01 , 3H, 32 1 . 326,
337, 3 6 7, 3 68 , 372,
378.
Germigny, 214, 215, 217,
317,321,326,354,372,
374-
and Condom bishopric, 97,
98, 108, 164-167, 211,
219.
and French Academy, 140,
148.
his dealing with Protestants,
4, 35, 52-58, 61-67, 102,
244-246, 249-265, 269,
302, 360-362.
his relations to Jansenism,
47-51, 238, 323,
329, 358.
Gallican Question, 5,
46, 189-207, 239,
242, 295, 302, 313,
359-
Quietism, 5, 31, 205,
206, 275, 278, 284-
309, 311, 313, 317,
a c
402
Bossuet, Jacques Be"nigne
his relations to Quietism cont.
33 332. 337, 3 6 5,
368, 374-
the Carmelites, 40, 43,
45, 115, 123, 236.
the Order of the Visita-
tion, 103, 104, 236,
311-314, 337.
the Community at Jou-
arre, 235-242, 314,
365-
^ the Maurist monks, 232,
233, 243, 35, 306.
the Oratorians, 15, 72,
76, 77, 215, 364.
the Jesuits, 294, 302,
33, 338.
as Preacher, 3, 13, 32, 35-
37, 40, 41, 43-45, 54, 72,
77-79, 89-104, 109-111,
188, 224, 225-229, 314,
349-
as Tutor, 3, 121, 139, 143-
163, 170, 338, 363, 372.
as Director, 106-108, 115-
121, 127-136, 218, 276,
277, 3 IO ~3 I 3, 3 l6 > 3 X 9,
320, 322, 327, 329-334,
33 6 -352.
as Student and Historian, 8,
30, 140, 141, 153, 162,
172, 174, 225, 247-256,
p 37, 376, 377-
his Exposition de la Doctrine
de rfiglise catholique, 61-
64, 66, 67, 205, 263-267,
360.
his Oraisons Funebres, 4, 9,
15, 18,47,48,77,96,97,
103, 104, 108-111, 140,
170, 175, 214, 224-229,
255, 256, 265, 266.
Bossuet, Abbe", 206, 207, 216, 299,
300, 368-375.
Louis, 375.
Mme, 375.
d'Aiserey, Claude, 7.
Index
Bouillon, Cardinal de, 92, 294,
301.
Mile de, 59.
Bourdaloue, Pere, Jesuit preacher,
(1632-1704), 91, 92, 160, 282,
283.
Bourgoing, Pere, Oratorian (1585-
1662), 77.
Bourret, Doctor of the Sorbonne,
3 6 4-
Boursault, Edme, dramatist (1638-
1701), 176.
Bremond, M. Henri, 4.
Bull, Dr. George, Bishop of St.
David's (1634-1710), 267, 268.
Burgundy, Louis, Duke of (after-
wards Dauphin), 274.
Marie Adelaide of Savoy,
Duchess of, 138.
Burnet, Gilbert, Bishop of Salis-
bury (1643-1715), 198, 265,
266.
Bussy-Rabutin, Roger, Comte de
(1618-1693), 169, 170.
CAFFARO, PliRE FRANCOIS, Thea-
tinemonk, 353, 356, 358,
362.
Calvin, John (1509-1564), 46,
252.
Caulet, Francois de, Bishop of
Pamiers, 184, 186, 189.
Caumont la Force, Charlotte de
(see Turenne, Mme de).
Caylus, Mme de, 138, 146.
Chandenier, Louis de, Abbe" de
Tournus, 24, 26.
Chantal, Ste., 103, 279, 309-311,
313-
Chanterac, Abbe" de, 298, 299,
302.
Charles I, 103.
Charles II, 106.
Charles IX, 53.
Chateaubriand, Francois Rene" de,
138.
Chevreuse, Charles d'Albert, Due
de, 273, 291.
Index
Choiseul, Gilbert de, Bishop of
Tournay, 194-196, 208.
Chrysostom, St., 356.
Claude, Jean, Protestant minister
of Charenton (1619-1687), 58,
65, 66, 172, 256.
Clement IX, Pope, 164, 165.
Clement X, Pope, 1 64.
Clerginet, Alix, Demoiselle de Metz,
21, 29, 62, 82.
Colbert, Jean-Baptiste, Superin-
tendent of Finance (1619
1683), 38, 39, 84, 114,
117, 120, 132, 133, 180,
182, 184, 186, 191, 195,
273, 281.
Mme, H2.
Collier, Jeremy, non-juror (1650
1726), 355.
Conde", Henri Jules de Bourbon,
Le Grand (1621-1686), 22,
58, 213, 214, 225, 227-229.
Congreve, William (1672-1729),
355-
Conrart, Valentin, Secretary to
French Academy (1603-1675),
140.
Cornet, Nicolas, President of Col-
lege of Navarre (1592-1663),
9, 12,47,48.
Cornuau, Mme Marie, Religious
of Torcy, 326, 337, 339-351,
354-
Cosnac, Daniel de, Bishop of
Valence, 105, 258.
Cospe*an, Philippe de, Bishop of
Lisieux, 14.
Cromwell, Oliver, 53.
D
ANIEL, PERE, Jesuit, 371.
Dauphin, Louis, eldest son
of Louis XIV,the,64,8 5,171.
relations to Bossuet, 3, 139,
143-163, 172, 220, 254,
268, 338.
his character, 146, 148, 151,
157, 158, 160, 161, 163,
223.
403
Dauphine, Christina of Bavaria,
the, 138, 171, 172, 273, 368.
Delamarre, Mme, 211.
Diroys, Abbe, 175, 176, 202.
Dryden, John (1631-1701), 355.
Dubois de Lestourmieres, valet to
the Dauphin, 149-151, 163.
Dupin, Ellies, Doctor of the Sor-
bonne (1657-1719), 359, 362.
Duras, Mile de, 64, 65.
ERASMUS, DESIDERIUS (1467
1536) 252.
Estiennot, Dom, Maurist
monk, 305.
Essarts, Charlotte des, 164.
Estrees, Cardinal d', 199.
Eugenius IV, Pope, 202, 203.
FENELON, Francois de, Arch-
bishop of Cambrai 1651-
1715), 76, 152, 373.
friendship with Bossuet, 141,
196, 270-272, 274, 278,
285, 286, 359.
conflict with Bossuet, 5, 231,
289-298, 301, 302, 307,
312, 322, 325, 336, 363,
. 372, 374-
his character and position,
270, 273-275, 277, 297,
301, 310, 337, 338.
his opinions, 272, 281, 287,
288, 289, 293, 332, 362.
Ferry, Paul, Protestant minister at
Metz (1591-1669), 53, 55, 56,
61, 62, 67, 264.
Feuillet, Abbe Nicolas, 107.
Flechier, Esprit, Bishop of Nimes,
celebrated preacher, 114.
Fleury, Abbe" Claude, historian
(1640-1723), 141, 194, 204,
33> 34> 37-
Foix, Gaston de, Due de Rendan,
96.
Fouquet, Nicolas, 84.
Francois I, 182.
4 o 4
Francois de Sales, St., 12, 73, 103,
143, 176, 279, 310, 311, 334,
354-
G ASTON D'ORLE'ANS, brother
of Louis XIII, 69, 71,
87.
Gerbais, Jean, Doctor of the Sor-
bonne (1629-1699), 191, 195.
Gerson, Jean le Charlier de, Chan-
cellor of Notre Dame (1363-
1429), 177, 178
Godet-Desmarets, Bishop of Char-
tres, 282, 293, 297, 298.
Godrans, President, 8.
Gondi (see Retz, Cardinal de).
Gonzaque, Anne de, Princess Pala-
tine, 225-227.
Gregory Nazianzen, St., 15.
Guise, Cardinal de, 164.
Henri de, 236.
Guyon, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de
La Motte Mme (1648-
1717).
relations to Bossuet, 5, 280,
284-287, 289, 290, 293,
294 317, 326, 334. 339
354-
her character and position,
278, 279, 281-283, 288,
303 305 3i-
relations to F&ielon, 281-
290, 292, 293, 299.
HARLAI DE CHAMPVALLON,
Archbishop of Paris (1625
1695), 132, 159, 172,
I 83, 185, 186, 190-192, 194,
195, 203, 222, 358, 367.
Hautefort, Marie de (see Mme de
Schomberg).
Henri IV, 16, 57, 60, 103, 105,
164, 178, 193.
Henrietta of England, Madame,
21, 83, 112, 225.
relations with Bossuet, 96,
100, 104-110, 128, 165,
266.
Index
relations with the King, 86-
90, r 06.
Henrietta- Maria, widow of Charles
I, 46, 103, 104, 225, 226, 265.
Henry VIII, 265.
Huet, Pierre, Bishop of Soissons
(1630-1721), 141, 147, 157,
258.
T NNOCENT X, Pope, 1 79.
I Innocent XI, Pope, 64, 153,
154, 181-183, l8 5 i g 7,
189-194, 198, 199, 203, 239,
275, 276.
Innocent XII, Pope, 204, 293,
300, 301.
JAMES II, 264, 267.
Janon, Hugues, Canon of
Lyons, 165.
Jansenius, Bishop of Ypres (1585-
1638), 47.
John of the Cross, St., 307.
Joyeuse, Due de, 1 50.
Jurieu, Pierre, Protestant theo-
logian (1639-1713), 66, 67,
255, 267, 325.
LA CHAISE, PERE, Jesuit Con-
fessor to Louis XIV (1624-
1709), 160, 1 86, 194, 302.
La Combe, Pere, Barnabite monk,
279.
Lacoste, nurse to Dauphin, 145.
La Croix, Mme de, Religious of
Jouarre, 240.
La Fayette, Mme de, 199.
La Maisonfort, Mme de, Religious
of Saint-Cyr, 282, 310-313,
316.
Langeron, Abb6 de, 271.
La Reynie, M. de, Chief of Police
(1624-1709), 363.
La Rochefoucauld, Due de (1613
1680), 170, 217.
La Rue, Pere de, Jesuit preacher,
33-
Index
La Trappe, Abbot of (see Ranee",
Armand Jean, etc.).
Lauzun, Due de, 114.
La Valliere, Louise de, 43, 98, 162.
relations to Bossuet, 21, 41,
89, 94, 96, 111-124, I2 8-
130, 138, 143, 150, 216,
221, 227, 308, 310.
her position at Court, 87-91,
100, 127.
Laval, Mme de, 275.
La Voisin, 34, 35.
Le Camus, Cardinal, Bishop of
Grenoble (1632-1707),
106, 176.
relations to Bossuet, 130, 200,
201, 233, 306.
his reputation, 8082, 126,
127, 167, 212.
Ledieu, Francois, secretary to Bos-
suet, 92, 196, 260, 350, 367,
37i-373>' r 375-379-
Legendre, Abbe", 192.
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von
(1646-1715), 249, 360, 361.
Le Masson, Pere, 305, 306.
Leo X, Pope, 182.
Leon, Louis de, Augustinian monk,
3i-
Leopold, Emperor of Austria, 360.
Le Tellier, Michel, Chancellor
(1603-1685), 185, 194,
200, 225, 262, 363.
Charles Maurice, Archbishop
of Rheims, 190, 193, 194,
233,292.
Francois (see Louvois).
Liancourt, Mme de, 19.
Ligny, Dominique de, Bishop of
Meaux, 97, 171.
Longueville, Anne Genevieve de
Bourbon, Mme de, 46.
Lorraine, Charles Louis de, Bishop
of Condom, 164.
Henriette de, Abbess of Jou-
arre, 236, 238, 239, 240,
241, 323-
Louis IX, St., 99, 177.
405
Louis XIII, 9, 1 8, 149, 165.
Louis XIV, 23, 38, 83, 149,
214.
relations to Bossuet, i, 2, 40,
59, 60, 89, 96-98, 102,
107, 128, 130-136, 138,
142, 150, 165, 171, 172,
188, 189, 207, 235, 241,
242, 261, 268, 292, 304,
306, 366, 369, 372, 375.
his religion, 94, 128, 129,
131, 132, 273, 288, 292.
his dealings with Rome, 1 79-
190, 193, 197-199, 204,
236, 239, 261, 275, 276,
293, 294, 296.
his treatment of Protestants,
4, 256, 257, 259-263,
272.
his power of domination, 34,
4 6 59 75 8 5 Il6 > H3
198, 22O, 222.
his favourites, 8691, 98,
111-114, 116, 118-120,
127, 135, 137, 237.
his Memoirs, 84, 144, 180,
182, 220.
Louvois, Francois Le Tellier, Mar-
quis de (1641-1691), 180, 185,
256.
Lovat, Simon Fraser, Lord (1667-
I747) 264.
Luther, Martin (1483-1546), 46,
244, 250-252, 304, 307.
Luynes, Louis d'Albert, Due de,
46, 237.
Marie-Louise d'Albert, Mme
de, Religious of Jouarre,
238, 273, 323, 324, 344,
349> 35-
MABILLON, DOM JEAN, Mau-
rist monk; (1632-1707),
141, 173, 174, 233, 234,
243, 271.
Maine, Due de, son of Mme de
Montespan, 137, 138.
406
Maintenon, Francoise d'Aubigny,
Mme de, 119, 214, 223,
282, 283, 287.
relations to Bossuet, 136, 138,
139, 171, 222, 224.
position with the King, 137,
272, 273, 276,281.
authority in religious affairs,
222, 273, 276, 281-283,
312, 366, 369.
Malaval, Quietist writer, 330.
Mancini, Olympe, Mme de Sois-
sons, 85-90.
Maria Teresa, Queen Consort,
83, 85, 86, 89, 100, 115, 122,
134, 136, 148, 151, 225.
Marie of Savoy, Queen of Portugal,
179.
Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland,
105.
Mascaron, Jules, Bishop of Agen,
celebrated preacher (1634-
1694), 91.
Mazarin, Cardinal (16021661),
9, 1 8, 22, 23, 54, 58, 70, 82,
85, 86, 179, 182, 210.
Medici, Marie de, Consort of
Henri IV, 18.
Melancthon, Philippe (1497-
1560), 252, 254.
Miramion, Mme de, 340.
Mochet, Marguerite, Mme Bos-
suet, 7.
Molanus, Protestant theologian,
360.
Moliere (1622-1673), 37, 38,
146,354,355,357,358.
Molinos, Miguel de, Spanish theo-
logian (1627-1696), 278, 280,
292, 307.
Monluc, Jean de, Bishop of Con-
dom, 164, 165.
Montausier, Due de, 128, 144,
146-152, 155, 157-159.
161, 163, 164, 223.
Julie d'Angennes, Mme de,
in, 138, 145, 146, 170.
Montbazon, Mme de, 71.
Index
Montespan, Francoise de Roche-
chouart de Mortemart,
Mme de, 35, 148.
relations to Bossuet, 117, 129,
132, 134, 135, 137, 138,
142, 143, 162, 217, 221,
.231.
relations to the King, 87, 88,
100, 112, 114, 127, 128,
131, 136, 137, 146, 185,
214, 237.
Montfaucon, Dom, Maurist monk,
305-
Montpensier, Anne-Marie d'Or-
l&ns, Mile de, 46.
Mortemart, Mme de, 281.
Motte, Mme de La, 145, 148.
Motteville, Mme de, 104, 144,
225.
NAVAILLES, Mme de, 86, 145,
146.
Nelson, Robert(i656-i7i5),
267, 268.
Noailles, Antoine de, Cardinal
Archbishop of Paris (1651
1729), 49, 204, 208, 222, 287,
289, 293, 297, 298, 303, 337,
350, 364, 365.
o
LIER, JEAN-JACQUES, Foun-
der of Seminary of St.
Sulpice (i6o8-i
PALATINE, Charlotte Elizabeth
of Bavaria, Princess, second
wife of Philippe d'Orl&ns,
120, 122, 157, 295.
Pascal, Blaise (1623-1662), i, 48,
303-
Jacqueline, Religious of Port-
Royal, 49.
Pavilion, Nicolas, Bishop of Aleth,
184.
Peletier, Claude le, 225.
Pelisson, Paul, author (1624-1693)
141.
Index
Perefixe, Hardouin de, Archbishop
of Paris (1605-1670), 49.
Pe"rigny, President, 113, 144, 147,
165.
Perth, James Drummond, Lord,
(1675-1720), 264.
Philippe d'Orleans, brother of
Louis XIV, 100, 105, 157.
Phelipeaux, Abbe, 271, 297, 299,
339-
Pirot, official censor, 359, 365.
Plieux, Begue, 164.
Pontchartrain, Louis, Comte de,
Chancellor (1643-1727), 365.
Q
UESNEL, PERE PASQUIER, Ora-
torian (1634-1719), 49.
RAMBOUILLET, MME DE (known
as Arthenice), 13, 87, 174.
Ranc, Armand Jean Le
Boutillier de, Abbot of La
Trappe (1626-1700).
relations to Bossuet, 40, 70,
72, 76, 126, 176, 191, 200,
213, 225, 230, 231, 271,
306, 310, 370.
his youth and conversion,
15, 68-74, 87, 95, 112,
167, 276.
his theory of monasticism, 43,
75-82, 173, 232-234.
Rapin, Pere, Jesuit, 36, 50, 54.
Ravaillac, murderer of Henri IV,
221.
Renaudot, Eusebe, theologian, 141.
Retz, Jean Francois de Gondi,
Cardinal de (1614-1679), 15,
210.
Richelieu, Cardinal (1585-1642),
9, 1 8, 22, 68, 173, 179.
Richelieu, Mme .la Duchesse de,
135-
Richer, Edmond, theologian (i 5 59-
1631), 178, 179, 183.
Roccaberti, Archbishop of Valen-
tia, 204, 205.
Rochard, Sieur, 271.
407
Rochechouart, Gabrielle de, Ab-
bess of Fontevrault, 217, 237,
3I5-
Roye, Isabelle de Duras, Mme de,
65.
SABLE", MME DE, 170.
Sabliere, Mme de la, 36.
Saint-Cyran, Abbe de, theo-
logian (1581-1643), 330.
Sainte-Beuve, M., 226.
Saint-Simon, Due de ( 1 67 5-1 7 5 5),
105, I73 3 6 -
Schomberg, Marshal, 18, 20, 211.
Marie de Hautefort, Mme
de, 18-22, 29.
Seckendorf, G. L. von, historian
(1626-1692), 249.
Seguier la Charmoix, 261.
SeVigne", Mme de (1626-1696),
114, 118, 123, 137, 170, 171,
173, 228.
Simon, Richard, scholar and con-
troversialist (1638-1712), 140,
141, 363-366, 369, 372.
Soubise, Anne Marguerite de Ro-
han, Mme de, 241.
Souin, steward to Bossuet, 216,
296.
St. Andre", Abbe" de, 378, 379, 380.
Sully, Duchesse de, 16.
TANQUEUX, MME DE, 340.
Teresa, St., 31, 83, 307.
Thibaut, M., priest in diocese
of Meaux, 127.
Thierry, Guillaume, chief engineer
at Chantilly, 215.
Tre"mouille, Mme de La, 59.
Tronson, M. Louis, Superior of
Seminary of St. Sulpice (1622-
1700), 287, 289, 293, 297, 299.
Turenne, Henri de La Tour
d'Auvergne, Marshal (161 1
1675), 58-61, 64, 67, 97,
118.
Charlotte de Caumont La
Force, Mme de, 58-60.
408 Index
VERNEUIL, HENRI DE, Bishop Voltaire, 174, 184.
of Metz, 1 6, 17, 235.
Vincent de Paul, St., 54, ^I/TAKE, WILLIAM, Archbishop
73> r 3 2 - \\/ of Canterbury (1657-
relations to Bossuet, 24-26, -i7 37 ),264,265,266, 359.
3*> 35 7 83 98, 104,
165, 166, 218. _ . _. , .
extent of his influence, 14-17, i y AMr . SEBASTIEN^ Bishop of
33,70,213. L
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