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YALE
DIVINITY SCHOOL
LIBRARY

Gift of
JOHN R. MOTT

OPINIONS OF THE PREW

Madame Louise de France.
" A specimen of as calm and unworldly devotion — of a devotion, too, full of shrewd
sense and practical administrative talent — as any we have ever met with." — Literary
Churchman. " The annals of a cloistered life, under ordinary circumstances, would not probably
be considered very edifying by the reading public of the present generation. When,
however, such a history presents the novel spectacle of a royal princess of modern
times voluntarily renouncing her high position and the splendoureof a Court existence,
for the purpose of enduring the asceticism, poverty, and austerities of severe monastic
rule, the case may well be different." — Morning Post.
A Dominican Artist.
**Tt would be difficult to find 'the simplicity and purity of a holy life ' more ex- ,("
quisitely illustrated than in Father Bessons career, both before and after his joining
the Dominican Order under the auspices of Lacordaire  Certainly we have
never come across what could more strictly be termed in the truest sense ' the life of a
beautiful soul.' The author has done well in presenting to English readers this
singularly graceful biography, in which all who can appreciate genuine simplicity and
nobleness of Christian character will find much to admire and little or nothing to
condemn." — Saturday Review.
"A beautiful and most interesting sketch of the late Pere Bessoiu an artist who for
sook the easel for the altar." — Church Times.
Henri Perreyve.
*' It is easy to see that Henri Perreyve, Professor of Moral Theology at the Sor-
bonne, was a Roman Catholic priest of no ordinary type. "With comparatively little of
what Protestants call superstition, with great courage and sincerity, with a nature
singularly guileless and noble, his priestly vocation, although pursued, according to
his biographer, with unbridled zeal, did not stifle his human sympathies and aspira
tions. He could not believe that his faith compelled him * to renounce sense and',
reason/ or that a priest was not free to speak, act, and think like other men^
Perreyve was the beloved disciple of Lacordaire, who left him all bis manuscripts,
notes, and papers, and he himself attained the position of a great pulpit orator. *-^
Pall Mall Gazette. ^ -
S. Francis de Sales.
"It is written with the delicacy, freshness, and absence of all affectation which
characterized the former works by the same hand, and which render these books such
very much more pleasant reading than are religious biographies in general. The
character of S. Francis de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, is a charming one; a more
simple, pure, and pious life it would be difficult to conceive. His unaffected humility,
his freedom from dogmatism in an age when dogma was placed above religion, his
freedom from bigotry in an age of persecution, were alike admirable. ' — Standard.
Revival of Priestly Life in France.
"It serves incidentally to throw a good deal of light on the condition of the French
Church in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the way in which it was
influenced by the counter Reformation which did so much to change the inward and
outward life of Catholicism throughout Europe."— ^Saturday Review. _ t
" It merits to be read by every priest, and by alt who have the care of training
souls for the priesthood ; while its attractive style will win for it a much wider class
of readers. "—Church Times.
Eibinfltona: lonDon, 2Djcforu, anu eUtnbritiee

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS— Continued

Hippolyte Flandrin, a Christian Painter.
"A bright and vivid sketch of the painter to whose artistic skill and Christian
feeling modern Paris owes exquisite adornments  It is worth reading as an
example of quiet, steadfast heroism in pursuit of a worthy object." — Literary
Churchman. "This is a charming addition to biographical literature." — Notes and Queries.
"A charming book." — National Church.
Bossuet and his Contemporaries.
"We are always glad to welcome a fresh work from the graceful pen of the author
of 'A Dominican Artist. And the fact that not only is there no popular Life of
Eossuet to be found in France, as we are told in the preface, but, so far as we are
aware, no Life of him at all in English, gives an additional interest to the present
volume." — Saturday Review.
" It contains so many interesting facts, that it may be profitably read even by those
who already know the man and the period." — Spectator.
" Bossuet's daily life, his style of preaching, his association with the stirring poli
tical, social, and ecclesiastical events of his time, are presented in a simple bu:
picturesque way, which will render the book acceptable far beyond the circle of those
who occupy themselves specially with theological studies. " — Daily News.
"All biography is delightful, and this story of Bossuet is eminently so.'' — Notes
and Queries. Fenelon.
"Those who know — and we may fairly ask, who does not? — the charming books
which we have already had from the present writer, will need nothing more than the
bare announcement of it to make them welcome this new account of the life of the saintly
Fenelon. In it they will find his early connection with the Court admirably sketched,
the unhappy controversy with Bossuet fairly and carefully narrated, and, what we
think will please them most of all, his subsequent life and career, after his retirement
to his diocese, most charmingly depicted." — Church Quarterly Review.
" The present life is instructive in many ways  The history of the Church
offers few more attractive biographies than that of the great Archbishop, whom every
body appreciated save his king." — Guardian.
' ( The writer has found a subject which suits her genius, and she handles it with
both skill and sympathy  The account of his life at Cambrai is one of the
most delightful narratives that we have ever read. It would be scarcely too much to
extend the same praise to the whole book." — Spectator.
" Fenelon is thoroughly readable, and is much more than a biographical sketch.
There are nearly 500 pages, and there are very few which fail to give a reader some
thing for glad or serious thought. " — Notes and Queries.
"The delightful volume under notice will add much to the well-deserved reputa
tion of its author." — Church Times.
"A delightful book."— Standard.
"The author has evidently studied his subject with great care, and consulted all
important authorities, with, as result, an exceedingly interesting book on one of
the most interesting figures that France ever produced. Fenelon's life is treated
with great clearness, and the important facts vividly portrayed." — Examiner.
"The best English book on Fenelon with which we are acquainted."— Globe.
" Although much has been written and is known of Fenelon, we doubt much whether
the real man was ever so vividly portrayed or his portrait so elegantly framed as in
this choice and readable book. " — Watchman.
" One of the great charms of this work consists in the letters scattered up and down
its pages, some addressed to his royal pupil, and others to his friends. The sweet
nature and singular fascination of the Archbishop shine fortH conspicuously in these
self-revelations, which breathe a truly religious spirit." — English Independent.
Eibtngtong: Honfcom 2Prforrj. ann eTambritiae

CHRISTIAN BIOGRAPHIES

H. L. SIDNEY LEAR

BOSSUET

CHRISTIAN BIOGRAPHIES

H. L. SIDNEY LEAR
New and Uniform Editions. Crown &vo. y. 6d. each.
Madame Louise de France, Daughter of Louis XV.,
known also as the Mother Terese de S. Augustin.
A Dominican Artist ; a Sketch of the Life of the
Rev. Pere Besson, of the Order of St. Dominic.
Henri Perreyve. By A. Gratry, Pietre de l'Oratoire,
Professeur de Morale Evangelique a la Sorbonne, et Membre
de l'Academie Francaise. Translated by special permission.
With Portrait.
S. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Prince of Geneva.
r
The Revival of Priestly Life in the Seven
teenth Century in France. Charles de Condren — S.
Philip Neri and Cardinal de Berulle — S. Vincent
de Paul — Saint Sulpice and Jean Jaques Olier.
A Christian Painter of the Nineteenth Cen
tury ; being the Life of Hippolyte Flandrin.
Bossuet and his Contemporaries.
Fenelon, Archbishop of Cambrai.
Iftftjt'ngtong
LONDON, OXFORD, AND CAMBRIDGE

BOSS UIT
&nu ins Contemporaries

By the Author op

'A Dominican Artist," "Life of S. Francis de Sales'
etc etc.

" The gentleman is learn' d, and a most rare speaker''
Henry VIII., Act i. =. ii.

RIVINGTONS
WATERLOO PLACE, LONDON
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[New Edition]

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CANON OF ST. PAULS
IN GRATEFUL TOKEN OF A LONG AND
DEARLY-PRIZED FRIENDSHIP

{\ THIS LIFE OF THE EAGLE OF MEAUX
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"^- IS MOST AFFECTIONATELY

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DEDICATED

Preface
A LIFE of Bossuet, to be really complete, either
¦*• from the ecclesiastical or literary point of view,
must inevitably expand to a bulk, manifold greater
than this volume. His numerous writings, his cor
respondence, and the vast number of memorable
men and women whose histories are more or less
interwoven with his own, present a field of historical
interest in which the chief difficulty is less what to
take than what to leave. But the present volume
does not pretend to do more than suggest and
characterise. In the wide expanse of Church history of the
latter centuries, few periods are more interesting
than that here touched upon, and in one respect
the life of Bossuet will appeal very strongly to the
heart of many an English Churchman now. He

PREFACE.

lived in an atmosphere of controversy, with all its
accompaniments of disappointment and exasperation.
He had to mourn over what seemed to be the strange
insensibility of persons in the highest place of
authority to the dearest interests of the Church, or,
worse still, over the mischief which their short
sightedness inflicted on her. He, the first divine
in Europe, could permit himself to say in reference
to the reigning Pope, "Well-meant ignorance is a
grievous calamity in high places ! Let us mourn and
pray ! " His words, alas ! may have their application
in later times. If we in this age and country
cannot escape from a sense of their almost pro
phetic appositeness, — let us not forget the precept
with which they close.
There is no popular Life of Bossuet to be found
in France — Cardinal de Bausset's is the only one,
and that is bulky and dry. Moreover, when he
wrote it (in 1814), the Abbe Le Dieu's Memoires
and Journal were not published, and though he had
access to them, and frequently quotes them, he does
not at all make the familiar use that we might

PREFACE. vii
expect of the Secretary's somewhat indiscriminate
information. Floquet's " Etudes sur la Vie de Bos
suet " are most useful, but they are tedious in minute
detail, and fitter for reference than reading ; — more
over, the three large volumes only carry one as far
as Bossuet's appointment to the Preceptorship of the
Dauphin in 1670.
The Abbe Vaillant's " Etudes sur les Sermons de
Bossuet" (written 185 1) are a valuable adjunct .in
studying those Sermons.
The edition of Bossuet's own works, referred to
throughout this book, is that now generally accepted
in France as the most perfect; — carefully prepared
by F. Lachat from the original MSS., and expur
gating interpolations and alterations which, like most
similar "improvements," damaged the writings, and
did injustice to their author. This edition, in thirty-
one volumes, is published by Louis Vives, Paris,
and comprises sundry MSS. not contained in other
editions. The edition of Madame de Sevigne"'s Letters
quoted is Gault de Saint-Germain's, published by

viii PREFACE.
Dalibon, Paris, 1823. All references throughout are
direct, and carefully verified.
It is impossible to write of Bossuet without en
tering upon the history of his most interesting, most
attractive contemporary, Fenelon ; but as that could
not be followed here, without extending the book
to an undue size, the Archbishop of Cambrai's Life
will shortly follow as a separate volume.
Sarum, October 1874.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
BOSSUET'S EARLY DAYS. PAGE
Birth at Dijon — Family — Baptism— Claude Bossuet — Edu
cation — First Acquaintance with the Bible — Jesuit Col
lege — Descartes — Goes to Paris — College de Navarre
— Nicolas Cornet — First Thesis of Philosophy — Intro
duction to the Great World — Hotel Rambouillet —
Extempore Sermon — De Ranee — Takes his Bachelor's
Degree — Grand Conde present — Opinions concerning
the Theatre — Cardinal Richelieu — His Death — Wars
of the Fronde — Sorbonne Oration — Patristic Study —
S. Augustine — Doctor's Degree — Appointed Arch
deacon of Metz — Marshal de Schomberg — Receives
Priest's Orders — S. Vincent de Paul — Ordinand's Re
treats — Bishop Potier — Henri de Bourbon, Titular
Bishop of Metz — Life at Metz — Protestant Contro
versies — Paul Ferry — The "Refutation" — Filles de la
Propagation de la Foi — Their Rule I
CHAPTER II.
BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.
Visit of Anne of Austria and Louis XIV. to Metz— S. Vin
cent's "Messieurs des Mardis" — Mission of Metz —
Correspondence with S. Vincent de Paul — Bossuet sent
to Paris — Preaches before the Queen — Panegyric of S.
Joseph — Queen Marie Therese — Advent and Lent
Stations— Muse Historique— Sermons before the King

CONTENTS.

PAGK
— Bossuet's Three Styles of Preaching — History of his
Manuscript Sermons — Deforis' Edition — Lachat's Edi
tion — Bossuet's Eloquence — Madame de Sevigne —
Louis XIV. and Bossuet's Father — Journal des Savans
^—Flattery of the Period — Quotations from Sermons
preached before the King — The Duties of Kings — Ele
vations — Quotation of Scripture — Of the Fathers — Of
Classical Authors — Sainte Beuve and Criticisms — Bos
suet's Extensive Reading — Marginal Notes — Anecdotes
— Sermon on Death . ... 62

CHAPTER III.
BOSSUET IN PARIS.
Bossuet's Dwelling and Friends — Death of the Due de Foix
— Exposition de la Doctrine Catholique — Turenne —
Panegyriques — Bossuet resigns the Archdeaconry of
Metz to his Father — Priory of Gassicourt— Death of
Bishop Bedacier — Port-Royal — Jansenius — The Five
Propositions — The Arnaulds — Archbishop Perefixe —
Death of Anne of Austria — Nicole's Perpetuite de la
Foi — The Mons Testament — Letters to the Marechal de
Bellefonds — Faculty of Theology — Bossuet appointed
Bishop of Condom — Queen Henrietta Maria of England
— Her Escape to France — Murder of Charles I. — The
Queen's Death — Her Funeral Oration — Henrietta
d'Angleterre, Duchess of Orleans, becomes Bossuet's
Pupil — Her Sudden Death — Her Funeral Oration —
Impression on the Paris World — Madame de la Valliere 117
CHAPTER IV.
BOSSUET PRECEPTOR TO THE DAUPHIN.
Death of President de Perigny — Bossuet appointed in his
place — His Difficulties as to the See of Condom — His

CONTENTS.

Consecration — Resignation of the See — Pecuniary Dif
ficulties — The Dauphin — Bossuet's Views as to his Edu
cation — Religious Instruction — Classical — Bossuet's
Love of Homer — Conversation with the Bishop of
Autun — Virgil — History — Letter to Pope Innocent con
cerning the Dauphin's Education — Pere Gratry's Criti
cisms of Bossuet's Philosophy — Traite de la Philosophie
— La Logique — Du Libre Arbitre — Histoire Univer-
selle — Politique Sacree — Marriage of the Dauphin —
His Character — Bossuet appointed Chaplain to the
Dauphiness — Her Description by Mme. de Sevigne—
Birth of the Due de Bourgogne — Death of the
Dauphiness — The Dauphin's Second Marriage — Wars
— His Death — His Coldness and Slackness towards
Bossuet . .  163

CHAPTER V.
BOSSUET A BISHOP.
Bossuet elected a Member of the Academie Francaise —
Discours— His Habits of Life — Society — Allee des
Philosophes — Gatherings of Literary Men — Louise de
la Valliere — Her Penitence — Consults Marechal de
Bellefonds — Correspondence with Bossuet — She leaves
the Court — Mademoiselle de Blois — The Duchess joins
the Carmelites and takes the Habit — Takes the Veil —
Bossuet preacher on the Occasion — Her After Life and
Death — Madame de Montespan — The Cure of Ver
sailles refuses her Communion — Louis XIV. consults
Bossuet — He tries to separate the King from her —
Letters to Louis XIV. — The King relapses — Bossuet's
last Efforts— Mademoiselle de Fontanges — Conversion
of Mademoiselle de Duras — The Minister Claude —
Death of the Due de Rochefoucauld — Bossuet's Cor
respondence ... . . . 203

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VI.
BOSSUET IN THE ASSEMBLY. PAGB
Bossuet thought of as Archbishop of Lyons — Bishop of Sens,
Beauvais, etc. — Nominated Bishop of Meaux — Assem
bly General — Letters to Dr. Dirois and de Ranee —
Struggle between the Pope and the Gallican Church —
Affair of the Regale — Louis XIV. 's Declaration — Bos
suet preaches before the Assembly — The Four Articles
— De Harlay — Declaration of the Clergy of France —
Confirmed by the King's Edict — Indignation at Rome
— Letters to Dr. Dirois — Bossuet's Defence of the
Gallican Church  252
CHAPTER VII.
BOSSUET AT MEAUX.
Bossuet's Installation at Meaux — First Sermon in the Cathe
dral — Retreat at la Trappe — Letter on the Adoration
of the Cross — The Palace at Meaux — Bossuet's House
hold — Contrast of that of his Successor de Bissy — His
Habit of Night Work — Diocesan Work — Offices —
Manner of performing Ceremonies — Preparation for
Preaching — Visitations — Missions — Conferences —
Synods — Catechisms — Hospitals, Religious Houses —
Irregularities of the Abbey of Jouarre Reformed —
Letters to the Abbess — Bossuet's Dislike of Party Spirit
— His Literary Friends — Fenelon — Calvinists — Inter
view with the Capets — Traite de la Communion sous
les deux especes, and other Controversial Writings —
Moderation in dealing with Protestants — Funeral Ora
tion of the Queen Maria Therese — Her Character —
Funeral Oration of the Princess Palatine — Of Chan
cellor Le Tellier — Character of the Archbishop of
Rheims — The Great Conde" — His Death — Funeral
Oration  277

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VIII.
BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY. PAGE
Histoire des Variations — Letter to Dr. Bull on his Book —
Jurieu — Basnage — Dr. Dupin — Cardinal Sfondrati —
Lord Perth — Conversion of the Duke of Richmond —
Quietism — Fenelon — Early Life — Appointment as Pre
ceptor to the Due de Bourgogne — Contrast between
the Duke and his Father — Fenelon appointed Arch
bishop of Cambrai — Molinism — Quietude — Bossuet's
Writings on Quietism — Madame Guyon — Conferences
of Issy — Cardinal de Noailles — Appeal to the Pope —
Intrigues at Rome — Madame de Maisonfort — The
Abbe Bossuet — Cabals and Jealousies — Condemnation
of Fenelon's Book — Bossuet's Vehemence . . . 328
CHAPTER IX.
BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR AND SPIRITUAL GUIDE.
His Penitents — Letters to a Lady at Metz — Madame Cor-
nuau — Direction — Retreats — Madame de Luynes and
Madame d' Albert — Letters to Madame Cornuau, to
Madame d' Albert, to Madame de Luynes, to Madame
de Mans, to Madame de la Guillaumie, to the Ursuline
Nuns at Meaux, to the Nuns of the Congregation at
Coulomnier, to a Nun — Bossuet's Spiritual Correspon
dence generally . ....... 4°"
CHAPTER X.
BOSSUET'S LAST DAYS.
Bossuet appointed Conseiller d'Etat— Premier Aum6nier to
the Duchesse de Bourgogne — Goes to Saint-Germain
for the Assembly of Clergy— Jansenism, Morale Re-
lichee— The Abbe Bossuet— Probabilism— Quesnel—

CONTENTS.

PAGE
The Probleme Ecclesiastique — Efforts at obtaining the
Unity of Christendom — Correspondence with Leibnitz
and Molanus — Version de Trevoux — Quarrel with the
Chancellor de Pontchastrain — Cas de Conscience — Be
ginning of Bossuet's last Illness — His Activity — Hospi
tality — The Abbe Bossuet's urgent Endeavours to suc
ceed his Uncle — Bossuet's Application to Louis XIV.
not accepted — Last Move to Paris — Final Illness and
Death — Burial — Bossuet's Remains taken up in 1854,
and verified — His Successor de Bissy . . . • 5*4

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EVENTS.

Born  September 28, 1627
College de Navarre  1642
Takes his Degree  1648
Shut up in Paris  1649
Ordained Deacon .... September 21, 1649
Doctor's Degree ... ... 1652
Appointed Archdeacon of Metz ... . 1652
Ordained Priest  Lent, 1652
Joins Conferences des Mardis  1654
First Publication— the "Refutation" .... 1655
Mission of Metz . . . 1658
Preaching in Paris  . 1659
Appointed Bishop of Condom . . September, 1669
Funeral Oration of Queen Henrietta Maria November, 1669
Death of the Duchesse d'Orleans . . . June, 1670
Consecrated Bishop . . . September 21, 1670
Appointed Preceptor to the Dauphin .... 1670
Resigned See of Condom ..... 1671
Elected Member of the Academy . . . 1671
Forwards Louise de la Valliere's retirement . . 1674
Preaches her Veture Sermon . . . . 1675
Endeavours to separate the King from Mme. de Mon-
tespan  1675
Conference with Claude ...... 1678
Appointed Bishop of Meaux  1681
Assembly General meets  1682
Installed at Meaux ... . February, 1682

xvi CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EVENTS.

Preaches the Queen's Oraison Funebre
That of Anne de Gonzague
That of Chancellor Le Tellier .
That of the Grand Conde .
Publishes the "Variations"
Mixed up in the Quietist Controversy
Madame Guyon at Meaux .
Conference of Issy ....
Fenelon consecrated Archbishop of Cambrai
Bossuet appointed Conseiller d'Etat and Treaiier • Au
monier to the Duchesse de Bourgogne
Assembly at Saint-Germain
Serious Illness .
"Cas de Conscience"

Last Move to Paris .
Resigns the See of Meaux
Death

1683168516861687 1688
1689
1695 1695i69S

16971700
1 701
1703
September, 1703
October, 1703
April 12, 1704

CHAPTER I.
BOSSUET'S EARLY DAYS.
Birth at Dijon — Family — Baptism — Claude Bossuet—
Education — First Acquaintance with the Bible —
Jesuit College — Descartes — Goes to Paris — College
de Navarre — Nicolas Cornet — First Thesis of Philo
sophy — Introduction to the Great World — Hotel
Rambouillet — Extempore Sermon — De Rance — Takes
his Bachelor's Degree — Grand Conde present —
Opinions concerning the Theatre— Cardinal Riche
lieu — His Death — Wars of the Fronde — Sorbonne
Oration — Patristic Study — St. Augustine— Doctor's
Degree — Appointed Archdeacon of Metz — Marshal
de Schomberg — Receives Priest's Orders — S. Vincent
de Paul— Ordinand's Retreats — Bishop Potier — Henri
de Bourbon, Titular Bishop of Metz — Life at Metz —
Protestant Controversies — Paul Ferry — The " Re
futation " — Filles de la Propagation de la Foi —
Their Rule.
JACQUES BENIGNE BOSSUET was born at
Dijon, in a house behind the Cathedral, No. 10
Place St. Jean, during the night of September 27-28,
1627, and was baptized on September 29th,1 in the
* Bossuet himself says, in a letter to Mme. Comuau, that he
was baptized on S. Michael's Day, and the Abbe Le Dieu, his
secretary, repeatedly mentions the fact of the Bishop's celebrat
ing Mass on that festival as the anniversary of his baptism ; but
A

BOSSUET'S EARLY DA Y3.

parish church of St. Jean close adjoining, now un
happily desecrated and become the Marche du Midi
His parents were bourgeois — of a Burgundian family,
originally coming from the small town of Seurre (now
Bellegarde), but the immediate ancestors of the future
Bishop of Meaux had settled at Dijon early in the
sixteenth century, and became important members of
the local government. The Cathedral of Dijon is dedi
cated to S. Beriigne, the Apostle of Burgundy, which
probably accounts for the name being borne both by
the best known of all the Bossuets and by his father.
His mother's name was Madeleine Mochet or
Mochette, and he himself was the seventh child and
fifth son out of a family numbering ten in all. His
grandfather, Jacques Bossuet, the contemporary and
friend of Fremyots, Rabutins de Chantal, and other
familiar names, maintained an old custom (resembling
our English habit, common at least in the latter gene
ration, of entering births, deaths, and other family
events in the big family Bible; of recording all the
M. Floquet gives a copy c! the parish register of St. Jean,
according to which September 27th was the actual date : 
" Vingt-sept Septembre 1627 : Jacques Benigne, fils du noble
M. Benigne Bossuet, advocat en parlement, et de damoiselle
Marguerite Mochet, baptise le vingt-sept Septembre. Son
parrain, Jacques Bossuet, Conseiller du Roy en son parlement
de Bourgogne; la marraine, damoiselle Marie des Barres, femme
de M. de Frasans, greffier aux finances. "—Etudes sur la Vie de
Bossuet, vol. i. p. 3.

BIRTH A T DIJON.

principal circumstances in the history of his house
hold; and in this register, written-in the old man's
hand, frequently annotated with pious words of prayer
or aspiration, Jacques Beriigne's birth is found entered,
accompanied by the words of Holy Scripture : " Cir-
cumduxit earn, et docuit, et custodivit quasi pupillam
oculi" * — words which he had just been reading as he
sat, Bible in hand, waiting to hear that his daughter-
in-law was safely delivered, during the silent watches
of that autumn night.
At the time of Jacques Be'nigne's birth, the Bossuet
family had waxed so numerous, that there was no
room for them in the parliament or official life of
Dijon, and his father (who had filled the office of
Avocat postulant before the Grand Conseil at Paris in
1612 and 16 13, as well as that of Echevin — twice over
unanimously elected — of Dijon) obeyed the summons
of a maternal uncle, Antoine de Bretaigne, who had
been appointed President of the Parliament of Metz
by Cardinal Richelieu, and removed to that city as
Doyen des Conseillers in 1633 — leaving, however, his
family in Dijon, where his eldest brother, Claude
Bossuet, supplied a father's place to his numerous
children. This uncle was a man of literary tastes,
and as Jacques Benigne and his favourite brother
1 " He led him about, He instructed him, He kept him as the
apple of His Eye."— D2UT. xxxii. 10.

BOSSUET'S EARLY DA YS.

Antoine lived in his house, he soon made a home of
his uncle's library, and before he was seven years old
began to look upon books as the companions and chief
interest of his life; to turn to them as his best amuse
ment and greatest pleasure; and consequently study
became a passion, a craving of his whole being,
which required to be controlled and disciplined,
as it assuredly was hereafter, when action as well
as thought and study claimed so large a part of his
life His education was carried on at the Jesuits' College,
but probably the informal instructions of his Uncle
Claude were hardly a less important feature in that
education : the boy's rapid perceptions and prodigious
memory were a constant delight to the classical
scholar, who was devoted to literature, and pos
sessed a fine library both at Dijon and at his country
house at Aiserey, where the boys usually spent
their holidays with their uncle and his two sons.
Claude Bossuet took pains to guide his nephew's
taste, and especially stimulated him to learn by
heart stores of classic poetry, which he considered the
surest way of forming a scholar's language and style.
Year by year the father, Bdnigne Bossuet, used to come
from Metz to see his children, and his paternal pride
grew stronger each time, as he saw the progress made
by his seventh child, and heard the enthusiastic

EDUCATION.

reports of his teachers. Latin and Greek were a
congenial food for his quick, brilliant intellect.
Bossuet revelled in a familiar knowledge of their
stores; and there he might have remained, a graceful,
profound classical scholar, and nothing more, had it
not pleased God, by one of those trifling incidents
which men call chance, to develop a new and deeper
stream wherein his thirsting spirit should drink deep.
It sounds strange to hear of Bossuet's becoming
acquainted with the Bible by accident; but so it was.
Passages and narrations, of course, he was familiar
with; through offices, instructions, and sermons; but
the Word of God, in its wondrous beauty, its combina
tion of history, prophecy, poetry, and philosophy, he
had not handled, until one day he. came upon the
Sacred Book in his uncle's room, aud plunged eagerly
into its holy stores, while his father and uncle were
talking politics. The Bible had been left open at the
Prophecies of Isaiah, and the boy, as he read the
inspired poetry, flushed with admiration and en
thusiasm, till, unable any longer to control his excite
ment, he burst forth and read out aloud the mar
vellous strains which fascinated his whole soul, to the
two elder men, who listened, half awe-struck, to the
boyish reciter. "This was the first meeting," says
one of the Bishop's devoted students, " between Isaiah
and Bossuet, and it worked a very revolution in the

BOSSUET'S EARLY DA YS.

soul of the ardent, impressionable child."1 In after
years the great Bishop, whose influence probably
exceeded that of any other individual in the Church
of his period, used to delight to dwell upon what the
unsealing of that fountain of truth had been to him,2
on the marvellous light and glow and warmth which
overpowered him, and eclipsed for ever the fascina
tions of classical learning — a learning henceforth by
no means despised or neglected, but used as a hand
maid to that higher knowledge which passeth all
things. Bossuet asked leave to take possession of
the Holy Book, and from that day it was his con
stant companion. Go where he might, Bossuet never
was without his Bible or his New Testament ; travel
ling, driving from place to place, in society, walking,
even during the long intervals of High Mass, he might
be continually seen with it in his hand, often closed,

1 Floquet, vol. i. p. 65.
2 " Le fleuve naissant avait reconnu comme son haut reservoir
natal et son berceau. II s'y plongea, il en decoula, il y remonta
sans cesse, il n'en sortit plus . . . l'Ancien, le Nouveau Testa
ment, medite', remedite sans cesse dans toutes ses parties ; ce
rat du premier jour sa principale, sa perpetuelle lecture, celle sur
laquelle il aspirera a vieillir et a mourir : Certe in his conseiie-
scere, his immori, summa votorum est, disait-il. Chacun a son
ideal de vie heureuse, sa maison d'Horace en perspective : pour
le profond et grand Chretien, jeune ou vieillissant, il n'yrvait
d'autre maison que celle de mon Pere." — Sainte Beuve.
Nouveaux Lundis, vol. ii. pp. 343, 344.

STUD Y OF HOL Y SCRIPTURE

his forefinger between the leaves, while he pondered
deeply the words he just had read; and almost every
time that he entered his study (so says his devoted
secretary, the Abbe" Le Dieu), his first act was to take
a pen and rapidly write down the thoughts and im
pressions he had been gathering. He was continually
quoting S. Jerome's words to Nepotian, "Let this
Sacred Book never leave your hands;" and he used
to say that he had ever found it " the source of all
doctrine and all holiness of life." The Abbe Le Dieu,
who spent twenty years in the closest companionship
with Bossuet, records that he cannot remember any
day to have passed on which he did not see his
venerable chief making fresh notes and annotations
on the pages of his Bible, although, as the secretary
adds, he certainly knew the text almost entirely by
heart. Nevertheless he read and studied it per
petually afresh, and it was a rule known in his house
hold that, wherever he might- be— in Paris, at Meaux,
at Germigny, at Versailles, at home, travelling, or at
Court, a Bible and a Concordance were always to
be at hand on his writing-table. "Je ne pourrais
vivre sans cela" ("I cannot live without that"), he
used to say. He used to read Holy Scripture con
tinually with as much attention as though he had
never opened it before,— one of his biographers
says,— and yet perhaps it was really more often medi-

BOSSUET'S EARL Y DA YS.

tation than reading. These early habits will readily
account for what strikes one so marvellously in read
ing Bossuet's voluminous writings — his almost un
equalled readiness and singularly happy application
of Holy Scripture, and the wonderful way in which
jail his thoughts and expressions are founded on it.
Not unnaturally the Jesuit Fathers, under whom
Bossuet's powerful talents were developing, realised
how useful a member he would be of their Society,1 and
as his course of rhetoric and " humanities" was about
to end, the professors sounded their pupil as to his
future career, indicating the flattering reception which
would be afforded him by the body which had already
opened the field of literary distinction to him. Bos
suet himself seems to have had no strong inclination
as to his course : he referred all decisions to his father
and uncle; and the latter, who by no means wished
his favourite nephew to join the Society, urged
Benigne Bossuet to send him at once to Paris for the
completion of his education, on the plea that nowhere
else could the necessary cours de philosophie be so
well followed.
Descartes' philosophy was then beginning to be
' Notwithstanding his education, Bossuet never was attached
to the Jesuits, although, of course, he had personal friends among
them ; and in later years a continual war went on between the
great Bishopof Meaux and their Society. — SeeLE Dieu, Journal,
vol. iv. p. 192, &c. &c.

DESCARTES. 9
famous (he was born in 1596), and in spite of Vol
taire's contemptuous sneers," his influence upon the
minds of men was great. " The lively faith and
ardent piety of Descartes is well known," says the
Abbe" Gratry, himself one of the profoundest philo-
1 " Le plus grand mathematicien de son temps, mais le philo-
sophe qui conniit moins la nature." — Siiclede Louis XIV. ii. 340,
Compare with Abbe Gratry's article on Descartes :
"Je ne dirai pas:
'Enfin Descartes vint, et le premier en France,'
il fonda la philosophie, en tendant a la raison humaine sa liberte.
Je ne connais point le fondateur de la philosophie ; et la raison
humaine, depuis bien des siecles, etait libre : Jesus Christ l'avait
delivree, avec tout l'homme. Mais sans exagerer l'irifluence de
Descartes, il est bien manifeste qu'il a imprime a son siecle une
grande et feconde impulsion. . . . Pour commencer, il va de
suite au centre de la philosophie, au fond et au principe de la
raison, qui est Dieu, et il y reste pendant presque toute sa
carriere. . . . Selon Descartes c'est dans notre &me que nous
voyons Dieu : cette vue de notre Sme, image de Dieu, actuelle-
ment eclairee de Dieu, sans quoi elle ne serait pas visible,
c'est l'idee de Dieu. Notre idee de Dieu renferme done la vue
directe de notre ame que Dieu eclaire, et la vue indirecte de Dieu
qui eclaire l'ame. L'idee de l'Etre parfait est mise en nous par
l'Etre parfait. L'idee de l'Etre parfait est un effet qui depasse
la puissance d'un d'etre imparfait; je puis le concevoir, mais
seulement sous l'influence de l'Etre parfait : je puis voir dans
une glace le soleil qui n'y est pas ; mais je ne saurais l'y voir si
le soleil n'existait pas, et ne mettait son image dans la glace.
L'idee de Dieu, c'est Dieu vu dans le miroir de l'ame : com-
paraison si vraie, si profonde, si exacte, que nul ne sait ce que
c'est qu' une idee, s'il ne la comprend. "— Connaissance de Dicn,
vol.i. p. 362> etc-

BOSSUET'S EARLY DAYS.

sophers of France, " and he knew where reason must
lead men. But he had his own object, and this ener
getic friend of truth resolved to consecrate his life to
consolidating all truth, by endeavouring to educate
reason as taken from her own point."1 Bossuet, who
studied Descartes profoundly, was not blind to the
dangers which might arise from his system. " I fore
see,'' he wrote to Pere Lami, " a great warfare now
rising up against the Church under the name of Philo
sophie Cartesienne. I foresee more than one heresy
springing from out its bosom,— from, to my mind,
Its misunderstood principles." Nevertheless he studied
it earnestly, meeting with an able guide in the vener
able Nicolas Cornet, who was at this time (1642)
Grand Maitre of the College de Navarre' — the
1 Connaissance de Dieu, vol. i. 390.
" Un docteur de l'ancienne marque, de l'ancienne simplicity,
de l'ancienne probite, consulte de tous, non point en France
seulement, mais a l'etranger, au loin ; en qui le Saint-Siege eut
creance; dont les avis sur toutes les affaires ecclesiastiques,
recherches comme l'avaient ete plusieurs siecles auparavant ceux
de Gerson, de Pierre d'Ailly, de Henri de Gand, etaient
accueillis avec non moins de respect : estime des rois Louis
XIII. et Louis XIV. l'ame de leurs Conseils de Comcience; le
bras droit du Cardinal de Richelieu ; puis du Cardinal Mazarin,
empresses successivement a le consulter chaque jour, et prompts
sur toutes choses a le croire ; oracle de la Faculte de theologie,
qui plusieurs fois l'elut son syndic, et deferait fort a ses lumieres ;
austere, vivatit de peu ; inexorable envers lui-meme ; se refusant
toutes choses ; la main cependant ouverte sans cesse pour donnc-

DR. CORNET.

favourite college in Paris for the young nobles who
flocked up from the country, either really to study or
to get a name for having studied. » Doctor Cornet,
perhaps, proved his title to be called a philosopher in
men's eyes by his quiet contempt for the good things
of the world; — while all the notabilities of the State,
and of France itself, from Cardinals Richelieu and
Mazarin onwards, consulted him on every possible
subject, he stedfastly persisted in refusing all emolu
ments or honours, — unostentatiously rejecting the
honore de tous les prelats du royaume ; presse mais en vain, par
les deux Cardinaux, par Anne d'Autriche, par le roi lui-meme,
d'accepter des abbayes, des prelatures, lui cependant content de
sa condition, de son revenu propre, auquel il joint en benefices,
douze cents livres a. peine, avec de si faibles ressources faisant
largement l'aumfine ; ne desirant, n'ambitionnant rien que pour
Navarre, qui toujours lui sera chere. Qui n'a entendu parler de
ce proces solliciti par Cornet, de bonne foi, dans l'interet d'un
ami et recommande comme juste, encore qu'il ne le fut pas ;
gagne toutefois a l'audience, par 1'effet sans doute de l'aveugle
confiance qu'avaient inspiree aux magistrats les officieuses
demarches du grand maitre ; apres quoi, l'injustice de cette
decision suggeree, pensa-t-il, par ses instances, lui etant devenue
manifeste, Cornet se devait hater, lui dont les ressources etaient
si mediocres, d'indemniser pleinement le perdant, a qui bien in-
nocemment il avait pu nuire, en sollicitant contre lui." —
Floquet, vol. i. p. 75.
1 It was to the College de Navarre that Francis de Sales
father wished to send him some sixty years earlier, when the
saint, dreading the fashionable tone of that college and its many
temptations, prevailed over his father's pride, and obtained his
consent to go to the College de Clermont instead^

BOSSUET'S EARLY DA YS.

Archbishopric of Bourges, and other high places, and
continuing to the last to live on his humble income of
twelve hundred livres.
Nicolas Cornet encouraged Bossuet to go on ac
quiring a still more perfect knowledge of Greek, while
he heartily re-echoed all his pupil's opinions as to
making Holy Scripture the foundation and ceaseless
companion of all other study. Bossuet's extensive
range did not include mathematics; — for this science
he never had any inclination, and he even looked
upon it as useless and unprofitable for the clergy.1
' The Abbe Le Dieu says that he was afraid of indulging in
what he called the " curiosities of mathematics." He used
to say, so his secretary records, that it was too abstract, too
absorbing a study to be profitable to ecclesiastics. In one of
his Elevations, Bossuet gives a noble lesson to scientific men.
" Philosophes de nos jours," he says, "de quelque rang que
vous soyez, ou observateurs des astres, ou contemplateurs de la
nature inferieure, et attaches a ce qu'on appelle physique, ou
occupes des sciences abstraites qu'on appelle mathematiques, ou
la verite semble presider plus que dans les autres ; je ne veux
pas dire que vous n'ayez de dignes objets de vos pensees ; car
de verite en verite vous pouvez aller jusqu'a Dieu, qui est la
Verite des verites, la source de la verite, la Verite meme, oil sub-
sistent les verites que vous appelez etemelles, les verites immuables
et invariables qui ne peuvent pas ne pas £tre verites, et que tous
ceux qui ouvrent les yeux voient en eux-memes, et neanmoins
au-dessus d'eux-memes ; puisqu'elles reglent leurs raisonnements
comme ceux den autres, et president aux connaissances detout ce
qui voit et qui entend, soit hommes, soit anges. C'est cette verite
que vous devez chercher dans vos sciences. Cultivez done ces
sciences, mais ne vous y laissez point absorber : ne presumez pas.

MATHEMATICS. 13

Nevertheless, he by no means denied to that great
science the respect due to it, and took pleasure in
listening to the great mathematicians of his time
developing their problems and theories. In one of
his most striking sermons, preached in 1666 before
the King,1 he breaks forth on this subject with one of
his bursts of eloquence : "lam not among those who
so intensely prize human knowledge, nevertheless I
confess that I cannot look unmoved upon the mar
vellous insight which science has given us into nature,
or the wondrous inventions which art has adapted to
man's use. Of a truth man has well-nigh changed
the face of the world. . . . He has mounted up to
the heavens; he has made the very stars serve as
guides to his travel, and calls the sun itself to give
account, as it were, of all its movements. . . . But
consider a moment, brethren, and ask yourselves how
so weak and defenceless a being as man could acquire
such ascendancy over creation, were not his spirit
rendered superior to all visible nature by the immortal
Spirit of God breathed into him, by that Likeness in
et ne croyez pas etre quelque chose plus que les autres, parceque
vous savez les proprietes et les raisons des grandeurs et des peti-
tesses : vaine pature des esprits curieux et faibles, qui apres tout
ne mene a rien qui existe, et qui n'a rien de solide qu'autant
que, par l'amour de la verite" et l'habitude de la connoitre dans
des objets certains, elle fait chercher la veritable et utile certi
tude en Dieu seul." — QStivres, vol. vii. p. 282.
* Ibid. vol. h% p. 365.

14 BOSSUET'S EARL Y DA YS.
which he was framed, even the Image of God ? Verily,
nowise else were it possible !"
Bossuet's training at the College de Navarre was all
tending to fit him for his future career. At the end
of his first year, when only sixteen, he was called upon
to maintain his " thesis of philosophy'' — an intellec
tual exercise held in great esteem in those days —
before Mgr. Cospe'an, Bishop of Lisieux, and several
other prelates. His conspicuous success on this occa
sion was talked about in society, and led to his first
introduction to the great world of Paris, and his
entrance into the Hotels de Nevers, de Senecey, de
Choiseul, de Feuquieres, and Rambouillet. A rela
tion, Francois Bossuet, Secretary of the Council of
Finance, introduced the young student to Mme. du
Plessis Guenegaud, herself a de Choiseul, and wife of
the Secretaire d'Etat, whose house — " ce palais en-
chante"," Mme. de Sevigne" called it1 — was at that
time the rendezvous of all the most brilliant society of
the Court, whether as to rank, political position, or
talent. Madame du Plessis was herself an ambitious
woman, of intellectual capacity, and possessed the not
ordinary gift of filling a great position nobly.2 She
7 Letlres, vol. i. p. 100.
* Mme. de Sevigne says of her, " Elle avait un grand espril,
de grandes vues, un grand art de posse'der noblement une grande
fortune."— vol. v. p. 353.

PARIS SOCIETY.

*5

was the intimate friend of most of the eminent per
sonages of her time, especially of the two ministers
de Chavigni and Fouquet, and her influence was
well and kindly used, so that, as Mme. de Sevigne'
says, when moralising over her death, " elle avait fait
la fortune de bien des gens, la joie et le plaisir de bien
d'autres." At this time Fouquet was in power (his
disgrace was not till 1661), and many a literary man
was introduced to his favour by Mme. du Plessis.
At the Hotel de Nevers Bossuet became acquainted
with the Marquis de Feuquieres, Governor of Verdun,
who had formerly known his father. This nobleman
often boasted of his young friend's talents and readi
ness at the Hotel de Rambouillet, then so great a
centre of the literary world of Paris. He went so far
as to affirm his conviction that if the clever boy
— already distinguished as an improvist among his
companions — were to be given a subject, a few mo
ments of recollection, unassisted by books or autho
rities, would enable him to pronounce a discourse on
any topic selected. The novelty of such a proposition
fell in with the bad taste and pretension of the Hotel
de Rambouillet.1 De Feuquieres sent off for Bossuet,
1 " L'hotel de Rambouillet, que le rang et la celebrite des per-
sonnages qui s'y reunissoient n'ont pu preserver entierement
d'une sorte de ridicule," says Cardinal de Bausset, "contribua
cependant a r^pandre le gout des plaisirs de l'esprit et de 1'in-
struction a la Cour et dans le monde. II etait naturel que l'affec-

16 BOSSUET'S EARL Y DA YS.
who arrived in obedience to his summons about eleven
at night. It is a curious episode and picture of the
time, — the young theological student thus summarily
fetched from his study, if not his bed, and bid to
preach before a numerous assembly of the most fashion
able and literary — albeit, we must honestly suppose,
not the most pious world, upon a sacred subject,
selected for him with no devout end, but simply as a
literary or dramatic curiosity ! However, Bossuet
obeyed the call, and after retiring to collect his
thoughts for a short time, he reappeared much sooner
than was expected, and altogether took the critical
Rambouillet circle by storm, preaching so as to exceed
all that his patron had said, or his brilliant audience
expected of him. Among the latter was Voiture,'
whose ion mot, after looking at his watch and finding
it to be midnight, that " he had never heard so early
tation et la recherche precedassent ce gout pur et severe qui ne
peut se former que par la comparaison des bons modeles. Mais
le desir de se faire remarquer par une education plus cultivee
annoncait deja. l'heureuse influence que l'instruction paree des
gntces de 1'esprit, devoit bient&t-' obtenir a la Cour, et le charme
qu'elle pouvait aj outer a la politesse et i l'elegance des mceurs.
II est meme permis de penser que la noblesse, la grice et la
decence, qui distinguerent la Cour de Louis XIV. furent pre
parers par ce melange d'esprit, d'instruction, et peut-6tre de pedan-
terie, que l'on reprochoit a quelques societes de Paris sous la
regence d'Anne d'Autriche." — Hist, de Bossuet, vol. i. 32.
1 Of whom Vo'.taire says, " C'est le premier qui fut en France
ce qu'on appelle unbel esprit." — Steele de Louis XIV. vol.i. 446.

PROGNOSTICATIONS. 17
or so late a sermon,"1 together with the personal
attractions, the real talent and fire of the young stu
dent, contributed to make Bossuet already famous.
The Bishop of Lisieux repeated the experiment, this
time, however, in a less unsuitable manner, as the
youth was called to preach before a select audience of
Bishops and other grave persons ; and instead of a
flood of exaggerated, unmeaning compliments, Mgr.
Cospean spoke kindly and helpfully to him afterwards,
giving him much profitable advice, warning him against
the danger of such premature success, and entreating
him not to allow himself to be made a popular Parisian
preacher, as some young men of the day had become,
even before receiving Holy Orders (a proceeding which
the venerable Prelate highly disapproved, even though
an Olier or a Bouthillier de Ranee were in question),
until he was " thoroughly furnished" with sound and
substantial stores of theological study. Mgr. Cospean
cultivated Bossuet's friendship from this time, and de
Ranee", the celebrated Trappist, used to tell how he
had heard the Bishop say to a roomful of literary
people, as Bossuet left it, "That young fellow will
be one of the greatest lights of the Church here
after."3 1 "Qu'il n'avait jamais oui precher, ni si t6t, ni s: tard." —
Hist, de Bossuet, i. 22 ; Floquet, i. 07.
" Floquet, i. p. 100. B

18 BOSSUET 'S EARL Y DA YS.
In spite of his prudent theories, the Bishop of
Lisieux could not resist making much of the young
genius, and he wanted to present him to the Queen
and let her hear him preach, but his day of Court
favour was nearly over. He had been the friend of
Richelieu, and Cardinal Mazarin was jealous of his
influence with Anne of Austria ; so the learned prelate
received an intimation that he had better devote him
self to the immediate care of his diocese, and retiring
there, he died about three years afterwards.
Probably it was well for Bossuet that his nearer
approach to the Court, where he was hereafter to play
so important a part, was delayed till he was older. As
it was, he continued studying diligently, becoming day
by day a greater favourite with his venerable master, Dr.
Cornet, who strained a point of etiquette on his behalf,
and, fearful lest the rival Sorbonne should possess
itself of his young disciple, admitted him among the
bacheliers of the College, an honour never before con
ferred on any one until he had taken his degree in
theology. It was in January 1648 that Bossuet took this
degree, and justified the exceptional favour accorded
to him by the talent and power displayed in his
" these de bachelier." The eclat of this oration was
greatly enhanced by its being dedicated to and made
in the presence of the Grand Conde", who attended

THE GRAND CONDE. 19

the ceremony, surrounded by the brilliant military
suite and courtiers who gathered round the most cele
brated soldier of his day.
A strange scene that was, as we look back upon it
now ! the young General — for Louis de Bourbon, first
Prince of the blood, was at this time only twenty-seven,
although it was already six years since Mazarin gave
him the command of the French army in Flanders,
and the " inexperienced youth of twenty-one, whom
the Spaniards despised,"1 had startled the world by
winning the battles of Rocroy and Norlingue, and by
taking Friburg, Dunkirk, etc. — a strange scene ! this
young General, laying aside for the moment his military
pursuits, and assisting at the religious and literary
battlefield — if we may so call it — of his younger con
temporary, who was destined to fight as great battles
in the Church militant as Conde" in his department of
the world's drama; — listening with an interest so intense
to the discussion of Bossuet's religious and philoso
phical thesis, on the "Existence and Attributes of
God, and the Immortality of the Soul," that he said
afterwards he could scarcely withhold himself from
rushing headlong into the discussion, and striving for
laurels that were not military.2 And then, — to look
on from this day — of their first meeting, through a
1 Siklede Louis XIV. vol. i. p. 29.
2 Eloge de Bossuet, Abbe de Choisy.

BOSSUET'S EARLY DAYS.

long and affectionate friendship, to years which then
must have seemed so distant to both the young men; —
years when both should have brought their equally
brilliant, though strangely diverse, careers to a close;
when once more, and for the last time, the eloquent
voice of the younger should be raised in the presence
of the elder, now, indeed, no longer present as an
eager, excited listener, but as a still, silent corpse
beneath the lofty catafalque, which almost reached
the roof of Notre-Dame, on March 10, 1687, where
" all that France contained that was august" gathered
round to hear some of the grandest passages of elo
quence that her great orator ever spoke, although, as
he said himself, they were uttered " with the remnant
of a failing voice and a sinking energy.""
The Grand Conde" had come to the ceremony,
partly as a compliment to the town of Dijon (being
himself Governor of Burgundy), partly out of friendship
for Claude Bossuet, and partly because, having been
educated at the Jesuits' College at Bourges, where he
studied his " humanities " with the same energy which
afterwards made him foremost in the science of war
and destruction, he had a real taste for the kind of
thing; and the sympathies aroused toward Bossuet
that day never failed. Conde" is said to have wept
1 " Les restes d'une voix qui tombe et d'une ardeurqui s'eteint."
— Oraison Funebre du P. de Conde", OZuvres, vol. xii. p. 639.

THE DRAMA.

when reading Corneille's tragedies, — but sometimes he
carried the tone of a victorious general even into his
literary circles, it would seem, for Boileau used to
say, " I can argue before the King, but I am silent
before Conde"!"1
From this time Bossuet's line as a speaker was
decided, and his brethren of the College de Navarre
lost no opportunity of sending their orator to the
front. He was quite conscious himself of his voca
tion, and indeed friends and rivals kept the know
ledge of his powers continually before him. He
strove to cultivate these powers, and, among other
means of so doing, he frequented the theatre, where
Corneille then was the king of the drama (Racine and
Moliere came before the public at a somewhat later
date). Bossuet used to talk of this in after years to
his secretary, the Abbe" Le Dieu, adding that he never
had entered a theatre since his ordination. Bossuet's
opinions as to the whole subject of the theatre took
shape later on in a letter to a certain Theatine monk,
the P. Caffaro, who in 1694 published a justification
of theatrical representations, at the beginning of an
edition of Boursault's " Comedies." The Archbishop
df Paris, Mgr. Harlay, and others, were scandalised
at it, and Bossuet consented to reply, which he did,
1 " Je garderai le silence devant Conde, mais je me defendrai
devant le roi." — Remarques Historiques, vol. xii. p. 608.

BOSSUET'S EARLY DA YS.

both in the above-named letter, and in a small volume
called "Maximes et Reflexions sur la Come'die."1
They are not written with exaggeration or vehemence
"You can see," Bossuet says, "that there are things
which, without any marked effects, nevertheless leave
a lurking tendency to evil behind them in the soul,
and are really noxious, although their malignity is not
obtrusive. Whatever fosters the passions is of this
kind."2 In the "Maximes" Bossuet criticises the
coarseness of Moliere3 with some severity, nor does
Corneille altogether escape, in spite of early memories.
Not that he for a moment accuses Corneille of a
coarse or immoral tone ; but he does say that both
that poet and Racine put forward earthly passion, and
its emotions, as the "one end of all their song," and
that this is substituting the less for the greater love.
He quotes Plato and Aristotle on his side of the ques
tion, as well as S. Thomas Aquinas, and numerous
Fathers of the Church, whose words had been mis
applied by P. Caffaro. Thus SS. Antoninus, Chry-
sostom, Ambrose, Jerome, Basil and Augustine are
all called in as witnesses, but it is noticeable that
Bossuet does not cite Tertullian, whose memorable
* OJuvres, vol. xxvii. ' Ibid, xxvii. 10.
3 " Son jugement sur Moliere restera une des taches, une des
inintelligences comme des duretds de Bossuet. " — Sainte Beuve,
N. I.undis, vol. ii. p. 347.

CARDINAL RICHELIEU. 23
treatise "De Spectaculis" is generally a stronghold to
the opponents of the theatre.1
Through all this period of excitement and study,
the devout mind seems to have been steadily growing
within; and it is marvellous that so much applause
and food for self-complacency, as was ministered to
one so young and so enthusiastic, should not have had
a more intoxicating effect. Perhaps the deep impres
sion made on Bossuet's mind as he entered Paris
helped to keep vividly before him how insecure and
uncertain a thing all worldly success and greatness is !
The very same day (October 17, 1642) on which
Bossuet arrived, saw the entry of Cardinal Richelieu,
once the proud imperious ruler of France, now carried
in a litter, feeble, helpless, to die. Pomp there was
in plenty to the last, — the litter in which the great
Cardinal was borne was almost a room, admitting of a
table at which a secretary sat ready to write at his
master's dictation ; and it was carried by a constant
relay of eighteen of his Guards, bareheaded, — while
the people flocked in such crowds to see the terrible
1 Oxford trans. Tert. i. p. 187. "Why may not men be in
danger of devils entering into them ? for the case hath happened,
the Lord is witness, of that woman who went to the theatre, and
returned thence with a devil. Wherefore when the unclean
spirit in the exorcism was hard pressed because he had dared to
attack a believer, he boldly said, ' And most righteously I did it,
for I found her in my own place.'"— p. 215. Bossuet quotes
this passage in other works.

24 BOSSUE T'S EARL Y DA YS.
Minister who so lately had sacrificed the popular
heroes Cinq Mars and de Thou to his vengeance,1
that it was necesnary to keep a passage for the lugu
brious procession by the help of chains, as also per
haps to interpose some barrier between an excited
people and the hated Minister. For a brief season
the Cardinal seemed to rally, and much account was
made of his entertaining Anne of Austria at a superb
banquet in his Chateau de Ruel ; but the cold hand
of death was already grasping him, and would not let
go. A little later and the solemn laying in state at
the Palais Cardinal, and pompous burial, closed the
earthly history of Richelieu. Bossuet was again a
spectator of the translation of all that remained of the
once terrible Prime Minister to the Church of the
Sorbonne, and listened to the funeral oration pro
nounced in Notre-Dame by the (then so considered)
great preacher, de Lingendes, Bishop of Sarlat, whose
name was so soon to be effaced by his own; and his
vivid imagination was keenly touched. But a little
later, June 1643, and Bossuet, together with his fellow-
students, assisted at the solemn service for Louis XIIL,
when Potier de Gesvres, Bishop of Beauvais, then all-
powerful at Court, was celebrant, and within two
short months he was in disgrace. All these things
sunk deep into a thoughtful as well as impressionable
1 September 12, 1642.

WARS OF THE FRONDE. 25
mind, and it was therefore without regret that, when
his student's career ended, he left Paris and went to
Metz, where ecclesiastical duties already bound him.
According to the custom of that day, Bossuet had re
ceived the tonsure when only eight years old; and
according to another custom, or rather abuse, he had
been nominated at the age of thirteen to a Canonry
in the Cathedral of Metz, through the interest which
his father possessed as President of the Parliament of
that city. Of course he was incompetent to fulfil the
duties of his office until ordained, but he seems to
have felt that the next best thing was to live on the
spot during all his vacations, and by his • unfailing
regularity in attending all the services of the Cathedral,
to give an earnest of his future devotion to his work.
The time thus spent at Metz was that freest from dis
traction in all his life, Bossuet said in later years, and
one in which he studied most usefully. He returned
to the College de Navarre in time to be shut in with
his comrades during the blockade of Paris by his
noble friend, the Grand Conde", in the early days of
the Fronde (1649), when, being chosen Bursar of the
College, he slept with sacks of flour, etc., under his
bed, as their safest keeping, for a considerable time.1
These were strange times. Anne of Austria, insulted
by the people, accused of sacrificing France to Car-
1 Abbe Le Dieu.

26 BOSSUET'S EARL Y DA YS.
dinal Mazarin, and scared by the hideous scenes which
had been enacted in England, whence her sister-in-
law, the unhappy Henrietta Maria, had fled for shelter
to Paris, — fled in her turn to Saint-Germain, and
appealed pathetically to Conde" to protect his young
king, Louis XIV. ; and the conqueror of Rocroy under
took to defend the Court against the Parliament,
headed by the Prince de Conti, his deformed brother,
the Due de Beaufort Vendome, de Longueville, de
Bouillon, and the Coadjutor de Retz. The license
and disorder within Paris exceeded all description.
When the Archbishop of Paris took his seat in Parlia
ment with a dagger protruding from his pocket, there
was a cry, "See our Archbishop's breviary !" There
seemed no respect for God or man in any one, and
Cond^ himself, after bringing the Royal party trium
phantly back to Paris, turned round upon the Queen
and Mazarin, and took the other side.
His vanity was wounded at being refused some un
important promotion for a follower, and his sister, the
beautiful, profligate Duchesse de Longueville, induced
him to join the rebel party. Soon after arrested and
thrown into Vincennes with Conti and the Due de
Longueville, Conde" spent thirteen months in cap
tivity, a season of which he said in later years, " I
went in the most innocent of men — I came out the
most guilty." One's head grows dizzy among the

SORBONNE ORATION. 27
changes and counterplots which followed — Conde" and
Turenne fighting now for, now against, France or one
another, — orders, treaties, agreements, and differences
crossing one another in every direction, — those who
were friends one week sworn foes the next, — Cardinal
Mazarin and Cardinal de Retz reviled, mocked, dis
graced, according to the party in the ascendant ; any
thing more hopeless or more disreputable than the
whole state of things can hardly be described or
imagined. Yet it was amid such external conditions
that Bossuet's youth was passed, associating chiefly
with Dr. Cornet, the Abbe" de Launoy, and other
learned men; making his Sorbonne oration (" Sor-
bonique"), and at the close of his term selected to
pronounce the Paranymphe, a formal, and, as it seems
now, uninteresting Latin discourse required by the
Faculties of Theology and Medicine each term. Bos
suet made this oration less meaningless than its wont
by taking as his subject, "Fear God, honour the
king;" and treating it with reference to the disgraceful
and unhappy state of France at the time. Bossuet's
name stood second on the Class List1 — the first place
was filled by the Abbe" de Ranee", of la Trappe cele
brity. The two young men were intimate in these
1 So says Cardinal de Bausset : — Floquet says however that
he was third only, and that the Prieur de Sorbonne, Gaston
Chamillart, was second. — Vol. i. p. 160.

28 BOSSUET'S EARL Y DA YS.

student days, and then fell widely asunder, de Ranee"
plunging vehemently into the pleasures and vices of
the world, while Bossuet pursued his devout, studious
life. Once again they drew together, when Bossuet
had become one of the most conspicuous features of
the brilliant period of Louis XIV, and de Ranee",
saddened and penitent, had withdrawn from his life
of profligacy to the silence of la Trappe, and it was
-there that the two friends met again. Sundry of Bos
suet's letters to his old friend are extant, and frequent
reference is made in them to visits paid by the Bishop
to the solitary. "For the last ten years I have
wished," he writes, "to spend some time in prayer with
you. I shall make my journey most discreetly, — no
one but the King need know of it My heart rejoices
in the thought of fulfilling this plan — I trust you will
approve it." ' And again — " I am afraid I shall be
deprived this year of the comfort I was looking to ;
. . . but if I cannot come and pray with you, do you
at all events pray for me."2 A frequent corre
spondence was kept up, and Bossuet often, during the
most intellectually active years of his life, expresses
the satisfaction and consolation he derived from it ; 3
although, while profiting by the Abbof s advice and
opinions, the Bishop of Meaux held his own in a very
' QLuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 278. * Ibid. p. 283.
3 Ibid. pp. 344, 452, etc.

STUDY OF THE FATHERS. ' 29

characteristic fashion. Thus he writes concerning
one of his Clergy who was going to visit de Ranee' : —
" He is one of the best among the Clergy of this
diocese, perhaps one of the best priests one ever came
across. He has a passionate desire to communicate
with you, and even some notions of retreat, into which
I do not enter, for I am convinced that good priests
such as he is can do nothing better than serve in our
Church militant, and die in the breach." *
Bossuet had read very hard during this time of pre
paration for his degree ; and had devoted much pains
and labour to a profound study of the very foundations
of theology, the discipline and mind of the Church as set
forth in her early Councils and in the patristic writings.
He considered S. Chrysostom to be the master of all
pulpit eloquence, the greatest preacher of the Church,
and next to him Origen ; " but of all the Fathers Bos
suet drank deepest of S. Augustine,3 saying that it was
' OSuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 394. 2 Abbe Le Dieu.
* Writing later (in 1669), on behalf of Cardinal de Bouillon, as
to the studies best calculated to form an orator, Bossuet said :
" As to the Fathers, I should bracket S. Augustine and S. Chry
sostom. One lifts up the mind to the greatest and most subtle
considerations, while the other brings it down to the capacity of
the masses. Taken alone, the first might perhaps form some
what too abstract a style, — the latter one too simple and popular.
Not that either himself errs in this way, but we are apt to ex
aggerate the leading features of our model authors. You will
find all that concerns doctrine in S. Augustine, and in S. Chry-

BOSSUET'S EARLY DA YS.

from him above all others that the very first and fun
damental principles of theology were to be gathered.
So continuous and diligent was his study of S. Augus
tine, and so copious the extracts he made from his
works, that his secretary declared he had fairly dis
sected the great Bishop of Hippo.1 He possessed
a small octavo edition of S. Augustine, and many
volumes, especially the "City of God," and the "Com
mentaries on the Psalms," were quite covered with
Bossuet's notes, — he carried them about with him, and
was perpetually referring to them. Later on he kept
a complete edition in each place where he lived, — the
first he ever read was left in Paris, well filled with
MS. notes, and the large Benedictine edition which
remained at Meaux, and which was the Bishop's
favourite, was marked in every direction.
" Bossuet was so penetrated with the spirit of S.
Augustine," says a biographer, "so attached to his
principles, that he proved every doctrine, taught every
lesson, and answered every difficulty from his works,
and found therein whatever was needful for the de
fence of the faith or confirming of practice. When
sostom a model of vigorous exhortation, of the best treatment of
Holy Scripture, and of bringing out all its expressions and de
tails." — QZuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 112. Bossuet goes on to speak of
other Fathers and their special qualifications.
• " II avoit mis, pour ainsi dire, en morceaux, Saint Augustin
tout entier."

S. AUGUSTINE. 31
preparing to preach, he required no books save the
Bible and S. Augustine. If he was called on to refute
an error, or establish a truth, he would read S. Augus
tine ; — you might see him rapidly reviewing such of
his works as met the subject in question. With a
glance he would gather up what he wanted — guided
by his own marginal notes and pencil marks, which
readily brought to his mind the thoughts suggested
by his previous close and diligent study of that
Father. . . . He had so completely identified himself
with S. Augustine, — his style, his views, his very ex
pressions, — that he was able to supply a missing
passage of eight lines in the 199th Sermon of the
Benedictine edition."1 But Bossuet by no means
limited his patristic studies to these favourite authors.
S. Athanasius, S. Gregory Nazianzen, Tertullian, S.
Bernard, — all were read with the same vigorous at
tention, by which Bossuet contrived to make the,
stores of other men's minds his own. He left two)
manuscripts upon the study of theology, which arel
simply exhaustive, — perhaps one might be excused
for saying, exhausting too to contemplate to those!
whose mental digestion is not capable of swal
lowing and assimilating such vast stores as Bossuet
possessed. But he considered no toil too great, no
details too minute, where the study of sacred things
' De Baussit, vol. i. p. 81.

32 B OSSUE T'S EARL Y DA YS.
was concerned, and the natural largeness and breadth
. of his heart and mind made him shrink from an
imperfect knowledge of any subject of importance,
especially in religion, believing, as he rightly did, that
nothing so narrows and fetters the judgment as a
superficial or one-sided acquaintance with any subject
Such narrowness, — often the peculiar peril of theo
logians, — Bossuet avoided more than most men,1 even
through the endless controversies in which, as years
went on, he found himself unavoidably entangled; and
probably one secret of Bossuefs great intellectual
power, and the influence that he has wielded over the
world's mind, is to be found in his singular capacity
for taking a comprehensive view of whatever subject
he treats of. Even as a young student he always en
deavoured to enter upon whatever subject he had in
hand from a sufficiently elevated point of view to
admit of seeing all its bearings, not merely, as we are
all so apt to do, those which fit in with our own pre
conceived opinions. After having grasped this larger
conception, Bossuet was ready to come down to the
most minute and investigatory study, and by this way
of treating subjects he escaped the illiberality which
even deep and accurate study does not escape when
made with a preconceived party spirit as its motor.
Such was Bossuet when — May 18th, 1652 — he took
1 His treatment of Fenelon must be excepted, unhappily.

DOCTOR'S DEGREE.

33

his Doctor's degree, a solemn ceremony, begun in the
Archbishop's chapel and completed in the metropolitan
Church of Notre-Dame, for which he made a solemn
and religious preparation, as one of the most important
events of his life, looking upon it as the pledge of his
future entire devotion to the defence of religion and
truth. More than fifty-one years afterwards, when his
secretary, the Abbe" Le Dieu, expressed his regret that
all Bossuet's Latin discourses had been lost — that
spoken before the Chancellor of the University on
the occasion of taking his Doctor's degree included —
to his great astonishment the Bishop, who was walk
ing up and down the room, began to repeat the Latin
speech, of which he had kept no copy, and which now
Le Dieu carefully noted down from his own lips.
" Ibo, te duce, lsetus ad sanctas illas aras, testes fidei
doctoralis, qua? majores nostros toties audierunt; ibi
exiges a me pulcherrimum illud sanctissimumque jus-
jurandum, quo caput hoc meum adducam neci
propter Christum, meque integrum devovebo veritati.
O vocem, non jam doctoris, sed martyris ! nisi forte
ea est convenientior doctori, quo magis martyrem decet
Quid enim doctor ; nisi testis veritatis ? Quamobrem,
O summa paterno in sinu concepta Veritas, quas
elapsa in terras te ipsam nobis in Scripturis tradidisti;
tibi nos totos obstringimus, tibi dedicatum imus, quid-
quid in nobis spirat ; intellecturi posthac quam nihil

34 BOSSUET'S EARL Y DA YS.
debeant sudoribus parcere quos etiam sanguinis pro-
digos esse oporteat." *
From time to time Bossuet had visited Metz, and
just about the period when he took his degree he
was appointed Archdeacon of Metz, under the name
of Archdeacon of Sarrebourg. Among the closest and
best of his friends at this time were the Marshal de
Schomberg and his wife, who lived chiefly at Metz.
The latter had been well known at Court as Mademoi
selle de Hautefort, a favourite lady-in-waiting of Anne
of Austria ; but the Queen had sacrificed her to
Cardinal Mazarin's jealousy, and she was living in
retirement when Marshal Schomberg sought and won
her. Both husband and wife were earnestly religious
as well as talented people, and their house at Metz
became the gathering-place of all whose intellectual
or spiritual gifts were used to God's Glory. Such
were ever welcome guests, and naturally Bossuet
1 Freely translated as : " I go, led by thee, joyfully to the holy
altars, so often witness to the faith sworn by our saintly pre
decessors. There you will require of me that noble and sacred
oath, which is to consecrate me to death for Christ, my whole
life to truth. An utterance, worthy rather of a martyr than of a
doctor, unless indeed it be the fitter for a doctor, forasmuch as it
teaches a martyr's faith. For what is a doctor, but the witness of
truth? Even so, O Sovereign Truth, Who didst come down to
earth, and give Thyself to us as the Divine Word, we bind our
selves to Thee ; we consecrate every breath we draw to Thee,
nor will we withhold from Thee the sweat of our brow, to Whom
we have devoted our very blood." — Mimoires, vol. i. p. 43.

BOSSUET'S ORDINATION. 35
became intimate in that circle. In after years he
never passed through Nanteuil, where the Schombergs
were buried, without visiting their grave and praying
beside it.
Bossuet had received Deacon's Orders, September
21, 1649, in the Cathedral of Metz, at the hands of
Bishop Be"dacier, Suffragan of Metz, and Bishop of
Augustopolis in partibus infidelibus ; and it was in
the Ember Week of Lent 1652 that he received
Priest's Orders, in preparation for which he went into
retreat at Saint-Lazare, under the direction of S.
Vincent de Paul. It was now twenty-one years since
the invaluable institution of Ordinand's Retreats was
set to work, through the immediate intervention of
Bishop Potier of Beauvais and Vincent de Paul.1 The
ignorance, the unspirituality, — nay, worse, the too
often utterly irregular and profligate lives of the
Clergy, were a perpetual source of mourning to that
good Bishop, who had seen a good deal of them, and
was most fully alive to the crying evils under which
the Church laboured. Intimate with Pere Bourdoise
(whose attention had been specially turned to the
same subject) and with Vincent de Paul, Bishop Potier
used to discuss it continually with both these holy
men. One day, when he was pressing the topic more
earnestly even than his wont, and beseeching Vincent
¦ Vie de Saint Vincent de Paul, Maynard, vol. ii. p. 24.

36 BOSSUET'S EARL Y DA YS.
to suggest a remedy, the latter replied that it was of
no avail to stop anywhere short of the real source of
the evil; that he looked upon it as hopeless to
attempt to convert ecclesiastics who were already
hardened in their bad ways, inasmuch as a bad priest
is rarely converted ; but that it was among those who
were preparing to enter the ranks of the priesthood
that the reformation of the Clergy must be begun.
To this end he counselled Bishop Potier to admit
none to Holy Orders who did not on examination
prove to be sufficiently taught, or who lacked signs of
true vocation, and for those who were thus qualified
he recommended the longest practicable preparation
to fit them for their sacred duties.
Bishop Potier thoroughly appreciated the wisdom
of this advice, — but how was it to be carried out in
those days when there were no training Colleges, no
Seminaries? Some time afterwards, the Bishop and
Vincent de Paul were travelling together in the same
carriage, and as usual they got talking upon this ever-
recurring subject. After a while Bishop Potier shut
his eyes, and remained as though sleeping. " I am
not asleep," he said soon, turning round to his com
panion ; — " I am only pondering deeply how best to
prepare our young Clergy for Holy Orders ; and for
the present I can see nothing better to do than to
receive them for a few days myself, and have them

ORDINA TION RETREA TS. 37
 T 
carefully taught concerning the duties and graces
which specially concern them." This solution of the
difficulty was discussed until the friends parted, and
then, the Bishop of Beauvais undertaking to make all
necessary arrangements, he asked Vincent to write
down a plan for such a retreat, and the course of
subjects suitable for it, adding that he must come to
Beauvais a fortnight before the next Ordination and
give it himself. Vincent promised ; and at the next
Embertide he, together with Dr. Duchesne and Mes-
nier, went to Beauvais to meet the Ordinands. Bishop
Potier himself took part in the spiritual exercises
which were planned and directed by Vincent de Paul,
and this first Ordination Retreat became the type of
all that followed. Some two years later the then
Archbishop of Paris — Mgr. Gondi — hearing much
from Bishop Potier of the invaluable gain to the
Ordinands of this plan, and being much pressed both
by him and by the P. Bourdoise, — resolved that all
his candidates should prepare for ordination by a
ten days' retreat ; and he asked Vincent de Paul to
receive them.1 At first the Founder of the Lazarists
refused, but he shortly yielded, and from that time
every Embertide brought him in this great increase of
toil and expense to his struggling Community. A few
years later, the privilege was accorded, not to the
1 Vie S. V. de Paul, Maynard, vol. ii. p. 23.

38 BOSSUET'S EARL Y DA YS.
Diocese of Paris only, but to all French Ordinands,
and sometimes more than a hundred flocked in to
Saint-Lazare at each of the Ember seasons. Every
detail of their reception and treatment was ordered by
Vincent himself. The Ordinands, as they arrived,
were met and welcomed by the Lazarist Fathers, who
attended carefully to all their material wants, and
arranged all ordinary matters, so that those preparing
for Holy Orders should have no trouble or inter
ruption, but give themselves entirely to their sacred
duties. Two instructions — " entretiens " as they were
called — were given daily to the Ordinands ; that in the
morning turning generally on the right administration
of the Sacraments, ecclesiastical law in its bearing on
the Priest's duties, the Decalogue and the Creed ; —
the evening instructions were devoted to such subjects
as vocation, mental prayer, Orders, — their require
ments and obligations, the spirit in which they ought
to be received, and the duties of Priests when in their
church work. After the entretien, the Ordinands were
divided into sections, or classes of twelve or fifteen
each, and a Mission priest discussed the instruction
with them, questioning them, answering their ques
tions, drawing them out, and encouraging them to
discuss the subject in hand together. Certain hours
were set apart for Offices and meditation, and the
Ordinands were exercised in saying services and such

5. VINCENT'S SYSTEM. 39
other of their future functions as were practicable.
They were also invited to use the opportunity for
making a general confession before their Ordination.
S. Vincent himself took an active share in all this
preparation, in which also his Lazarist Fathers were
assisted by such external help as he could obtain, and
many eminent scholars and Bishops were glad to give
their assistance. Whoever undertook to do this was
bound to keep to the extremely simple system set
forward by Vincent, and if any one departed from the
programme supplied, the venerable Lazarist never failed
to recall him to his point with straightforward simpli
city. In later days Bossuet repaid the benefit he had
himself gained at Saint-Lazare when an Ordinand by
giving the Ordination Retreat on four different occa
sions. It was a work which S. Vincent prized very
highly. " To take any part in making a good priest, \
howeversecondary an instrument one may be" (he says),
"is to imitate the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who
during His earthly sojourn trained His Apostles. . . .
Making good priests is a chef-d'oeuvre than which
nothing is greater or more important. What is so
weighty as the priest's office ? . . . And such as the
priests, such will the people be. We attribute the
success or failure of our armies to the capacity of our
officers ; and in like manner we may be sure that if
the ministers of the Church are capable, and do their

40 BOSSUE T'S EARL Y DA YS.
duty, all will go well, but if not, they are the cause of all
our calamities. ... It is the idle, the inactive, the pro
fligate priest who damages the Church beyond all else."
At the Ember seasons, S. Vincent was wont to
go about asking prayers for the Ordinands, and that
God would raise up good Priests for His service, from
every side — religious houses, his Lazarist Fathers, the
Dames de la Charite" who worked for him, and from all
pious persons of his acquaintance. The humbler
those who offered the prayer the better S. Vincent
was pleased. " It may be," he used to say, " that if
God brings forth some good fruit from this Retreat
that it is in answer to the prayers of some humble
lay brother who has never been near Messieurs les
Ordinands. He has been going on with his usual
work, often the while lifting up his heart to God in
prayer that He would bless the Ordination, and it
may be that while he thinks nought of his poor
prayers, God grants them, because he is lowly and
pure of heart."
Earnest as S. Vincent was in preaching humility to
the Ordinands under his guidance, his example was
the most eloquent instruction, — no service was too
lowly for him to render to them personally, no want
too trivial to meet his sympathy ; he was even found
cleaning the shoes of one Ordinand who had been
neglected by the person whose business it was to

A GOOD EXAMPLE. 41
render this office. He looked to " the preaching of a
good example, the most eloquent and efficacious of
all sermons,"1 as the chief source of success in these
Ordination exercises. " What the eye sees reaches the
heart far better than what the ear hears," he used to
say, "and we believe much more truly in the good we
see than what we only hear of. The faith enters by
hearing— -fides ex auditu; nevertheless we are infinitely
more impressed by the virtues we see practised than
by those we are taught." In this same spirit, Vincent
de Paul insisted upon great attention to external order
and reverence, both among the members of his Com
munity and the Clergy who came under his teaching.
He could not tolerate any carelessness or slovenliness,
not to say irreverence, in the service of God, and never
failed to notice anything which savoured thereof.
" Granted," he used to say, "that these things are but
the shadow, nevertheless they are the shadow of great
realities, which demand to be fulfilled with the utmost
possible attention, — with all present recollection and
soberness of manner. If these men who come among
us to leam do not see us performing our duties
thoroughly and well, how are they likely to perform
them?" Among the numerous ecclesiastics who thronged to
Saint-Lazare, there were many, if not Bossuet's intel-
1 VieS. V. de Paul, ii. 38.

42 BOSSUET'S EARL Y DA YS.
lectual equals, at least men of his stamp, who came,
not to increase their stores of learning or eloquence,
but to steep their souls in the devotional spirit which
S. Vincent breathed around him. And he felt that it
was through the devotional character, not the intel
lectual quality of the exercises given, that such men
must be reached and influenced. "They are not
to be won," he used to say, " by science, or by the
fine things we can say to them. They know more
than we do ; men who have taken their degrees in
theology or law, well read in philosophy, as are many of
them. Nothing that they can hear with us is new to
them. They say honestly that it is not through such
things that they are touched, but by the holiness of
life set before them."
Such was the character of the Retreat by which
Bossuet prepared himself for the Priesthood. It
appears to have been the first meeting between him
and S. Vincent de Paul, although the latter had heard
of him, and of the Bishop of Lisieux's prediction con
cerning his future usefulness to the Church. Another
eminent servant of God, the Pere Le Quieu, a well-
known Dominican, had in like manner been forcibly
impressed by Bossuet, and had expressed his convic
tion of his future importance in the Church. One
day, taking both the young Deacon's hands in his, the
venerable Dominican's eyes filled with tears, as he

PERE LE QUIEU. 43

said, " I foresee that you are destined to do a great
work, and to do it without knowing your work."1
The two men drew together with the force of remark
able, though diverse, minds, and formed a friendship
which was to last for ever. Vincent de Paul's quick
perceptions and experience in reading character
showed him speedily with what a remarkable man he
was dealing ; and still more than by Bossuet's talents,
the Founder of the Lazarists was attracted by his
simplicity of heart, while, on the other hand, it was
the very same quality — the extreme simplicity of the
venerable S. Vincent, which won Bossuet's special
love and admiration. We have his own testimony
to this in his letter, written August 2, 1702 (fifty
years after his first acquaintance with S. Vincent, and
when the writer himself was an old man, close upon
the end of his career), to Pope Clement XL,2 in which
1 The good Father lived to see his prediction fulfilled, and
that Bossuet was much impressed by it is shown by his allusion
to the subject in a letter, dated January 15, 1693, to one of his
spiritual children, Madame d' Albert, in which he says: — "Je
vous dirai une parole qu'un religieux tres saint, tres humble et
tres penitent, de l'ordre de Saint Dominique, me dit une fois
avant que je fusse eVeque : Que Dieu m'avoit destine a avoir
part a beau coupde bien sans que je le susse. Sans examiner
par quel esprit il parloit, je vous avoue que j'ai toujours e'te' fort
touche" de cette maniere de cooperer aux desseins de Dieu, et
que je souhaite une pareille grace a ceux que j'aime." — OSur/res,
vol. xxviii. p. 108.
2 GSuvres, vol. xxvii. p. 275.

44 BOSSUET'S EARL Y DA YS.
he describes himself as "full of gratitude to his
memory," and speaks of the impression of true Chris
tian piety and real ecclesiastical discipline made upon
him in his youth by Vincent. Probably much of the
instruction conveyed to him in this Ordination Retreat
came directly from the Founder himself, but with his
usual humility Vincent judged another more capable
of dealing with one whom he already acknowledged
as a great soul, than he was himself, and he assigned the
Abbe Le Pre"tre as Bossuet's special guide and director
for the occasion. The Abbe" Le Pr£tre was not the
most learned, but one of the simplest-minded of all
the Lazarist Fathers, and the one whom Vincent had
selected as his own director.1 During the remainder
of Vincent's life Bossuet sought every opportunity of
being with him, and benefiting by his counsels. In
1654 he joined his Society called "la Conference
des Mardis," the object of which was to preserve and
strengthen the good impressions and holiness of life
begun in Ordination Retreats," and this company
supplied a valuable body of Missioners, of whose
services Bossuet availed himself a little later in
Metz. Having received Priest's Orders, Bossuet determined
to go at once to Metz, and devote himself to his duties
1 Vie S. V. de Paul, ii. 45.
" Ibid. Les Conferences EcclisiasHques, pp. 51-76.

HENRI DE BOURBON. 45
theie rather than yield to the temptations set before
him to remain in Paris, and accept the offers the
world held out to him. It is difficult to look at his
determination correctly save through the genius of the
times in which he lived — the secular, worldly spirit
which had long possessed the Church; the unblushing
way in which honours and riches were sought and
grasped by Churchmen; the high esteem in which
courtly favour, public applause, and literary reputation
were held, and the unscrupulous manner in which the
grossest neglect of duty was winked at by those whose
office it was to maintain order and regularity in the
Church. Bossuet had, as it has been said, been
appointed to the Archdeaconry of Metz shortly before
he received Priest's Orders, and this appointment was
made by Henri de Bourbon, the Due de Verneuil, a
natural son of Henri IV. and Mme. de Verneuil, who
had been titular Bishop of Metz by papal dispensation
ever since he was six years old, although he never
attempted to receive Holy Orders; and who continued
to draw the revenues of the See, and to exercise juris
diction over it, for fifty years, until at last his marriage
with the Due de Sully's widow — Charlotte Seguier —
constrained him to resign his sacrilegious dignity.1
This " phantom Bishop," as Floquet calls him, never
1 Vie, De Bausset, i. 59; Floquet, i. 210. Vie S. V. de Paul,
U 83

46 BOSSUE T'S EARL Y DA YS.

even saw his diocese of Metz, but lived at Paris
or Verneuil, given up to hunting and free living,
which, with a taste for pictures, were his chief objects
in life. But all the same he liked to exercise his
prerogatives, among others that of coining money,
and various coins with his effigy and arms as Bishop
of Metz yet remain. A succession of suffragans had
performed certain indispensable episcopal functions at
Metz, but a dreary interval of five years of neglect had
occurred, until, in 1649, the Prior of Marmoutier, Pierre
Be"dacier — once of Cluny — was consecrated at Saint-
Germain des Pre"s, under the title of Bishop of Augusto-
polis, and went to administer the deserted diocese.
In 1652, as has been said, Henri de Bourbon resigned
his ecclesiastical position to Cardinal Mazarin, who for
a time was nominal Bishop of Metz. But all manner
of internal quarrels and difficulties complicated the
whole affair, and nothing more disgraceful or pitiable
can well be imagined than the state of the See. The
condition of neglect and spiritual abandonment in
which the unfortunate diocese lay was perhaps not to
be called unequalled at that period, but it was
enough to rouse the energies and conscientious
ardour of such a man as Bossuet, fresh from the
spiritual manipulation of S. Vincent de Paul, and to
give him resolution to turn from the brilliant position
which was his alternative. Strikingly handsome (even

BOSSUET'S PERSONAL GIFTS. 47
his portrait as an old man by Rigaud,1 to be seen
in the Louvre, a standing full-length in episcopal
robes, shows that), and with the additional advan
tages of a dignified, graceful carriage and manner;
brilliant in conversation, enjoying a great name for
scholarship and intellectual power, not only in the
schools, but amid the fine world of Paris — a world
which prized that reputation highly, whether or no
it really appreciated the depths of such powers ; the
friend and associate of all the wits and literary men
of the day ; every house which aimed at any literary
distinction in the fashionable world seeking to attract
the gifted young ecclesiastic, whose own relations
held a respectable place in that world;2 there was
everything to allure him to remain in Paris; while
another train of motives set before him on the same
side might have served to stifle the remonstrances of
conscience, if Bossuet had sought to have it so. This
was to be found in the earnest desires of his revered
* "Ce Jeudi, 3 Nov. 1701 : M. Hyacinthe Rigaud, peintre
du roi, a commence' a Germigny un nouveau portrait de M.
de Meaux, dans le dessein de faire un grand tableau en pied,
revetu de l'habit d'eglise d'hiver," etc. etc.— Le Dieu, vol. ii.
p. 245.
2 Francois Bossuet was Secretaire du Conseil des finances, a
very wealthy man, at whose house all the Court and fine world
assembled. His daughters— the Marquise de Fercourt and the
Comtesse de Pont-Chavigny— were considered two among the
best "partis" of the day.

4? BOSSUET'S EARL Y DA YS.
master, Dr. Cornet, whose great ambition was to
Testore his College de Navarre to the important posi
tion it deserved as the most ancient of the University
of Paris.1
Cardinal Mazarin, its Visitor, was induced to
imitate the example of his predecessor Richelieu,
who had won, as he hoped, a lasting crown as restorer
of the Sorbonne, on which building he spent a vast
sum; and accordingly the powerful Minister under
took the work pressed upon him by Cornet. He was,
however, less successful in his endeavour to induce
Bossuet to become Grand Maitre of the restored
College, an office which Cornet proposed to resign in
his favour. His former pupil remained firm in his
resolution to devote himself to his work, and Dr.
Cornet, disappointed and disheartened, lost his ardour,
and did not follow up his cause with the Cardinal,
who eventually transferred his intent to founding the
College Mazarin instead of adding to the dignity of
the College de Navarre.
And so Bossuet went to Metz, where he devoted
himself to his work as Canon and Archdeacon (he had
been appointed Grand-Archidiacre shortly before his
ordination by Henri de Bourbon) as earnestly as if he
had never tasted the sweetness of Parisian life and
the crime de la crime of its society. He laid down to
1 It was founded by Queen Jeanne, wife of Philippe le Bel.

WORK A T ME TZ. 49

himself as a first rule, an exact and invariable attention
to all the public offices of his Cathedral, with which
nothing was allowed to interfere, — not even the plau-/
sible pretext of other important work, or the deep and
engrossing study in which the Archdeacon was engagedi
during all the years of his residence at Metz. A
further rule from which he never departed, and which
in after life he pressed earnestly in words as well as
in example upon all the clergy over whom he presided,
was, that he would take his part in every office or
ceremony with the utmost perfection to which he
could attain, always studying their form, spirit and
ritual diligently, and performi ng each act, saying each
office, as a distinct sacrifice to God, in which careless
ness or a perfunctory mind was sacrilegious. The
Clergy of Metz Cathedral were greatly impressed, not
merely by the punctuality and reverence with which
he attended all appointed offices, whether those of
day or night, but by the evident pleasure which he took
in what was too often considered a merely perfunc
tory duty. They frequently noticed the serene expres
sion of perfect gladness which used to beam from his
countenance as he joined in the services of the Church
with his clear ringing voice, and his visible realisation
of the Sursum Corda helped to lift up many another
heart. Bossuet does not seem to have been of a
* Mimoires de I'Abbe" Le Dieu, vol. i. p. 29.
D

50 BOSSUE T'S EARL Y DA YS.
ritualistic turn of mind. Although remarkably dignified
(it was natural to him, and he did everything in ordinary
life with dignity) in his public ministrations, in which he
was habitually so absorbed as both to lose all vestige
of self-consciousness and to impress bystanders with a
deep sense of solemnity; — his secretary and constant
companion, the Abbe Le Dieu, describes him as "simple
comme un enfant du peuple" in his tastes concerning
religious ceremonial and pomp. " All was grand and
serious in him," says Cardinal de Bausset. "Nourished
as he had been by the Gospel, and brought up in the
school of the Primitive Fathers, whose wisdom and
learning he had so largely made his own, he held, as
they did, that the Apostles were the authors of all the
venerable institutions of the Church, and he desired to
be faithful to all traditions of discipline or practice
which could be traced to them. This spirit of primi
tive antiquity made him look with an unfavourable
eye on all that did not bear its stamp, and he always
rejected mere novelties either of practice or discipline,
even when their alleged object was the pious one of
exciting or sustaining popular devotion."1
From the beginning of his priestly career to the end
of his long episcopate, Bossuet never omitted cele
brating himself, unless imperatively hindered, on all
Sundays and Saints' Days, through the octaves of all
1 Hist. i. 60.

BOSSUET'S SISTERS. 51

the great festivals, through Lent, and on all fast days,
and this wherever he might chance to be. His voice,
when chanting the offices, is said to have been sweet
and sonorous, but at the same time firm and im
pressive, and, it is added, remarkably free from affec
tation. During the six years of his residence at Metz, Bos
suet lived a most retired life, mixing little in society.
His moments of relaxation were chiefly spent with his
sisters, Marie, Madame Chasot, and Madeleine, then
living with the Chasots, who later married M. Fou-
cault, a Secretaire du Conseil d'Etat, and being left a
widow in 169 r, was a very frequent inmate of Bossuet's
house. Mme. Chasot, who lived to a great age, used
to tell how, as soon as the evening bells of Saint
Etienne began to ring, her brother would break off his
conversation, and go away with an affectionate smile,
saying, " Je m'en vais a marines." Next to his sisters,
the Schombergs were Bossuet's most intimate friends,
and his first sermon in Metz was preached, Sept. 8,
1652, in their presence. The rest of his time was
spent either in attending to the many duties of his office,
in the Cathedral, or in his library, adding to the
large stores he had already acquired by an almost
exhaustive study of tradition and history. How de
voted a student of Holy Scripture he had always been
has been already mentioned, as also of the Fathers,

52 BOSSUET'S EARL Y DA YS.

who are freely quoted throughout his voluminous writ
ings and sermons, as by one thoroughly familiar with
them, and whose mind and thoughts were moulded
on theirs ; and although classical allusions and quota
tions are numerous in his works, they are probably less
so than in most authors of his time.1 Like S. Francis
de Sales, he discontinued the habit of "stuffing a
sermon full of Latin and Greek," by which discon
tinuance the saint of Annecy so grievously afflicted his
venerable father ! We do not hear much of Bossuet's
public preaching at this time, though he seems often to
have preached to the Schomberg household, which
was very numerous, and which he instructed carefully.
It was at this time, however, that Bossuet entered
upon the controversial career, which was, in the order
of God's Providence, to occupy so large a portion of
his long life. Protestantism just then was not thriving
1 The Abbe Vaillant, who has written an able series of Eludes
on Bossuet's sermons, says, " II lui etait difficile de se soustraire
entierement, dans sa jeunesse, aux influences de la predication
contemporaine. La chaire disputait alors d'erudition avec 1'ecole ;
les predicateurs deshonoraient la majeste de la parole sainte en y
melant, a tout propos, les sentences des auteurs grecs et latins.
Bossuet, dans ses premiers essais n'est pas entierement exempt
de ce defaut, on y remarque des citations des textes grecs, des
theories philosophiques un peu abstraites et trop longuement
developpees. Plus tard, il semble negliger ces temoignages etran-
gers, et se contenter de ceux que lui fournissent l'Ecriture et les
Peres. II abrege les discussions de la scholastique, ou du moins
il les rev6t d'une forme oratoire." — p. 3^.

PAUL FERRY. 53

in France, politically at all events, and Anne of
Austria and Cardinal Mazarin were both anxious to
see the Catholic Faith regain its hold over the people
who had wandered astray ; and they conceived that
now, while depressed and weak, it would be easier
than before to win them back by persuasion and
instructions calculated to disperse prejudice.
Pierre de Bedacier, Bishop of Augustopolis, had a
high opinion of the Archdeacon's powers and judgment,
and he was anxious that he should use them on behalf
of the Protestants, who were numerous in Metz. Bos
suet's naturally courteous and kindly manners caused
him to be on an altogether friendly footing with his
Protestant concitoyens, and those who met him (the
de Schombergs appear often to have brought the more
enlightened into contact with him) frequently talked
over their religious positions and opinions with him.
Their chief minister was a certain Paul Ferry, a man
of superior acquirement and general cultivation, whose
purity of life and gentleness of manner had gained him
friends on all sides. Having much in common with
Bossuet, they soon became intimate, and while differing
widely in opinions, they valued and admired each the
other. Bossuet was at this time tender and courteous
in controversy as in society : — he had learnt in the
school of S. Augustine to show gentleness and con
sideration to those he sought to convince, and, as he

54 BOSSUET'S EARL Y DA YS.
was wont to say, " it is hard enough to people to be
shown that they are wrong, especially in matters of
religion, without adding unnecessarily to their dis
comfort.'" Unhappily, in later years, when involved
in his bitter controversy with Fenelon, Bossuet forgot
these principles of his earlier days.
But when Paul Ferry published a work, in the form
of a Catechism, wherein he not only stated that the
Reformation was a necessity, but that whereas before
it men could be saved in the Church of Rome, they
now could not be so saved, Bossuet felt that it behoved
him to answer his friend; and this led to the publication
of his first work in 1655, entitled " Refutation du Cate"-
chisme de Ferry," and dedicated to the Marshal de
Schomberg. In the Advertisement to it, Bossuet
says, " I entreat our adversaries to read this work in a
kindly spirit. . . . I hope that it will testify that I speak
against their doctrines without the least personal bit
terness ; and that, over and above our common nature,
I know how to reverence in them the Baptism of Jesus
1 " Dieu ne veut pas ^tre servi par de mauvaises voies," he
said — it is a Protestant, Maimbourg, who records the words. —
" En toutes sortes de negotiations, mais particulierement en celle-
ci, il faut poser pour un fondement inebranlable la sincerite et la
droiture. Si je reconnaissois qu'on ne proc^dSt pas de bonne
foi, aucune consideration ne me pourroit empe'cher de me retirer
de la chose, et d'en avertir mes amis."1— Floquet, vol. iii.
p. 71.

THE "REFUTATION:' 55
Christ, which is not effaced by their errors."1 The
opening pages of this work dwell upon the great need
for brotherly love and charity ; and the writer's real
aim evidently was to make no breach thereof while
refuting the errors in question. But, nevertheless, he
answers what he holds to be unjust accusations reso
lutely and clearly. Thus, in reply to the assertion that
Catholics added other mediators to the One Only
Mediator, " des adjoin ts a Je'sus Christ en la redemp
tion ;" — " Does not le Sieur Ferry know in his con
science," he asks, " that we confess Jesus Christ as the
sole Saviour and only Redeemer of our souls ; that we
believe Him to have more than sufficiently paid out
debt to His justly offended Father; and that, so far
from questioning whether His Death is all-sufficient to
our salvation, we teach that one drop of His Precious
Blood, even one tear or sigh, would suffice to redeem
countless worlds?"2
Already, in this his first published work, Bossuet
touches the point of infallibility, concerning which he
was later to pronounce such weighty judgments —
judgments so unlike the recently-affirmed dogma of
Infallibility. "We only respect his (the Pope's)
authority because we are convinced that Jesus Christ,
our Master, intrusted it to him, under strict obligation
* OSuvres, vol. xiii. p. 353.
2 Rifut. OSuvres, vol. xiii. p. 358.

56 BOSSUET'S EARL Y DA YS.
to render account to Himself of its administration.
. . . We believe that Jesus has not forsaken His
Church, and for that reason alone we believe her to
be infallible."1 And again: " We do not say that the
Church is empowered to judge the Word of God" (as
the Calvinists asserted to be the case), " but we do
say that she is judge over the divers interpretations
which men put upon His Holy Word, and that it
appertains to her to discern infallibly between the
false and the true exposition thereof. . . . We read
in the Acts how an important question touching legal
ceremony having arisen, the Church assembled to de
cide it, and, after due examination, her judgment was
delivered in these words, ' It seemed good to the Holy
Ghost, and to us' (Acts xv. 28). This mode of speech,
so uncommon in Holy Writ, which seems to put the
Holy Spirit and His ministers on a level, warns the
reader by its very nature that therein God is teaching
some important truth to His Church. We might have
expected that it would suffice the Apostles to affirm
that the Holy Ghost spoke through them; but God,
in His Infinite Wisdom, choosing to establish the in
violable authority of the Church in this its first
Assembly, inspired them with that magnificent utter
ance, ' It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us,'
in order that so striking a beginning might teach all
1 Rifut. CEuvres, vol. xiii. p. 358.

JUSTIFICATION. 57

ages to come that the Church is to be heard by the
faithful as the very Voice of the Holy Spirit Himself"
The sections on Regenerating Grace, Justification, and
Good Works are very remarkable, from their clearness
and beauty of expression, which invest these hard
controversial subjects with singular grace and interest;
while here and there epigrammatic sentences occur,
which convey a deeper impression than whole volumes
of ordinary discussion. " Just as man gives sentence
by declaring the accused to be innocent, so God gives
it by making him innocent."2 " It is faith which jus
tifies, if we believe and confess that we are dead in
ourselves, and that we live only through Jesus Christ.
This faith justifies us, because it gives birth to hu
mility, and through humility to prayer, and through
prayer to confidence, and thus it puts into us (nous
impetre) the gift of grace whereby our malady is healed
and our conscience purified."3 "Justification comes
forth from works, though it is not effected by works,
because it is the foundation thereof; just as men grow
by means of food, but they are not created by food.
Thus works are the fruit of justification, yet neverthe
less they promote it, even as our power of taking food
is a consequence of life, while yet such food maintains
that life."4
1 Rifut. CEuvres, vol. xiii. p. 476. 2 Ibid. p. 401.
3 Ibid. p. 419. " Mi<t- P' 425-

58 BOSSUET'S EARL Y DA YS.
It is pleasant to hear that the result of this contro
versy was rather to draw the Archdeacon of Metz and
the Protestant minister into closer and kindlier inter
course; and ten years later they were working ear
nestly hand in hand to effect a reunion between the
Church and her straying children. Bossuet was eager
in behalf of this cause, and he spoke highly of his
Protestant friend to Louis XIV. and to those officers
of the Church who were interested in the question.
" Sundry weighty theologians here," he wrote to his
father, " are conferring as to the way of terminating
our controversies with the so-called reformers, and of
reuniting us all. . . . M. Ferry enters thoroughly into
my thoughts. I would they all had his light and his
straightforwardness."1 It appears that Ferry became
at length convinced of the errors of his Protestant
brethren, and though he never publicly forsook them,
he was believed to have made up his mind to do so,
when death came suddenly upon him in the year
1669.2 The " Refutation" had a great effect among the
Protestants of Metz, and there were also a great
number of Jews, who abounded in Metz, among
1 Rlfut. OZuvres, vol. xvii. p. 317.
2 So say Le Dieu and de Bausset, but M. Floquet denies the
assertion, and seems to prove that, although friendly to Bossuet
and admiring his personal character, the venerable minister died
a Calvinist by conviction and intention. — Etudes, vol. iii. p. 108.

PROPAGATION DE LA FOI. 59
whom Bossuet carried on an extensive work of con
version, for which his profound learning and acquaint
ance with the Hebrew Scriptures1 and the Talmud
specially fitted him. Some years earlier a pious
woman, Alix Clerginet by name, had opened her own
house to sundry young Jewesses who were cast adrift
owing to their conversion to Christianity, and Bossuet
befriended her earnestly. As the numbers who came
to be instructed in the Faith increased on all sides,
Bishop de Be"dacier thought it well to form this work
into a small Sisterhood in the town, whose chief
occupation should be to help those women and girls
who wished to become Catholics. The Sisters were
called " Filles de la Propagation de la Foi ;" they were
not to be more than twelve in number, of whom not
more than seven were to be bound to the Community
by vow (and that vow could be dispensed by the
Bishop), while the others were to follow precisely the
same rule of life, only they were not eligible to the
offices of Superior and Assistant-Superior. The Sisters
were to elect their own Director, subject to the
Bishop's approval. The Rule for this small body of
Sisters was drawn up by Bossuet, at the Bishop's
request, and it will be found interesting by those who
1 Sainte Beuve says that " tout hebra'ique qu'il etait d'esprit et
de vocation, Bossuet ne savait pas et ne sut jamais l'Hebreu; il
en devinait le genie."— -M Lundis, vol. ii. p. 347-

6o BOSSUE T'S EARL Y DA YS.
study such matters as setting forth Bossuet's mind on
the subject. The Rule is eminently practical. A
year's probation (two for those who are recent
Catholics), and nine days' Retreat for the considera
tion of their vocation, was required. Under no excuse
whatever was the House at any time to become a
monastery, or the Sisters nuns. A loving self-devotion
to the ignorant who sought religious teaching was to
be their great object; their chief devotional practice
adoration of the Mysteries of Our Lord, and Christmas
their special festival. They were to attend the services
of the parish church, and to say the Hours at home,
as also litanies, and to observe due seasons of mental
prayer. The books specially recommended to them,
after Holy Scripture, were the " Imitation," the works
of Louis of Grenada and S. Francis de Sales, and
the Spiritual Letters of Avila. They were to study
"holy poverty;" their dress was to be clean, simple,
and not remarkable ; and their whole manner of life
such that " their moderation might be known unto all
men" (Phil. iv. 5). They were to work with their
own hands, and to teach the young people they re
ceived how to become good servants, or good wives,
as the case might be. They were to rise at five
o'clock and to be in bed at ten p.m., the day being
divided out for work, prayer, and moderate recreation.1
1 Q?Mvres, vol. xv. p. 286.

COMMUNITY RULES. 61
There is a good deal in this Rule which recalls S.
Vincent de Paul and his Filles de la Charite", and one
may fairly suppose that Bossuet's ideas upon such a
subject would be in a great measure framed upon
those of his venerable friend, who had so recently
founded that Order which has since become so wide
spread and so deservedly loved throughout Christen
dom.1 The very practical and simple spirit which
dictates this Rule is to be found all through Bossuet's
later spiritual teaching. Simplicity and straightfor
wardness strike one as the leading features in his
numerous letters containing direction and guidance of
souls. But of this more hereafter.
' It was March 25, 1634, that Louise Le Gras was formally con
secrated to the work as Superior, and although the Rule was not
so soon committed to paper, that arose rather from S. Vincent's
favourite habit of "doing before he taught," than because he
had not thought it out and adapted it to the work he wished to
see done. The Rule seems to have been written for the Sisters
in 1646. — Maynard, Vie de S. V. de Paul, iii. p. 201.

62 BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.

CHAPTER II.
BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.
Visit of Anne of Austria and Louis XIV. to Metz — S. Vin
cent's " Messieurs des Mardis " — Mission of Metz —
Correspondence with S. Vincent de Paul— Bossuet
sent to Paris — Preaches before the Queen — Panegyric
of S. Joseph — Queen Marie Therese — Advent and
Lent Stations — Muse Historique — Sermons before the
King — Bossuet's Three Styles of Preaching — History
of his Manuscript Sermons — Deforis' Edition — La-
chat's Edition — Bossuet's Eloquence — Madame de Se
vigne— Louis XIV. and Bossuet's Father— Journal des
Savans — Flattery of the Period — Quotations from
Sermons preached before the King — The Duties of
Kings— Elevations — Quotation of Scripture — Of the
Fathers — Of Classical Authors, Sainte Beuve and
Criticisms— Bossuet's Extensive Reading — Marginal
Notes— Anecdotes — Sermon on Death.
THE quiet studious life at Metz was not to last
for ever. Bossuet had conquered the tempta
tion set before him by a Parisian life at the time it
might have been most prejudicial to his own spiritual
progress, and God gave him some years in which to
gird on his armour more effectually for the Church's
defence ; but he was too grand a warrior to be left
long in the rear-guard, and that public life he had

THE COURT AT METZ. 63
shunned was after all about to draw him into its
vortex. In 1656 Bossuet returned to Paris, where he was
required to assist at the assemblies of the Sorbonne,
and, as might have been expected, claims and duties
began to be urged upon so able a Churchman, and
efforts to keep him in Paris were made repeatedly. But
his duties at Metz were in nowise neglected, and an
opportunity for promoting the spiritual welfare of that
city was about to develop itself.
In 1657 the Queen-Mother, Anne of Austria, visited
Metz. The Emperor Ferdinand III. was just dead, and
Cardinal Mazarin aspired to see his young King (who
at this time was in fact entirely his subject) elected as
successor. Negotiations were set on foot at Frank
fort, whither the Marechal de Grammont was sent,
with this view, but they failed entirely, and Leopold,
King of Hungary and Bohemia, the late Emperor's
son, was elected.1 Meanwhile the Cardinal brought
the Court to Metz, in order to be nearer the scene of
action, and the usually quiet town was crowded and
dazzled with the presence of the Queen, the young
King Louis XIV. and his brother, the Cardinal and
his niece the Princesse de Conti,2 all the ministers and
1 Steele de Louis XIV. vol. i. 88.
2 Anne Marie Martinozzi, wife of Arnaud de Bourbon, Prince
de Conti.

64 BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.
dependants of the Court. Bossuet was the great
preacher of Metz, to say nothing of the impression he
had already made on the sermon-hearing world of
Paris; and naturally Anne of Austria, who was
essentially devote? wished to hear him preach. Accord
ingly, on October rsth, she and all the Court (Louis
XIV. excepted, who had gone to Nancy) were present
in the Cathedral of Metz, when Bossuet preached on
the life of Saint Teresa, making a great impression on
the Queen, before whom he also privately pleaded
the melancholy spiritual condition of the place — the
sixteen parishes of which were all under his inspection
as Grand Archidiacre — owing to the great abuses
which had so long interfered with its due rule and
order. He had become thoroughly acquainted with
the state of things ; and so well did he convey his own
sense of the pressing evils existing to the Queen, that
she returned to Paris bent on doing somewhat on
behalf of the neglected city. A mission, such as of
late years S. Vincent de Paul had carried on so
effectually, seemed the best hope, and accordingly
Anne of Austria appealed to him — he had been for
some time a member of her " Conseil de Conscience," 
to send Missioners to Metz. S. Vincent hesitated.
1 Fromentieres, in his funeral sermon on her, says that, during
the fifty years of her abode in France, the Queen never save once
failed to hear Mass daily.

METZ MISSION. 65
His Lazarist Fathers were dedicated specially to the
service of the poor in country places, and he did not
like to turn them from their own peculiar work to
take up that of towns. However, he himself suggested
that the " Messieurs des Conferences des Mardis," as
he called them, might undertake the good work. Not
long before this Society had held their first Mission
in the Faubourg Saint-Germain most successfully,
although with reluctance at first on their part to em
bark in so difficult an enterprise. Encouraged by this
success, there was no hesitation about the Mission to
Metz, and a number of priests (some historians say
forty, others twenty) volunteered for the work. A
correspondence between S. Vincent and Bossuet as to
the carrying out of the plan began at once — the first
letter being written by Omer de Champin, a former
college friend of Bossuet, and now Doyen du Louvre.
We have Bossuet's answer, addressed to S. Vincent,
dated January 12, 1658, in which he expresses his
earnest desire, as well as that of Mgr. Bedacier, to
co-operate with the Missioners in every way — adding,
"I feel my own incapacity for doing what I could
desire, but I hope by God's Grace that the example of
so many holy men, and the lessons I have formerly
learnt in your company, may help me to work well
with your able Missioners, however little I am fit for
in myself. ... If there is anything which you think

66 BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.
necessary to be done here, in order to prepare
men's minds, I shall be glad to receive and execute
your directions faithfully, with God's Help."1 Some
difficulty arose at first with respect to a Dominican,
who had preached the recent Advent course, and who
had been detained by the Bishop in order that he
might also preach the Lent station. " I should not
like to slight this worthy and learned man by dismiss
ing him," — so the Bishop writes to S. Vincent, — " and
yet I understand that your Missioners wish no other
instructions to be given than such as come into their
scheme. Can we arrange matters by giving Monday,
Tuesday, and Thursday to our Dominican preacher,
and letting the Missioners have the other four days
clear, as well as all the rest of those days in the
Cathedral, if we find them a suitable Church wherein
to preach while he occupies the Cathedral? I am
very sorry that this awkwardness should have arisen,
but as it is so, we must do our best. There is nothing
else to be arranged, save how to provide for the
reception and lodging of your Missioners, who will be
most welcome, coming as they do in the Lord's Name,
and from Her Majesty. M. de la Contour (Lieutenant
du Roi in Metz — the former comrade of Marshal de
Schomberg, and intimate friend of Bossuet, with whom
he was always ready to co-operate) has granted us the
1 OEuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 121.

DOMESTIC ARRANGEMENTS. 67

logis du Roi, on the Haute Pierre, where they will be
very conveniently lodged; and as to furniture and
food, we will see that everything is duly provided." '
The details of " furniture and food " are supplied in
Bossuet's letters of the same date to M. de Monchy,
Superior of the Toul Mission, who had been sent to
Metz beforehand to see that the necessary prepara
tions were made. " First of all, thanks to the care
and pains of M. de la Contour, we have found the beds,
mattresses, sheets, and coverlids mentioned in your
list. The town supplies some which were kept by the
Receiver, and the rest will be procured from the
Concierge or from the Jews, and we shall take care
that they do not cost the Mission anything. We have
likewise provided the furniture wanted for the rooms.
It will not be so easy to find the dishes, table linen,
and kitchen requisites ; and it would be very expensive
to have a cook who supplied everything. Forty sous
a day is an extravagant price for Metz, but nevertheless
none of the cooks I have seen will undertake the
bargain for less. You must, if you please, decide as
concerning this ; all the same, I will try to find out
what can be done more economically, and will let you
know what I hear. . . . M. de la Contour wishes very
much that you should run up here, to arrange the
rooms and furniture, according to the persons you
1 OEuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 123.

68 BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.
wish to occupy them. If you cannot come, be so
good as to give me your orders as to how we shall
arrange everything. We will try that everything be
seemly — or even, if possible, still better than that." *
The Dominican preacher was a greater difficulty.
The good man himself was altogether reluctant to
relinquish the Cathedral pulpit, although he professed
his resolution to do whatever lay in his power to pro
mote the success of the Mission and to dispose the
people to benefit by it. Bossuet assured Vincent de
Paul that he was a sensible man, anxious to do right and
to be accommodating, and while avowing that his own
opinion entirely went with the Missioners, as to their
keeping all instruction in their own hands, he said
that he feared there would be some disturbance if that
were carried out, as he foresaw difficulty between the
Chapter and the Bishop, who were in a chronic state
of collision, so that, although noways antagonistic to
the Mission in itself; they were inclined to oppose it
as a pet scheme of the Bishop's.
S. Vincent adhered to his point, and required the
Dominican to abstain altogether from preaching ; and
the Bishop yielded, though still reluctantly, as regarded
the worthy monk's personal feelings. These however
were smoothed down by a handsome present from the
Queen, accompanied by a request that he would leave'
1 OSuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 126.

MISSIONERS. 69

Metz for this season, and return to preach his intended
Lent station the following year.
Preparations, material and spiritual, were all thus
duly made, and then we find Bossuet lamenting over
the severity of the weather, which made what was at
that time so long a journey very trying. In those
days, when railroads, or even rapid coach travelling,
were unthought of, one marvels to read of a certain
Frere Matthieu Renard, of the Lazarists, who made
no less than fifty-three journeys from Paris to Metz,
with relief for the poor ! one of which Bossuet records
as "almost a miracle, amid the surrounding deluge.''1
At length, on March 4th, the Missioners arrived at
Metz, after a difficult journey, for the floods of that
year were altogether unusual in their extent.2 The
conductor of the Mission was Louis de Rochechouart
de Chaudenier, Abbot of Tournus, a great-nephew
of the famous Cardinal de Rochefoucalt ; a devoted
son of S. Vincent, and already a friend of Bossuet's.
The only other Missioners whose names have reached
us are those of de Champin, already mentioned, de
Blampignon, the Prior of Mont-Guion, whose gifts for
Mission-work had been proved in that of Saint-Ger-
1 CEuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 120.
" S. Vincent de Paul wrote : " A Paris on voit plus de bateaux
que decarrosses, et l'effroi regne dans cette capitale." — Collet,
ii. p. 569.

70 BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.
main, and Gedouin, Abbot of Saint-Mesmin, and Chap
lain to the King's brother.
The Mission was opened on Ash- Wednesday, March
6th. Bossuet threw himself heartily into it, and took
his full share as a member of the Mission (being one
of the Messieurs des Mardis). Some few times he
preached in the Cathedral, but he chiefly confined his
work to the Church called Saint Jean de la Citadelle, a
humble position on the ramparts, far from the more
fashionable and crowded parts of the town, where a
more intellectually appreciative audience might have
gathered round him. There, every day, he gave a con
ference and a sermon, chiefly to men and soldiers,
and twice a week a " grand catkhisme." What little
is known of the Mission comes through S. Vincent,
who used to report concerning it at the Conferences
des Mardis. In a letter which he wrote, April 6,
1658, to de Chaudenier, he describes an interview
which de Chaudenier's brother (likewise a member of
the Company) had just had with the Queen, in order
to acquaint her with the progress of the Mission she
had promoted. Anne of Austria was so delighted at
the successful reports, that she asked to have them ;'
and she volunteered to supply whatever funds might
be required more during the work.
1 " Baillez-le-moi, dit elle, je le veux voir, et le retint."—
Vie de S. V. de Paul, vol. ii. p . 102.

WORK IN METZ. 7 1
The Mission continued till late in May, when Bos
suet wrote to S. Vincent as follows:' " Metz, May 23, 1658.
"I cannot let our dear Missioners depart without
expressing to you the universal regret and the mar
vellous edification they leave behind them. Such
indeed, that you have every reason to rejoice in the
Lord ; and I could gladly dilate upon this topic were it
not that the results have so greatly exceeded my power
of words. Nothing more exemplary, more apostolic, or
better ordered than this Mission was ever seen. . . .
The Missioners have won all hearts, and now they
return to you, weary and spent in body, but rich in
remembrance of souls snatched from destruction, and
fruits of repentance brought forth by their ministry."
One result of this Mission was the establishment of
the Conferences des Mardis in Metz, as a branch of the
original Company in Paris. Moreover, after a time,
the Queen desired a house to be bought in Metz for
the Lazarist Fathers, which was effected in the name
of Be'nigne Bossuet, the Archdeacon's father, and in
1 66 1 letters patent for it were obtained. But the
actual establishment was delayed owing to S. Vincent's
death, which occurred in the year 1660, and the
House, which was to be both a Seminary and a Mission,
did not actually begin to work until 1663. Nicolas
1 OEuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 131.

72 BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.

de Monchy, who had visited Metz in preparation for
the original Mission, was its first Superior.1
The Mission of Metz was over, and probably Bos
suet looked to a renewal of the same life of devotion
and study which he had led for the past six years.
But it was not so to be. In the autumn of that same
year, 1658, the Chapter of Metz sent him to Paris to
negotiate certain affairs concerning their body; and
his reputation, which had no doubt been revived
in the capricious Paris world by the visit of the
Court to Metz, led to his being requested to
preach on various occasions, among which, pro
bably the most important of that year, was the
Ordination Retreat which he held at Saint-Lazare, in
compliance with the request of S. Vincent de Paul.
This implied two instructions daily for eleven days,
and so admirably were they adapted to their object,
that, as the historian Fleury records, men postponed
their Priests' Orders with the hope of coming under
Bossuet's instructions again the next year. And S.
Vincent wrote to one of his. priests then at Rome,
that " it had pleased God to give a special and incon
ceivable blessing to the recent Ordinands' Retreat."
Bossuet did give the same Retreat again in 1660, the
last Lent of S. Vincent's life.
The fame of these sermons led the Queen to desire
' Vie de S. V. de Paul, vol. ii. p. 106.

PREACHING IN PARIS. 73
once more to hear the eloquent Archdeacon of Metz.
Moreover, Her Majesty expressed a desire to hear a
certain sermon, or Panegyric, as it was called in those
days, on S. Joseph,1 which Bossuet had preached two
years before, during an accidental visit to Paris, and
which had been immensely praised by the distin
guished congregation gathered to hear it, in which, as
the Assembly General of the Clergy was at that time
sitting in Paris, there were present twenty-two Bishops,
beside Cardinal Barberini, and various other cele
brities. Francois Bossuet had a chapel in the church
belonging to the Feuillans, and it was arranged that
his kinsman should gratify her Majesty by preaching
the much be-lauded sermon2 on S. Joseph's Day r6s9.
1 CEuvres, vol. xii. p. 104.
2 This sermon was commemorated by the Must Historiqu<
of March 24, 1657 : — -
" Bossuet, ce jeune docteur,
Cet excellent predicateur,
Et dont l'eloquence naissante
Est si pressante et si jouissante,
Lundi, dans les Feuillans, prScha,
Et plus que jamais epancha
Dans les coeurs de son auditoire
Le degout de la fausse gloire
Et de ce grand eclat mondain,
Que les sages ont a dedain.
II debita cette matiere
Avec tant d'art et de lumiere,

74 BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.
The text was " Depositum custodi," or, as it is in the
English Bible, "Keep that which is committed to thy
trust" (i Tim. vi. 20) ; and, after some few words
concerning the sacredness of a "deposit" generally,
the preacher went on to dwell upon the priceless
Avec tant de moralite,
Avec tant de capacite,
Que l'Eminence Barberine
Admirant sa rare doctrine,
Et plus de vingt et deux prelats
De l'ouir n'etaient jamais las. "
The same Journal mentions the repetition of the sermon in the
No. for March 22, 1659 : —
" L'Abbe Bossuet, esprit rare,
Qu'aux plus eloquens on compare,
Mercredi, jour de Saint Joseph,
Aux Carmelites, dans le nef,
Fit un sermon si memorable,
Qu'il passa pour incomparable.
Car, soit qu'il fut bien enonce,
On qu'il fut bien prononce,
Soit pour quantite de passages
Tires par lui des saintes pages;
Soit qu'il fut savant, specieux,
Moral, methodique et pieux ;
Certes tous ceux de 1'audience
En admirerent l'excellence.
Surtout les prelats et docteurs
Et d'autres grands predicateurs,
Que d'aller la prirent la peine;
Et meme notre auguste reine,
Dont 1' esprit devot et chretien
Discerne les choses fort bien,
En parut plus que satisfaite."

PANEGYRIC ON S. JOSEPH. 75
deposit committed to S. Joseph — even the Son of God
Himself. " In the Person of Jesus Christ S. Joseph be
came the depository of the greatest Treasure, whether
of God or man. What words can describe the great
ness and majesty of such a name ?"
From his earliest days of Court preaching, Bossuet
shunned to a very remarkable extent a weakness which
was far more prevalent and less open to condemnation
in his time than our own — that of overt flattery of the
great and royal personages before whom he spake. In
this, which in some sense may be considered his first
Court sermon, he speaks clearly as to the relative
value of earthly grandeur and favour in the Sight of
God. " Let us seek," he says, " after the hidden life
in which Jesus concealed Himself with Joseph. What
matters it that men should see us ? He is indeed
madly ambitious to whom it suffices not that he be
seen of God, and it is an insult to Him if we are not
content with Him as our spectator. If you are in
possession of important office and conspicuous posi
tion, if of necessity your life is public, at least re
member in all seriousness that your death must be
private, for your honours cannot follow you. Suffer
not the noise with which men surround you to deaden
the Voice of the Son of God speaking within you.
He did not say ' Blessed are they that are praised,'
but rather, 'Blessed are ye when men shall say all

76 BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.

manner of evil against you for My Name's Sake.' " And,
in conclusion, addressing Anne of Austria, the young
preacher ventured to speak these dignified words :
"Madam, the grandeur which surrounds you un
questionably prevents you from enjoying externally the
blessed hiddenness of Jesus Christ. Your life is set
in the broadest light ; and your humility would vainly
seek to hide your piety. The victories of our King
enhance your glory. . . . Amid so much of glory and
of grandeur, what share can your Majesty have in the
Hidden Life of Jesus and the shame of His Gospel ?
Inasmuch as the world offers you nothing but praise,
whence can humiliation come, unless you seek it for
yourself? This it is, Madam, which should constrain
your Majesty, when alone with God, to strip off your
royal magnificence, so worthless in His Sight, before
His Feet, and, lying there, to steep yourself in the
holy shame of penitence. It is too cruel a flatter}' to
tell the great that they are faultless. On the contrary,
the very eminence of royalty involves the consequence
that no fault of theirs can be trifling. In the contem
plation of so many dangers, Madam, let your Majesty
seek self-humiliation," etc.2
That Anne of Austria was not displeased at the
plain speaking she heard on this occasion is proved
by her again going to hear the same sermon two years
* Pantgyriques, vol. xii. p. 132.

LENT STATIONS. 77
later, when she was accompanied by the young Queen
Marie Therese, and from that time the two Queens
never neglected an opportunity of hearing Bossuet
preach. *
For some years his chief vocation appeared to be
preaching. Five Lent Stations — 1660, at the Minims;
i66r, at the Carmelite Church in the Faubourg Saint-
Jacques; 1662, at the Louvre — this time before Louis
XIV. and his Queen, Henrietta Maria the exiled
Queen of England, and all the great people belonging
to the Royal Family or Court; r663, at the Benedic
tine Church of Val-de-Grace, before the Queen-
Mother; 1666, at Saint Germain en Laye, before the
* The Muse Historique for February 1662 again commemorates
Bossuet's preaching : —
" Leurs Majestes, l'apres dinee
D'icelle sainte joumee,
Oui'rent un jeune docteur,
Admirable predicateur.
Et qui, des son adolescence,
Prechait avec tant d'eloquence
Qu'il s'acquit partout grand renom.
L'Abbe Bossuet, c'est son nom,
Dont certes la doctrine exquise
Est digne de servir l'Eglise,
Et le destin qui dans ses mains
Tient la fortune des humains
Serait envers lui trop feroce,
S'il n'avait un jour mitre et crosse.
On voit peu de gens aujourd'hui
Le meriter si bien qui lui."

78 BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.
King ; and the Advent Stations of 1665 at the Louvre,
of 1668 at Saint Thomas du Louvre, and of 1669 at
Saint Germain en Laye, of which the first and last
were preached before the King. The last of these
Advent courses was practically the close of Bossuet's
great preaching-day. It was the last station which he
preached, "and when Bossuet left the pulpit he was
replaced therein by Bourdaloue," writes Lachat1
After that, save a few of his great Oraisons Funebres,
he rarely preached save at Meaux, where, if his elo
quence was less brilliant, it was not less fervid or
earnest in seeking to win his listeners, nor was he less
sought after by his provincial hearers than he had
been in Paris.
Once again, ten years later, the King desired to
hear the man he loved and the preacher he admired,
on a great festival of the Church, and accordingly, at
Easter2 1681, Bossuet preached at Versailles before
the King. In his opening words Bossuet refers to his
" resuming this office after so many years of silence."
On this occasion Bossuet boldly attacked the then
1 CEuvres, vol. viii. p. xii. Bourdaloue died only about a
month after Bossuet.
= Cardinal de Bausset gives 1680 as the date of this sermon, but
it is recorded in the Gazette de France of March 1681, which
says: "Le jour de Paques, Leurs Majestes entendirent la pre
dication de l'ancien Ev£que de Condom." — OEuvres, vol. x.
p. 164.

APPOINTMENT OF BISHOPS. 79

ordinary custom (with which his own experience at
Metz had made him familiar) of appointing wholly
incompetent untrained Bishops, solely as a matter of
patronage. After appealing to the Clergy, " who are
daily seeking these perilous dignities for yourselves or
others," to beware, he goes on to say : " Do not any
more set the high places of the Church before the
imprudent youth of our land as a stimulus to ambition,
or as the due reward of five or six years' study, which/
ought to be but the beginning of their preparations.
Let them rather learn to tremble and shun respon- '
sibility, and at least work for the Church, before they
attempt to rule her." After dwelling on the solemn
appointment and preparation of the Apostles, he goes
on : — " And yet we who have done nothing at all, —
we aspire to fill their places ! If the ecclesiastical
body is an army, as all the Fathers and Councils
follow S. Paul in affirming it to be, who can, without
the greatest danger, presume to command, without
having ever obeyed or himself served under others?
What order, what discipline can there be, if the officers
do not rise gradually ? Does not the Army of the
Church, which has to encounter all the vices, all the
passions, all the weakness, all the bad habits, all the
worldly maxims of men, all the wiles of heretics, all
the attacks of impiety — in a word, all the powers of
the devil and of hell — do not her soldiers require as

80 BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.
much experience and as much courage, though of a
different kind, as the secular army ? . . . O woe !
O desolation ! O inevitable destruction to the flock !
Have ye forgotten that just but terrible denunciation
spoken by Jesus Christ Himself, ' If the blind lead the
blind, shall they not both fall into the ditch?'"1
A very large number of Bossuet's sermons were
printed and remain to us, besides notes for them,
which were often merely scribbled on the backs of
letters or chance pieces of paper, and were only pre
served as it were by accident. His career as a preacher
has been divided into three divisions, and his most
intelligent editor, Lachat, says that the spirit of his
printed sermons can hardly be entered into without
going somewhat into the history of these three periods.
Of these the first was at Metz, and " these sermons,"
says Lachat, " are distinguished by the length at
which the subjects are developed, the accumulation of
texts, the antiquated language, and a certain emphasis
which has something both of roughness and stiffness
about it.2 The second period" (that of Paris) "is
1 CEuvres, vol. viii. p. 182.
2 The Abbe Varllant says of this first period, " Ses expressions
sont hardies ; elles semblent quelquefois impetueuses et impati-
entes ; on reconnait cette force, cette vigueur, ce sang chaud et
bouillant du jeune homme, comme il le dit lui-meme, qui l'en-
tralne, malgre lui, au de la des limites qu'il s'etait tracees. Les
negligences et les frequentes Sprete's de style annocent un talent

PERIODS OF PREACHING. St
distinguished by its rapidity and entrain, — its strength,
pathos, dignity, even sublimity ; and the third period,
that of Meaux, is characterised by more order and
regularity, more finish and symmetry, but at the same
time by less effusion, less energy and force. The
handwriting of these three periods is as character
istically diverse as the matter. In his first composi
tions the young Archdeacon of Metz wrote hastily on
bad paper with a bad pen and worse ink, a sprawling
conjectural hand. His chefs-aVozuvre are well written,
in a clear regular hand ; and in his episcopal discourses
the character is smaller and weaker, the writing seems
to come from a pen which has lost its flexibility and
vigour."1 We have seen already how diligently Bos
suet studied, and what a vast fund of Biblical and
patristic knowledge he possessed on which to draw
when composing his sermons. He habitually used
Vatable's Bible, which contains a literal translation
from the Hebrew by Leo de Juda side by side with
encore peu experimente. . . . Les manuscrits demontrent un
travail penible. . . . A un age plus avance, il parait plus calme :
mattre de son imagination, il ne lui donne un libre essor que par
intervalles, . . . au declin de l'age, le genie de ce grand homme
n'a rien perdu de son energie et du feu qui 1'anime . . . son
langage est toujours celui d'une raison elevee, mais tempereepar
la tendresse et par les sollicitudes pastorales." — Etudes sur les
Sermons de Bossuet, p. 33.
1 Lachat, Les Sermons, vol. viii. p. xviii.
F

82 BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.
the Vulgate,1 so that, as he said, he was the better
able to grasp the spirit of the inspired words. His
powers of composition, natural and cultivated, were
rapid and fertile in the extreme, and if a sudden
necessity required it, he could pour forth the most
brilliant and learned improvisation; but save under
the pressure of a most imperious necessity, he never
would preach without preparing at least a pencil
sketch, — without writing down his points, and the
prominent lessons he wished to teach. His early
manuscripts are carelessly written, the paper scribbled
over from one end to the other, without any margin
or room for notes or corrections ; but later on there
are tokens of a very different style of composition; at
least half the MS. is margin, and that is continually
filled to overflowing. He continually rewrites a pas
sage, corrects, alters, abbreviates, condenses, in short
entirely changes his original sentence. He wrote with
no intention of publishing his sermons, — indeed he
sometimes expressed himself strongly with respect to
those who considered the after effects in print more
than the immediate object of their sermons; and the
few (chiefly funeral orations) that were printed during
1 " Pour 1'Ancien Testament, je n'ai jamais fait autre chose
flue de lire la version selon l'Hebreu, la conferer avec la Vul
gate ; prendre le genie de la langue sainte et de ses manieres de
parler. Vatable seul fournit tout cela." — CEuvres, vol. xxvi.
p. in.

BOSSUET'S MANUSCRIPTS. 83
his life were drawn from him reluctantly. At his
death, all his MSS. came into the possession of the
Abbe Bossuet, Bishop of Troyes, " that petty nephew
of a great uncle," as de Maistre calls him. He had
neither inclination or capacity to edit Bossuet's ser
mons ; moreover he lost sundry, lending the manu
scripts about carelessly to persons who seem to have
been as careless as himself, for the subsequent editors
failed to recover all that were known to have existed.
These valuable MSS. were again left by the Bishop
of Troyes to his nephew, President Chasot, who com
mitted them all to the Benedictines des Blanc Manteaux
of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, and they took great
pains to put forth an edition of the Sermons, generally
known as the Deforis edition, which was published in
1772. But Dom Deforis was like too many other
restorers, — he doctored and altered and " improved"
according to his own ideas, till, as has been said, " il
les a mis, non seulement en ordre, mais encore en
oeuvre." Still it is only fair to bear in mind, while we
regret his mistake, that his well-meant labours (which
were enormous) saved these valuable papers from
entire destruction, and handed them on to us, while
the pious editor himself perished beneath the guillo
tine in 1793.
Several editions followed, all cast in the same mould,
so that in the beginning of the nineteenth century de

84 BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.
Maistre wrote, " No celebrated author was ever so
unfortunate in respect to his posthumous works as
Bossuet;" until in 1862 the publisher Vives brought
out Lachat's edition of the writings of one whom even
Voltaire condescended to call " the most eloquent of
Frenchmen," restoring them as far as possible to the
precise condition in which the author left them, clear
ing away all Deforis' additions and interpolations, and
putting them into the hands of his readers, it may
reasonably be believed, much as Bossuet would him
self have done had he published them while living.
Those who are interested in a minute investigation of
Lachat's painstaking work (in which he was assisted
by Louis Veuillot,1 Cousin, de Nicolay, and Mgr.
Sergent, Bishop of Quimper), will read his " Re-
marques Historiques" on the subject with attention, at
the beginning of Volume viii. of his edition of Bos
suet's works.
A great number of sermons, funeral orations, Eleva
tions and instructions of Bossuet's are yet in our hands,
— the quantity that he must have composed may be
imagined when we consider that while at Metz he
preached continually in the Cathedral, at the Church
of the Citadel, and in other localities, besides fre
quent accidental sermons at Paris or elsewhere: — that
during the ten years he spent in Paris, before becom-
1 GLuvres, vol. viii. p. lxvii.

COUNTRY SERMONS. 85
ing tutor to the Dauphin, preaching was his chief occu
pation, and that after he became Bishop of Meaux
his rule was to preach in his own Cathedral on every
festival (and these were more numerous before the
Concordat than now), as well as every time that he
held an ordination, confirmation, or any other solemn
ceremony ; he frequently attended the monthly " con
ferences cantonales," for which he himself always selected
the subjects, and always gave the opening and closing
addresses of his Diocesan Synod. Moreover, he con
stantly gave instructions in the various religious houses
of his diocese, whether of men or women, and he was
never better pleased or more at home than when
preaching in some humble village church. The Abbe
Le Dieu tells us how he used to admire him going
about from parish to parish, the Gospel in his hand,
meditating on it as he went, the better to fill his own
mind with the truths he was about to set before the-
people, and giving his whole prayerful attention as
much to the simplest country congregation as to the
most learned Parisian audience, not lowering himself
to the humble, but raising them by the clearness and
simplicity of his thoughts and expressions, thundering
— for he was a most vehement orator — in the morning
against the deadly sins, the enmities and frauds of
some town district, and in the evening confirming in
some religious house, and speaking words of the

86 BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.
sweetest, most rapt mysticism to the saintly women
there assembled. Whenever a Mission was held in
his diocese, Bossuet was sure to be there, and taking
part in it.
But a very few of these discourses have been pre
served; — as has been already said, they were often
spoken from a few notes written on the back of a
letter, and filled up as he went on from the warmth
of his own glowing heart. In one of his sermons,
preached on the first Sunday in Lent, 1662, before
Louis XIV. and the Queens, on Preaching,1 after a
masterly setting forth of the uses of sermons (" ou les
hommes ne connaissent pas la verite, ou les hommes
ne pensent pas h la ve'rite, ou les hommes ne sont pas
touches de la verite," etc.2), he concludes with an earnest
prayer that God would render his words effectual, and
give him wisdom, power, simplicity; above all, that
He Alone would set forth His Gospel in all its purity
from that pulpit, and that men should be as nothing
there.3 Such seems always to have been Bossuet's aim,
however great his popularity and however much he
was cried up by men. After his death, Pere de la Rue
1 CEuvres, vol. ix. p. 59. The MS. is marked in Bossuet's
own hand, " pr&he' devant le Roi."
2 Ibid. p. 41.
3 Ibid. p. 56. Bossuet was about to preach the whole of the
Lenten course.

ELOQUENCE. 87
spoke of him as " stripping his eloquence of whatever
was calculated rather to please than to edify" —
thereby justifying Pascal's assertion, " La vraie elo
quence se moque de l'eioquence." '
It seems curious that any discussion should have
arisen as to Bossuet's real eloquence; nevertheless the
matter has been questioned — on the sole ground,
apparently, of what his chief biographer, Cardinal
de Bausset, says in his life when he speaks of it as a
literary problem2 that the severe and methodical
style of Bourdaloue should have had greater fascina
tions for a Parisian audience than the "rich fertile
abundance, the sublime elan, and the magnificent
apostrophes " of Bossuet; in proof of which he alleges
that his contemporaries are silent as to the Bishop of
Meaux, " rarely speaking of him as an orator, and
never as a preacher.'' But this is scarcely so. The
Cardinal's chief ground for the assertion is that Mme.
de Sevigne " never once alludes to Bossuet's funeral
orations, ' et si elle n'en parle pas, c'est qu'on en par-
lait bien peu dans le monde oh elle vivait.'" But
first of all this is not quite true. Mme. de Sevigne',
writing to her cousin the Comte de Bussy, after giving
an elaborate description of the decorations of Notre-
Dame on the occasion of the Grand Conde's funeral
— the "most magnificent and most triumphal funeral
1 Pensees, Edit. Faugere, vol.i. p. 151. 2 Vie, vol. i. p. 165.

88 BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.
pomp ever seen since men existed" (a subject, it must
be confessed, more congenial to the lady's taste and
intellect than Christian oratory — goes on to say that
Bossuet preached the funeral oration,1 and that she
had just seen a prelate who had heard it, and who
said that " M. de Meaux had surpassed himself, and
that so fine a subject had never been so well handled
and set forth." Some contemptuous remarks from
the profligate de Bussy may be taken at what they are
worth. On another occasion — the profession of Mme.
de la Valliere, a spectacle which Mme. de Sevigne
certainly regarded in no better light than as a sight,
though she regretted having missed it — she goes on
to say, "What will astonish you is that Bossuet's
sermon was not so divine as was hoped."2 Mme. de
Sevigne does not enlarge much generally on such
topics; and in fact she says little more in the way of
laudation of Bourdaloue, except that in one letter,
after accusing him of personalities in preaching, she
goes on to say, " People say that he exceeds all former
marvels, and that nobody has preached till now."3
1 Lettre CMLXXX1., vol. viii. p. 222.
2 "Mais ce qui vous e"tonnera, c'est que le sermon deM.de
Condom ne fut point aussi divin qu'on l'esperait." — Lettre
CCCXCIL, vol. iii. p. 404.
3 "Avec tout cela, on dit qu'il passe toutes les merveilles
passees,etquepersonne n'aprgchejusqu'ici." — Lettre CCXX1II.,
vol. ii. p. 325.

CRITICISMS. 8g

Probably a good deal of Mme. de Sevigne's silence
may be explained by a note to one of de Bussy's
sneering letters, written by Gault de Saint-Germain,
himself speaking with a sneer : " On admiroit Bossuet,
mais on n'etoit pas encore a la hauteur de cette philo
sophie Chrerienne dont il jetoit les fondements, et qui
ne tient compte des avantages temporels qu'avec
I 'eclat des vertus qui mettent le comble aii bonheur
ct a la gloire des peuples."1 Very decided indeed, in
spite of Cardinal de Bausset's assertion, are the opinions
which we do find expressed by Bossuet's contem
poraries, beginning with Louis XIV. himself, who,
hearing him preach for the first time in Advent 1661,2
desired that a letter might be written by his private
secretary, President Rose, in his name, to Bossuet's
father, to congratulate him on having such a son.
The old Councillor at Metz must have felt proud at
such a compliment, and perhaps hardly less so in
Lent 1665, when the King, — having noticed an old
man standing behind the pulpit, who seemed more
than ordinarily attentive, and at times greatly moved,
during Bossuet's sermon, — Louis XIV inquired who
' See note, Lettres de Sevigni, vol. viii. p. 227.
2 Lachat assigns this compliment on the part of the King to
the Lent Station of 1662. — CEuvres, vol. viii. p. 8. It seems to
have been in 1661 that Bossuet was appointed by brevet royal to
the office of Pridicateur ordinaire du Roi. " — Floquet, vol. ii.
p. 207.

90 BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.
he was, and on being told that the old man was
Benigne Bossuet, the preacher's father, the King
exclaimed, with a burst of natural feeling, "How
happy he must be to hear his son preach so well !"
Both the Queens followed Bossuet wherever he
went to preach, and Mme. de Lafayette, the fair
mouthpiece of the Court, speaks of his "great elo
quence and deeply religious tone." The venerable
Pere de Neuville, after an enthusiastic wish that he
had lived sooner, so as to have profited more by " this
unique master of the sublime, the energetic, and the
pathetic," says, " I believe that with talent, study, and
exertion, one might hope to tread in the footsteps of
the immortal Bourdaloue, and aspire to resemble him,
without flattering one's self one could equal the model.
But as to a Bossuet — he is born ready-made ! he is
not formed gradually and by development, and there
would be almost as much folly in attempting to
imitate him as madness in hoping to equal him." *
It would be tedious to go through a string of quota
tions from contemporaries, the laudatory tone of
which pall upon one's taste. Passing over, then, a
multitude which may be found in Lachat's " Re-
marques Historiques," — we need only refer to the
Academy, "ce conseil regie' et perpetuel dont le
credit est etabli sur l'approbation publique," and which
1 Vie, vol. i. p. 127.

JOURNAL DES SAVANS. 91
received Bossuet in 167 1, with an allusion to his
having " won the applause of all France by his far-
famed preaching, and the eclat with which he filled
the pulpit." And the same authority speaks of him as
"a Chrysostom." The Journal des Savans for 1704
too says, "Eloquence in M. de Meaux is not the
result of study; everything in him is natural and
superior to art, or rather the innate sublimity of his
genius and his intellect gives birth without effort or!
research to an art superior to that with which we are
acquainted. Hence those noble forms, those grand
lights, those bold living expressions, in a word, thaO
power which nothing can resist. To this vigorous,}
manly eloquence he united the advantage gained bv
sound learning, — that of being full, solid, and in
structive. He sought to throw light upon religion,
and he did not win the heart until he had enlightened
the mind." Chateaubriand says, — " L'Eveque de
Meaux a cree une langue que lui seul a pariee, oil
souvent le terme le plus simple et l'idee la plus
relevee, I'expression la plus commune et 1'image la
plus terrible, servent, comme dans l'Ecriture, k se
donner des dimensions enormes et frappantes." l
1 Genie du Christianisme, Ptie. iii. L. iv. p. 306. M. Sainte
Beuve calls Bossuet, "l'homme le plus puissant par la parole, le
plus veritablement eloquent que nous ayons eu dans notre langue ;
ne cessons de lui accorder ce qui lui est du, et cependant ne lui
accordons pas toute chose." — Nouveaux Lundis, vol. ii. p. 338.

92 BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.
Enough, perhaps too much, on this head. But
before dismissing the special consideration of Bossuet
as a preacher, there are one or two points which
ought to be noted as conveying a definite idea of one
who left so remarkable a stamp on the times in which
he lived. And one of these, which has been already
alluded to, is a most noticeable characteristic, i.e. the
absence of flattery and the remarkably plain speaking
which Bossuet used both to his Royal listeners and
their Court.1 Duly to estimate this it is needful to
bear in mind the tone and habits of the period, which
' M. Sainte Beuve takes a somewhat different view. He says,
" Bossuet etait pliant et un peu faible devant les puissances, et il
avait bien des egards au monde. II etait le premier a sentir ce
foible de son caractere, et un jour qu'en quittant la superieure
d'une communaute" de Meaux, il lui disait l'adieu d'usage, ' Priez
Dieu pour moi,' comme cette superieure lui repondit : ' Que
lui demanderai-je ? ' il repliqua : ' Que je n'aie point de com
plaisance pour le monde. ' " — Nouvcaux Lundis, vol. ii. p. 340.
De Maistre says of Bossuet : ' ' Jamais l'autorite n'eut de plus
grand, ni surtout de plus integre defenseur. La cour etait pour
lui un veritable sanctuaire, oil il ne voyait que la puissance divine
dans la personne du Roi. La gloire de Louis XIV. et son ab-
solue autorite ravissaient le prelat, comme si elles lui avaient ap-
partenu en propre. II loue le monarque, du fond d'un cceur
devoue; il ne loue que parce qu'il admire; et sa louange est
toujours parfaitement sincere ; elle part d'une certaine foi mon-
archique, qu'ont sent mieux qu'on ne la peut definir; et son ad
miration est communicative, car il n'y a rien qui persuade comme
la persuasion. La soumission de Bossuet n'a rien d'avilissant,
parce qu'elle est purement chretienne. L'obeissance qu'il preche
au peuple est une ob&sance d'amour, qui ne rabaisse point
I'homme."— De rEglise Galli. L. ii. c. 12.

FLATTERY.

93

were those of a profuse, fulsome adulation, such as in
our day would be considered almost an insult to those
to whom it was offered. It was the custom for preachers
and orators to lavish words of flattery upon their
noble, especially their royal hearers, which, if inter
preted as having any real meaning, would lead us to
invest with every grace and virtue men and women
whose lives were often glaringly opposed to all that
is saintly or even religious. One would not for a
moment defend such unreal expressions, nor even
excuse them on the ground that they were generally
altogether conventional ; but it is satisfactory to note
their absence as a rule from the religious utterances of
so great a man as Bossuet. Not that even he is quite
free from compliments or attributing more to royal
personages than we can honestly feel to be borne out
by facts, — but one must keep in mind the habits and
exigencies of the time, and moreover note how any
such conventional laudations are qualified, or turned
to some high-toned lesson. One of Bossuet's plain-
spoken addresses to the Queen Mother has been
already quoted. So again, on All Saints' Day 1669,
preaching before Louis XIV., he boldly says : — " Ye
shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
Majesty, of a truth, is never extinguished, — it descends
from one to another — Le roi ne meurt jamais, we say ;
and the image of God is immortal, but nevertheless

94 BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.
the man falls, dies, and his glory does not follow him
to the grave. Not so with the immortal citizens of
the heavenly country — they are as gods, they can die
no more, they can neither deceive nor be deceived.
. . ." And after continuing in this strain awhile, he
concludes, " Sire, he were abhorred of God and men
who failed to desire your glory even in this life, or who
refused to strive to promote it with all his heart. But
assuredly it were to be faithless and a traitor to your
Majesty, were I to limit my desires on your behalf to
this perishable world. May you then live ever happy,
ever successful, victorious over your enemies, the
father of your people. But may you also live ever
worthy, just, humble, and pious, ever stedfast in yom
religion and faithful to the Church. So we shall ever
see in you a noble king, crowned alike in this world
and the next." '
And again, on Advent Sunday 1665, " What, Sire,
will it avail you to have thus achieved the glory of
France, ... if, after the world and history have re
echoed your name, you are found wanting in those
other works which only are valuable in God's Sight and
written in the Book of Life ? This day's Gospel has
set before your Majesty the amazement of the terrified
world in that dreadful day when the Lord Jesus Christ
shall come in His Majesty. If the stars, the elements,
1 OZuvres, vol. viii, pp. 39, 51.

SERMON ON FINAL IMPENITENCE. 95
and the mighty works of creation which God seems to
have framed to endure for ever are then to crumble,
what will become of the works of man's hands ? Will
not that devouring fire consume cities and fortresses,
palaces and all pleasant places, — inscriptions and
titles, history itself— until all monuments of all kings
are but a heap of ashes ? Can men attribute to them
selves any real greatness in that which will one day
be nought save dust? There must indeed be other
greatness, other annals ! " *
In the second week of Lent, 1662, preaching on
Final Impenitence, Bossuet speaks in these plain
words to the King : —
" Ah, could I lay bare before you here the heart
of a Nebuchadnezzar or a Belshazzar, of a Nero
or a Domitian, you would behold with horror and
trembling what comes in high places from forget-
fulness of God, and the terrible misfortune of having
none set over you. Thence it is that lust ever refines
and feeds upon itself. Thence spring all the nameless
forms of avarice, voluptuousness, and pride which are
paraded before the face of men. So long as all the
world applauds, it is easy to excuse one's self; and once
given up to such license, a man reckons as a virtue
each crime which he fails to commit, each sin from
which he abstains. And what is the cause of all this ?
1 Vol. viii. p. 113.

96 BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.
Excessive power, fertile in crime, license, the parent
of all excess : ' Thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever,
so that thou diist not lay these things to thy heart,
neither didst remember the latter end of it' (Isa.
xlvii. 7)."1
On Palm Sunday, 1662, in the presence of all the
Court, Bossuet boldly preached to Louis XIV. on the
Duty of Kings. After dwelling awhile on the special
topic of the day, " Behold thy King cometh unto thee,"
he turns to the Royal personage, saying, " Sire, I be
seech your Majesty to set before yourself this day Jesus
Christ, the King of kings, the Great High Priest, as
placing His Gospel on your head and in your hands :
on your head, to teach you obedience ; in your hands,
to teach it to your subjects."2 And a little further
on : " How great the wrong if kings seek pleasures
which God forbids; if they turn against Him the powers
He commits to them; if they break the laws which they
are bound to maintain. This is the great overwhelming
danger of the great ones of the earth. They are bound
to combat their passions like other men ; but beyond
all other men they are bound to resist their own power.
For inasmuch as some restraining influence is neces
sary to all men, those in power, to whom all else
yields, are bound to put restraint upon themselves.
No man is fit to exercise power save he who is most
1 Vol. ix. p. 184. ' Ibid. p. 620.

ROYAL WARNINGS. 97
reticent in using it. . . . Sire, be faithful to God, and
do not hinder the great things He has in store for you
by your sins." J Such passages might be indefinitely
multiplied, and perhaps some of the most striking
occur in the more historical orations, to which we shall
return, e.g. when he says of Anne de Gonzague, the
Princess Palatine (whose intrigues during the war of
the Fronde had won her no honourable fame before her
conversion at the age of fifty-six), that she possessed
"all the virtues which people hell;"2 or the more
attractive description of our unhappy Queen Henrietta
Maria : " Despising thrones which may be usurped,
she fixed her heart on the Kingdom where no one fears
to find their equals, and where there is no jealousy of
rivals."3 Nor was it to royalty alone that the preacher
— who, as Gault de Saint-Germain said, " was laying
the foundations of a lofty Christian philosophy" among
his contemporaries — pressed home the stern truths
which could scarcely come acceptably to the luxurious,
self-indulgent, often profligate courtiers, both men
and women, to whom he was too often, it is to be
feared, but " as the song of one that hath a very plea
sant voice, and can play well on an instrument, for
1 QZuvres, vol. ix. pp. 624-635.
a " Toutes les vertus dont l'enfer est rempli. " — Vol. xii. p. 541.
3 " Dedaignant les tr&nes qui peuvent etre usurpes, elle attacha
son affection au royaume ou l'on ne craint point d'avoir des
egaux, et ou l'on voit sans jalousie des concurrens." — Ibid. p. 465.
G

98 BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.
they hear thy words, but they do them not" (Ezek.
xxxiii. 32).
The spirit of the world, and more especially as it
prevails in a Court life, is continually attacked. Thus:
" You gain nothing by not swallowing the whole
draught of profligacy at once, if you sip it gradually ;
if, well-nigh unconsciously, you let your heart be filled
with the subtle contagion which one breathes in with
the very atmosphere of the world's customs and conver
sation. Who can pretend to describe all the perils of
the world ? That subtle and dangerous master keeps
open school without dogmatising ; it has its own pecu
liar way of stamping its impressions on the unthinking,
without any attempt to prove them. As many men as
we hold converse with, so many propagandists of the
world's teaching we encounter. Our enemies through
fear, and our friends through kindness, alike instil
false notions of good and evil. All the common talk
of society commends ambition, without which a man
is not of the world, or a false gallantry, without which
he is esteemed stupid. . . . One while it is a clever
joke, another the seductive description of a bad
action, which gives us a quietly unconscious impres
sion. . . . This kind of seduction is almost universal
in the world, so that if you turn to Tertullian, he will
tell you that the very air is infected with its antichris-

WORLDLINESS. 99

tian corrupt maxims."1 The idle vanity which affects
youthfulness as years roll on is severely handled ;2 the
excesses of dress and personal vanity in women ;3 the
" mortal lethargy" which deadens the worldly soul to
its true interests, while it is lively and active on the
world's side;* the shrinking from exposure of slander,
injustice, meanness before men, and the callous indif
ference to God as a witness thereof;3 the extreme
carelessness as to Sacraments and holy things charac
teristic of courtiers, " who know not what they believe
or disbelieve, ready to grant anything you will, so long
as you let them please themselves and lead the life
they like;"6 each in turn comes under the preacher's
condemnation. One sermon, already referred to, on Final Impeni
tence,7 may fairly be bracketed with Massillon's cele
brated " Mauvais Riche." After describing the career
of Dives, Bossuet says : " Such is the life of a man of
the world, and almost all those who are before me now
will, if they do not beware, find themselves in much
the same case. . . . Plenty, prosperity, an easy and
voluptuous life, are often compared in Holy Writ to an
impetuous torrent which cannot be stayed, and which
flows downward unable to bear its own impetus."
' CEuvres, vol. ix. p. 45. 2 Ibid. vol. viii. p. 85.
3 Ibid. vol. ix. pp. 292, 495. * Ibid. p. 92.
s Ibid. p. 96. 6 Ibid. p. 185.
1 1bid. p. 178.

BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.

Then, after a vivid picture of this restless, dissatisfied,
futile life, Bossuet says, " Such, if I mistake not, is a
true description of the worldly life, and of Court life.
But, O man of weighty affairs, you who play so impor
tant a part in the world's great comedy, what are you
doing for the greatest of all business, that of Eternity ?
All other cares should yield to this. How do you
stand therein ?" . . . " One of the greatest evils of a
worldly life is that it is always hurried. I hear men
of the world say daily that they have no time — hours
and days fleet by, and in this perpetual movement
the most important of all cares — their salvation — is
lost sight of."
Surely there is both grandeur and eloquence in his
apostrophe to the Atheists, whom he knew abounded
in Louis XIV.'s Court, and whom he warned that, let
them affect to disbelieve as they would, their Eternity
was an inevitable fact. " Hommes sensuels, qui ne
renoncez k la vie future que parce que vous craignez
les justes supplices, n'esperez plus au neant; Non,
non, n'y esperez plus. Voulez-le, ne la voulez pas,
VOTRE ETERNITE VOUS EST ASSUR^E." *
The sermons on the "Love of Pleasure,"2 on
" Earthly Judgments," 3— in which some most striking
passages concerning our indulgence in judging our
selves and our severity to others occur — that on
' CEuvres, vol. viii. p. 50. 2 Ibid. vol. ix. p. 199. 3 Ibid. p. 272.

Elevations.

Slander, ' and the fourth sermon for Easter Day,2 are
good specimens of Bossuet's special style of preaching
to perhaps the most brilliant, superficial, and luxurious
congregation any man ever addressed. There are also
a large number addressed to Religious, of which some
twelve were preached at vetures and prises de voile.
These are of a gentler, less stern character than those
addressed to the Court, as might be expected. There
is also a volume 3 of what Bossuet called Elivations,
which were a familiar exposition of some psalm or
passage of Holy Scripture, intended to help the good
Religious to whom they were given in their meditations,
rather than sermons. These last are well adapted, in
their published form, for meditation — each Elevation
occupies about -a. page, and they are divided into
twenty-five weeks, — the number of Elevations for
each week varying considerably.
No one can take up Bossuet's sermons without
being struck by the extent to which he quotes Holy
Scripture :4 every discourse is full of passages often
1 CEuvres, vol. ix. p. 350. * Ibid. vol. x. p. 1 64.
3 Ibid. vol. vii.
4 "Bossuet veut que le predicateur fasse parler Jesus Christ,
qu'il puise tout dans les Saintes Ecritures; qu'il en emprunte
meme les termes sacres, non-seulement pour fortifier, mais pour
embellir son discours. II demande que le desir de gagner les
ames ne leur fasse chercher que les choses et les sentiments." —
Vaillant, Eludes, p. 166.
" La Bible, ce Iivre divin, qui naguere illuminant son adoles-

BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.

most striking in their thoughtful application; nor does
he at all confine himself to the more obvious and
commonly cited portions of the Sacred Writings —
every part is used, and in a way which brings forcibly
to an attentive reader the impression of an extra
ordinarily familiar, minute, and reflective knowledge
of the Bible on Bossuet's part. His sermons are
often almpst a paraphrase of it.
So too with the Fathers. The enormous amount
of quotations from their writings indicates the
thorough familiarity with his patristic library, which
we know he possessed. S. Augustine was, as has been
said, Bossuet's favourite author,1 and you can hardly
cence, lui vint reveler un monde nouveau, et d'annee en annee
lui est devenu cher de plus en plus ; la Bible, lue, relue chaque
jour, scrutee, penetree, est pour l'ardent docteur une merveil-
leuse et inepuisable source d'instruction, de bonheur. . . . Imbu
ainsi des Saintes Ecritures, quelle grandeur devait emprunter
d'eux son genie ! . . . son fond, c'est d'etre nourri de 1'F.criture,
d'en tirer l'esprit, d'en prendre les plus hauts principes, de les
manier en maitre," etc. — Floquet, vol. i. p. 230.
1 " Son admiration pour 'ce maitre si mattre' se devait, pen
dant sa vie, toute entiere, epancher chaque jour, sans s'epuiser
jamais." — Ibid. p. 233.
The Abbe Le Dieu says :—
" Quand il avoit un sermon a faire a son peuple, avec sa Bible
il me demandoit Saint Augustin; quand il avoit une erreur a
combattre, un point de foi a etablir, illisoit Saint Augustin. On
le voyoit courir rapidement sur tous les ouvrages de ce Pere propres
a ce sujet." — Mimoires, vol. i. p. 51.

SOURCES OF QUOTATION. 103

open upon a page in which he is not cited ; next to
him, TertuUian is the most copiously used. You will
scarcely find one sermon in which he is not quoted.
SS. Chrysostom, Gregory Nazianzen, Bernard, Gregory
the Great, and Ambrose come next in the scale of
frequent reference : SS. Clement of Alexandria, Cyril,
Gregory Nyssen, Hilary, Leo, Peter Chrysologus,
Jerome, Basil, Cyprian, Paulinus of Nola, frequently;
so also, though more rarely, Origen, Justin Martyr, S.
Athanasius, S. Gregory Thaumaturgus, and S. Irenaeus,
and occasionally the less familiar writers, S. Pacian,
S. John Climachus, S. Optatus, S. Avitus, S. Diony-
sius, S. Hormisdas, S. Prosper, S. Eucharius of
Lyons, S. Denys the Areopagite, Hincmar, Pope
Innocent I., Lactantius, Sulpitius Severus, Philo the
Jew, Arnobius, Salvian, S. Fulgentius, Richard
of St. Victor, S. Thomas of Villeneuve, and various
other less-known early writers.1 Historians, such as
Eusebius, Theodoret, Cassiodorus, Josephus, are
often referred to ; Councils are freely quoted,
and from time to time Sallust, Cssar, Tacitus,
Pliny, Seneca, Plutarch, Cicero, Lucian, Juvenal,
Quintus Curtius, and Plato, for quoting which last
classical author Bossuet makes a sort of apology :
1 All these writers are mentioned regardless of chronology,
but rather with respect to the use made of them by Bossuet.

104 BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.
"Ne vous etonnez pas si je cite ce philosophe en
chaire."1 It was rather later than this that La Bruyere wrote
(1687) : " II y a moins d'un siecle qu'un livre frangais
etait un certain nombre de pages latines oh l'on de-
couvrait quelques lignes on quelques mots de notre
langue. Les passages, les traits et les citations n'en
etaient pas restes la. Ovide et Catulle achevaient de
decider des mariages et des testaments et venaient,
avec les Pandectes, au secours de la veuve et des
1 CEuvres, vol. ix. p. 565.
The Abbe Vaillant gives an interesting sketch of the abuse
of classical allusions at this period : —
"La chaire, au commencement du xviie siecle, et jusqu'au
temps de Bossuet, semblait rivaliser avec l'ecole en pedantisme
et en subtilites. II n'y a pas d'ecrivain si obscur, ni de poete si
licencieux que les ministres de la parole sainte n'osassent citer
aux pieuses femmes qui formaient leur auditoires, et les citations
Etaient si longues et si frequentes, que les fideles ne devaient pas
savoir quelle langue parlait l'orateur. . . . Lorsqu'on eut epuise
les citations, les distinctions, les divisions et les subdivisions, la
mode changea. On eut recours aux fleurs de la rhetorique — le
langage des ruelles remplaca l'idiome barbare de la scholastique.
De la, ce triple abus que nous pouvons signaler dans les discours
de la chaire au commencement du xvir2 siecle ; abus de l'erudi-
tion profane, abus de la theologie, abus de la rhetorique; non
pas que ces trois choses ne soient belles et utiles, elles sont meme
indispensable a l'orateur sacre, mais quel est le don du ciel dont
l'esprit ne puisse abuser ? On s'en convaincra en se reportant a
l'epoque ou Bossuet commenca sa carriere apostolique, et en
comparant ses travaux avec ceux de ses devanciers. " — Etudes,
p. 140.

CLASSICAL ALLUSIONS. 105

pupilles : le sacre et le profane ne se quittaient point;
ils s'etaient glisses ensemble jusque dans la chaire ;
Saint Cyrille, Horace, Saint Cyprien, Lucrece, par-
laient alternativement. Les poetes etaient de l'avis
de Saint Augustin et de tous les Peres. On parlait
latin et longtemps grec devant des femmes et des
marguilliers, on a parie grec; il fallait savoir pro-
digieusement pour pre'cher si mal."1
One can scarce wonder at Bossuet's apology with
this criticism, and with some of the grotesque illus
trations of pedantic classical quotation, given by the
Abbe Vaillant, before one's eyes ; or that, as he grew
older, many of the quotations in his earlier MSS. are
erased. Yet most certainly Bossuet's style and the
beauty of his poetical imaginations were very much
gathered from his thorough classical knowledge : " II
allait se chauffer devant le soleil d'Homere, comme il
le disait lui-mSme," says the Abbe Vaillant, " et quels
traits admirables il doit a ses souvenirs de Virgile !"
In truth he dug deep into the mine of antiquity, and
using its stores as the heritage of Christianity, antici
pated the beautiful lines of a poet dear to England : —
"Immortal Greece, dear land of glorious lays,
Lol here the 'unknown God' of thy unconscious praise:
The olive wreath, the ivied wand,
The sword in myrtles drest,
De la Chaire, c. xv.

106 BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.
Each legend of the shadowy strand
Now wakes a vision blest ;
As little children lisp and tell of Heaven,
So thoughts beyond their thought to these high Bards were
given. And these are ours : Thy partial grace
The tempting treasure lends :
These relics of a guilty race
Are forfeit to thy friends ;
What seem'd an idol hymn now breathes of Thee,
Tuned by Faith's ear to some celestial melody."
Perhaps we may be excused, before leaving this
subject, for quoting one of M. Sainte Beuve's clear,
interesting criticisms. "Bossuet," he says, "knew
Greek, but the thing which he knew thoroughly, ad
mirably, as a mother tongue, was Latin — and that all
sorts of Latin, Cicero as well as TertuUian and Saint
Augustin. He was perfectly at home in it — he spoke
it, he argued in the schools in it, he wrote Latin
letters to the foreign prelates with whom he corre
sponded, the copious notes with which he covered the
margin of his books were generally in Latin. It was,
thanks to this thorough knowledge of Latin and the
excellent use to which he put it, that Bossuet poured
forth such a new, full, substantial French language —
so original, yet so true to its roots. Nor is it only in
the detail of expression, or word, that we feel the
influence of Latinity, it is also in the fulness of the
sentences, the combination and juxtaposition of

UNITY OF STYLE.

107

phrases — in fact in its every attitude. . . . Bossuet
often reinstates words in their full and primary Latin
purity by the use to which he puts them, reviv
ing, so to say, their flavour and life. Even when
not absolutely eloquent, his language, like that of
Cato and Lucretius, may be called docta et cordata, —
free from all feebleness : this I should select as Bos
suet's chief characteristic. ... Of all men Bossuet has (
the mind which comprehends most fully, with most
enlightenment, and most entirely, the world of moral,
political, civil, and religious doctrines, and who excels (
most in setting them forth with clearness, brilliancy,
and splendour, looking at them from the most exalted
or central point of view. Like the ruler and king
of his sphere, he gathers them together, develops all
their springs, combines all their movements, and
brings forth their respective harmonies, like the stops
of a huge organ in a vast cathedral nave. But, at the
same time, his is a mind which does not quit that
nave, that well-filled sphere — a mind which feels no
need to go out thence, which practically originates
nothing, and never innovates. He abhors novelty,
disturbance, and change : in a word, he is the grandest
and most sovereign organ and interpreter of all that
is primordial and established." '
The only modern author2 quoted in Bossuet's ser-
1 Nouveau Lundis, vol. ii. p. 349.
» Bossuet says himself, " I have not read many French

io8 BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.
mons, as far as I am aware, is the historian Tillemont,
and that once only. Various other references are
frequently made to different authors very little known,
and it would hardly be possible to read one sermon
without detecting that the author was a man of con
siderable reading. It is to be remarked that Bossuet
more often than not quotes the original passage of
which he is making use, and his MSS. are freely
written over in Greek. We are told by the Abbe Le
Dieu that he wrote Greek freely and rapidly, but not
always very legibly.
The amount of marginal notes attached to his
sermons written after the Metz period show how care
fully and attentively they were prepared and revised.
Probably they often served to guide him in introduc
ing some fresh train of thought, or in enlarging a par
ticular point. Thus we find, in a sermon on Brotherly
Love, a marginal note to this effect: —
" On ne peut jamais aimer le prochain sans aimer
Dieu. " L'aimer sincerement, c'est l'aimer comme nous, et
non pour nous.
" II n'y a que Dieu qui doive aimer tout pour soi-
meme.
books ;'' and then, after mentioning de Balzac and the "Lettres
au Provincial," he says, "The books and prefaces of the Port-
Royalists are worth reading for their gravity et grandew." —
tEuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 108.

MARGINAL NOTES. 109
" Amour de societe et non amour d'interet
" Pour cela, il faut etre detache de soi-meme.
" Nulle creature ne merite qu'on se detache de soi-
meme pour elle, et l'on ne peut pas faire cet effort
pour la creature.
"Mais Dieu estinfiniment au dessus de nous: apres
I'effort de l'aimer plus que soi-meme, on peut faire
celui d'aimer le prochain comme soi-meme.
" On trouve, en reunissant a Dieu tout son amour,
une abondance infinie qui ensuite peut se repandre sur
tous les hommes sans exception.
" Sans cette abondance d'amitie, l'amitie n'est que
partialite et degenere en cabale.
" Prendre garde de ne gater jamais ni de detourner
en nous la source de de l'amour." *
Again among the notes similarly added to a Good
Friday sermon :—
" Tout est mysterieux dans la passion du Fils de
Dieu. Caiphe prophetise ; Pilate le declare Roi des
Juifs, rex Judceorum; le peuple demande que son
sang tombe sur lui, sanguis super nos, par la ven
geance, par la redemption ; il ne veut point de
celui-ci, mais il lui prefere Barabbas : Non hunc sed
Barabbem; l'innocent pour le pe"cheur ! c'est ce que fait
le Pere celeste. Non il ne nous faut pas Barabbas, il
nous faut un innocent" '
1 CEuvres, vol. ix. p. 241. 2 Ibid. vol. x. p. 40.

BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.

Sometimes these notes have reference to some
sermon of Bossuet's own, or to some idea elsewhere
expressed by him.
Bossuet very rarely tells any anecdote or story in
his sermons, as was so generally done among preachers
of that date. • One of the few exceptions to this
is in his great Panegyrique de Saint Joseph, which
he himself (according to the Abbe Le Dieu) con
sidered one of the best he ever preached. In that
sermon he tells a graceful and touching story from S.
Gregory of Tours, concerning a noble husband and
wife in Auvergne, who had lived together in perfect
purity, till, coming to die, they were buried in different
places at some distance one from the other. But,
strange to record, they could not endure this separa
tion, even in death, and without interference from
mortal hand, suddenly their graves were brought
together and united. The peasants around were
wont to call these graves " the lovers' graves." T
On another occasion Bossuet opened a sermon
upon our Lord's words to S. John, " Behold thy
Mother," with narrating how " a certain philosopher
dying without leaving wherewith to maintain his
family, bethought him of making a will, by which he
left the care of his wife and children to his most
intimate friend, believing, so the historian (Lucian)
1 CEuvres, vol. xii. p. 116.

SERMON ON DEA TH.

says, that he could not better do honour to the
generosity of one to whom he, dying, left such a
proof of confidence." The application cf this story is
obvious.1 But I do not remember any other similar
instance. Neither does he abound in similes or
quaint illustrations, like S. Francis de Sales and
others, who continually bring forward all manner of
natural parables, and curious bits of historical or
physiological parallels — many of them beautiful in
themselves, but not in strict accordance with scientific
facts. As a whole Bossuet's language is remarkably
correct and relevant ; earnest and pointed as it con
stantly is, he very seldom seems to depend upon
"raising an effect," and yet there is a force and
pathos in many of his utterances which must often
have riveted the attention even of the frivolous men
and women of Louis XIV.'s Court, and made them,
like Felix, tremble. What, for instance, can be
grander or more impressive than his Sermon on
Death, preached on a Friday in Lent 1666, before the
King, when, after beginning in a half mournful satire
by the question,- — " Dare I crave permission to open a
grave before the Court, and will not such fastidious eyes
be averted from so gloomy a subject ? I do not think,
sirs, that Christians ought to refuse to gaze upon this
sight with Jesus Christ, for it was to Him that it was
' CEuvres, vol. xi. p. 346.

112 BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.
said, ' Lord, come and see ; ' see where the body is
laid — He it was Who bade move the stone, He in His
turn bids us ' Come, and see,' " — he goes on in words
which must have fallen with terrible force on those
vain, sinful men and women, whose lives seemed
moulded on the " reasoning of the ungodly," and who
scarce appear to have realised any precept of Holy
Writ save the bitter irony of King Solomon, " Come
on, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are
present; and let us fill ourselves with costly wine and
ointments, and let no flower of the spring pass by us.
Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds, before they be
withered, let none of us go without his part of volup
tuousness, let us leave tokens of our joyfulness in
every place, for this is our portion, and our lot is this ?"
(Wisd. ii. 6-9.)
" Strange weakness of human nature," Bossuet goes
on, " that death is never really present to it, although
presented on every side and in every shape. . . . When
their fellows die, men are in great haste to bury the
inevitable thought of death, as to bury those that are
dead. Yet among all earthly passions, one of the
strongest is the craving for knowledge, and thanks to
that craving, men exhaust themselves in striving to
read the secrets of nature. . . . Therefore, Christians,
I bid you ' come and see.' Come and see what mor
tal life is, come and see what man is. You may

APOSTROPHISES LOUIS XIV. 113
marvel that I bid you gaze on death that you may
learn what is life ; but look into the tomb, and confess
that there is no truer interpretation, no more faithful
mirror of man's course. The construction of a com
plex object is never so clearly seen as by the separa
tion of its parts ; and truly the union of soul and body
leads us to invest the body with more than it really
has, and to take somewhat away from the soul ; but
when they part asunder, and the body returns to the
earth, while the soul goes back to God from whence
it came, we see what each really is in its simplicity.
. . . Come then and behold humanity in the grave of
Lazarus ; behold alike the end of all your aims and
the beginning of all your hopes ; behold the dissolu
tion and the renewal of your being ; behold the triumph
of life even when death seems victorious. ' Come and
see.'" And then, turning to the Sovereign, he bursts forth
with the personal address : " Sire, a monarch, even
David, pondered these things on his throne : they are
worthy of your hearing. ' Behold Thou hast made
my days as a span long, and mine age is even as
nothing in respect of Thee.' O Eternal King of Ages ;
Who art ever the Same, Who changest not, Illimitable,
Everlasting, — verilymineage isas nothing in Thy Sight;
— all that has a limit is as nothing; for when that limit is
reached one final instant causes it to be as though it
11

, 1 14 BOSSUE T AS A PREA CHER.
had never been. Were your days prolonged like those
venerable oaks beneath which our ancestors rested,
and which yet overshadow us ; or heap up what you
will of honour, riches, pleasure ; what matters it, since
the faint fluttering grasp of death will overthrow all
your pomp in an instant, as though it were but a child's
house of cards ? . . . Every vestige will be erased for
ever ; your flesh will change its nature, your body will
be called by another name, and, as TertuUian says,
' even that of corpse will not long cleave to it ; it will
soon become a something which has no name in any
tongue.' * What of a truth, O great God, is my sub
stance ? I do but enter upon life to quit it ; like my
fellow-men, I appear only to disappear. Everything
speaks to us of death. Nature herself, as though well-
nigh envious of the gift she gave us, is for ever remind
ing us that the little heap of material clay she lends us is
but for a brief season ours ; that she will soon reclaim
it — it is not to remain long in the same hands, she needs
it for other forms. This perpetual renewing of the
human race, the ever-rising generation who shove us
aside and assert their turn, warns us how, even as we
see one generation pass, another will see us pass, and
1 " Post totum ignobilitatis elogium, caducae in originem ter
rain, et cadaveris nomen ; et de isto quoque nomine periturae in
nullum inde jam nomen, in omnis jam vocabuli mortem." — De
Resurrect, ii. 4.

NOTHINGNESS OF LIFE. 115

they in like wise must do the same. My God, what
are we ! If I look before me, how fearful the infinity
where I am not ! if I look backward, how vast the
space where equally I am not ! and what a mere speck
I fill in this boundless abyss of time ! Nothing ! That
brief interval can scarcely separate me from nothing
ness. I was sent as one of many, — I was not needed,
and the world's tragedy were no less played out had
I never appeared upon its theatre ! Follow out a yet
closer chain of thought, and you will see that it is not
even the compass of your whole life which divides you
from this nothingness — it is never more than one brief
moment. Now we possess that moment — as I speak
it passes away, and with it we too should pass did we
not unconsciously seize hold of the next, and so on,
until at last a moment will come to which we cannot
cleave, howsoever earnestly we reach forth, and then
we fall. . . . Truly mine age is as nothing in respect
of Thee!"
What can be more suggestive than the startlingly
graphic sentence in which, after proving that man's
weak body could never maintain his pre-eminence in
creation were it not for the Inbreathing of the Holy
Spirit, the Image of God, the ray from His Face,
which conveys a superiority to all the rest of nature,
he goes on to describe the soul, plunged within its
material shell, wedded so indissolubly to all the pas-

116 BOSSUET AS A PREACHER.
sions of that body, failing, maddened, desperate when
that body suffers, yet perceiving by some invisible light
that it nevertheless has its own inherent happiness? —
" so that there are times when, reckless of all that fills
the senses, the passions, of well-nigh all that appertains
to the nature of man, the soul can and does cry out,
' To die is gain ! I rejoice in my sufferings !' (Col.
i. 24.) Surely this is indeed a ray from God's Own
Countenance, which kindles that inner light within the
soul, and proves that there is somewhat in man which
cannot die, since God has made him capable of find
ing happiness even in death !"
How must such words have fallen on the cold pride,
the hard indifference, the resolute self-seeking of many
who surrounded the monarch to whom such burning
words were uttered ! How many turned away, cold,
hard, voluptuous still? And to how many was the
restless thought that would not be hushed, suggested,
until, as in Louise de la Valliere,1 it should work out
the blessed fruits of repentance? Man will never
know until the Judgment Day unfolds all secrets.
' It was in that same year, 1666, that Mme. de la Valliere gave
birth to her daughter, Mademoiselle de Blois, afterwards Prin-
cesse de Conti, and also lost her first child, Louis de Bourbon.

BOSSUET'S DWELLING. 117

CHAPTER III.
BOSSUET IN PARIS.
Bossuet's Dwelling and Friends — Death of the Due de
Foix — Exposition de la Doctrine Catholique — Turenne
— Panegyriques — Bossuet resigns the Archdeaconry of
Metz to his Father — Priory of Gassicourt — Death of
Bishop Bedacier — Port-Royal— Jansenius — The Five
Propositions — The Arnaulds — Archbishop Perefixe—
Death of Anne of Austria — Nicole's Perpetuite de la
Foi — The Mons Testament — Letters to the Marechal
de Bellefonds— Faculty of Theology — Bossuet ap
pointed Bishop of Condom — Queen Henrietta Maria
of England — Her Escape to France — Murder of
Charles I. — The Queen's Death — Her Funeral Oration
— Henriette d'Angleterre, Duchess of Orleans, be
comes Bossuet's Pupil — Her Sudden Death — Her
Funeral Oration — Impression on the Paris World —
Madame de la Valliere.
THESE years of Court popularity and fame, when
Bossuet was at the height of his vigour and
intellectual power, were spent at the Doyenne de
Saint Thomas du Louvre, where he lived with the
Abbe Lameth, its doyen, afterwards Cure of Saint
Eustache. They had been college friends, and their
friendship never slackened. To that quiet home

118 BOSSUET IN PARIS.
Bossuet could retire from the bustle and glare of the
Paris world, and steep his soul in devotion and his
favourite studies amid the companionship of congenial
minds. His chief associates at this time seem to have
been du Plessis de la Brunetiere, afterwards Bishop of
Saintes, d'Hoquincourt, later on Bishop of Verdun,
Tallemant, S. Laurent, and a few others, all like him
self ardent in their Master's service. His association
with the great world amidst which he lived seems to
have been connected with religious duties only. He
was the intimate friend and director of the Due de
Foix, and when in 1665 this young noble sickened of
small-pox, and sent for Bossuet, he did not hesitate,
but excusing himself to the King, before whom he
was to have preached the coming Advent station, he
hastened to the desolate patient (the young Duchess *
had died but a few months before), and remained with
him to the last, soothing his great sufferings with all
the consolations of religion.
It was during his residence at Saint Thomas du
Louvre that Bossuet wrote his "Exposition de la
Doctrine Catholique,"2 which he was partly induced to
write in consequence of the influence his refutation of
Paul Ferry had had among the Protestants of Metz, and
1 Madeleine d'Ailly, who died in giving birth to her first child,
August 3, 1665, at the age of seventeen.
2 CEuvres, vol. xiii,

THE EXPOSITION. 119

partly for the more immediate benefit and instruction
of de Dangeau, a grandson of Duplessis Mornay, who
became a Catholic in 1668. It had also a great share
in bringing Turenne from out the errors of Calvinism,1
and at the ripe age of fifty-seven, the great General
submitted himself as a meek disciple to be instructed
in the mysteries of the faith by one whom he owned
for a greater captain in a nobler warfare than that in
which he had won his own laurels. The " Exposition "
was for some time circulated in MS. only, and it
was not till r67r that Bossuet was induced by
Turenne himself to publish it. It was translated into
Latin by the historian Fleury.
At this time Bossuet preached several of his
celebrated "Panegyriques," as they were called, or
sermons on some particular historical personage. One
of these, on S. Andrew, was spoken before Turenne
soon after his conversion (November 30, 1668), and
made a deep impression on him. In it the preacher
spoke a sentence which has comforted many a droops
ing heart: — "When God intends to sho.w that any
1 Turenne was greatly impressed by an occurrence in February
1661, when a great fire threatening to destroy the Louvre, the
Blessed Sacrament was carried from Saint Germain l'Auxerrois
to the spot, accompanied by the King and various grandees. The
fire was immediately quenched, and Turenne was heard exclaim
ing, " Je l'ai vu, je n'en saurais douter, je l'ai vu." — Floquet,
Etudes, vol. iii. p. 205.

BOSSUET IN PARIS.

work is solely His, He lets helplessness and despair
overpower us, and then He acts." *
People marvelled all these years that so distinguished
a man was not fixed at Paris by some honourable ap
pointment, and, as is the way of the world, it was
reported that Bossuet was to fill almost every post
of importance that fell vacant. The cure of Saint
Eustache was offered to him, but he managed to get
the appointment transferred to his friend the Abbe de
la Met, Dean of Saint Thomas du Louvre, who, he said,
was older and worthier than himself. So too, when a
vacancy seemed about to occur at Saint Sulpice, Henri
de Bourbon (who, though no longer titular Bishop of
Metz, was still Abbot of Saint Germain-des-Pres, and
as such had the appointment of the Cure of Saint
Sulpice) proposed to give it to Bossuet. But the
actual Cure, de Pousse, recovered from his dangerous
illness, and before a vacancy was made Bossuet was
otherwise engaged. Mgr. Bedacier had resigned the
Priory of Gassicourt to him, and this Bossuet retained
until just before his death (it was worth six thousand
livres of yearly income); but he was not ambitious
either of dignities or money, and when in 1662 the
Deanery of Metz became vacant, and the King recom-
' " Quand Dieu veut faire voir qu'un ouvrage est tout de sa
main, il reduit tout a l'impuissance et au desespoir, puis II
agit." — CEuvres, vol. xii. p. 6.

ELECTED DEAN OF METZ.

mended the Chapter to elect their Archdiacre, which
they proceeded to do, he declined in favour of an old
Canon Royer, who greatly desired the post1 He,
however, only lived two years, and in September
1 664 Bossuet succeeded him by unanimous election,
only one vote not being for him, and that one was his
own; and curiously enough, at the same time he resigned
the Archdeaconry of Metz to his father, who, having
become a widower, had received Deacon's Orders.
Bossuet was not installed until August 22, 1665, and
immediately afterwards he conducted his father to his
stall, and inducted him as Archdeacon, for which office
Priest's Orders were not necessary. The Register of
the Chapter of Metz speaks of the Dean as " Os
Capituli." The old man died in September 1667.
Bossuet was at Metz at the time, and just about to
preach in the Cathedral, when tidings were brought
him that his father had been seized with apoplexy.
He desired that the congregation might be informed,
and immediately went to his father, to whom he
administered the last Sacraments, and received his
parting breath.
The Bishop of Augustopolis was already dead ; he
died October 19, 1660, while on a journey between
1 Le Dieu says that he wrote to Bossuet, saying, " Laissez-moi,
par gi&ce, passer avant vous, je suis vieux, vous etes jeune ; — vous
viendrez apres moi au doyenne, et dans peu de temps, car je
vous promets de ne le point retenir plus de deux annees. "

BOSSUET IN PARIS.

Paris and Metz. He was taken ill at Chateau-Thierry,
and wrote off immediately to entreat Bossuet to come
and soothe his last moments. But, like many another
eminent literary man, Bossuet had a bad habit of
neglecting to open his letters regularly, and amid the
press of his engagements poor Bishop Bedacier's letter
remained unopened for several days. Fortunately for
Bossuet's peace of mind, the error was rectified while
there was yet time for him to travel to Charmel, where
the Bishop had been removed by the Comte de
Charmel; — to find his old friend alive, and to minister
to his last hours ; and after this loss Bossuet was even
more constant than he had been before in returning to
Metz as often as the repeated claims on his oratory
admitted. These claims were continually becoming
more urgent The Archbishop of Paris, Mgr. Perefixe,1
was continually seeking his co-operation and advice,
and frequently pressed important work upon him.
About this time, 1664-65, the Archbishop was
entangled in a very troublesome and perplexing
warfare with Port-Royal. The celebrated "Five
Propositions," supposed to be found in Jansenius's
"Augustinus " (it was not directly stated in the bull of
condemnation that they were taken from it), had been
condemned; the Jesuits were vehement in pressing
1 He had been tutor to Louis XIV., and was the author ol
the "Vie de Henri IV."

PORT-ROYAL. 123

their rejection on all good Catholics. In 1656s
Arnauld had been censured, expelled from the Sor
bonne, and his works placed on the Index ; and in
the ardour of the opposing party to crush the so-
called Jansenists; no toil, no means, fair or unfair,
were spared. All the world talked about Jansen, the
" Augustinus," the Five Propositions, and the question
oifait and droit, but it may fairly be believed that but
few knew anything at all of what they were talking
about. The Port-Royalists as a body resolved that
their men should not sign the formulary of submission,
or any condemnation of Jansen, but they were less
rigid as to the nuns. Angeiique Arnauld, however,
the disciple of S. Francis de Sales, of Saint-Cyran, and
of Singlin, could not see her way to repudiating and
condemning teaching which she had learned to regard
as the truth, and she took up her position steadily
beside the Recluses, as the male members of Port-
Royal were called. The troubles grew thicker; in
1660 the Port-Royal schools were dispersed; x\rnauld
was in hiding.1
Angeiique Arnauld died in 1661, but most of her
nuns followed stedfastly in her steps, and refused
to sign the Five Propositions, a determination in
1 Louis XVI. once said, "I am looking everywhere for M.
Arnauld." Boileau answered promptly, " Your Majesty always
is lucky — you will not find him."

124 BOSSUE T IN PARIS.
which they were upheld by Arnauld and Nicole, though
others of their friends, such as Singlin and Sainte
Beuve would have had them yield. After endless
pourparlers and attempts on the part of Archbishop
Perefixe to induce the nuns to obey him, and sign
the condemnation, he proceeded to the most severe
extremities — twelve of the abler and most resolute
nuns were 'seized, and forcibly carried by the archers
du guet to a convent of the Visitation in Paris, where
the amount of pressure put upon the unfortunate
women to enforce their subscription seems almost
incredible as we follow it.1
Various different theologians were let loose upon
them, to terrify, persuade, or convince them (it must
be confessed that so long as he could reduce them to
submission the Archbishop does not seem to have
much cared how he did it). Among the great autho
rities of the day, none stood higher than the Dean of
Metz. Amid the seething crowd of Jesuits, Jansenians,
Oratorians, Molinists, etc., all raving, intriguing, man
oeuvring, he stood apart, calm, gentle, and kindly
disposed to every one. All parties agreed in respect
ing his thorough impartiality, his entire independence
of interested motives, his absolute sincerity; and the
men most opposed to one another in all else agreed in
1 Floquet, Etudes, vol. ii. 1. x.

THE FIVE PROPOSITIONS. 125
trusting Bossuet.1 The Archbishop naturally wished
to bring so hopeful an influence to bear on the rebel
lious nuns, and accordingly he requested Bossuet to
use his persuasive powers, a request which led to the
writing a letter,2 which in its gentleness, and calm,
though learned reasoning, must have fallen very sooth
ingly on the ears of the poor persecuted ladies, after
the violent scoldings and threatenings they had under
gone. Beginning by telling the Port-Royal nuns that
he felt their profession and retirement, as well as their
sex, ought to have kept them free from all such dis
cussions as those now harassing the Church on the
matter of the Five Propositions, he goes on to put the
whole question on the ground of obedience, explain
ing that they were not asked to condemn any indivi
dual,3 and that it was as a general matter of submitting
their will and judgment to the Church and their Arch
bishop that they were urged to sign the formulary.
The leading spirit among the nuns was la Mere Agnes
de Saint Paul, a sister of Antoine and Angeiique
» Arnauld wrote of him in 1694, " Entre tant de grandes qua-
lites que j'admire en M. de Meaux, il n'y en a point qui me
paroisse plus extraordinaire qu'un certain fonds de sincerite et
d'equite, qui lui fait reconnoitre la verite, qui que ce soit qui la
lui propose."
2 CEuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 210.
3 "Je me sens oblige de vous avertir, . . . que je n'entends
faire aucun prejudice a la personne de Jansenius, lequel on estime
tant," etc.— Ibid. p. 221.

126 BOSSUET IN PARIS.

Arnauld, a woman of marvellous holiness anil sweet
ness, as well as of the most firm and resolute character.
Deprived by the Archbishop's orders of the Sacraments,
and of all religious consolations, threatened with an un-
consecrated burial (she was aged and ill), not allowed
to see a priest, taunted and harassed by the nuns, among
whom she was an unwilling guest, or rather prisoner
(what would S. Francis de Sales have said to such a state
of things in one of his Communities !), her meekness
and forbearance never failed her, and she managed to
restrain the natural resentment of her spiritual child and
favourite niece, Sceur Sainte Therese, who sometimes
was on the point of breaking forth with indignation at
the insults and annoyances daily heaped upon one
who was to her as a beloved mother. This venerable
lady pleaded with Archbishop Perefixe to allow her
the comfort of confession, and suggested the names of
three priests, any one of whom she asked to see. The
Archbishop believed that all three, though admirable
men, had Jansenist leanings, and refust-d; but then
suddenly he exclaimed, "You shall st£ the Abbe
Bossuet, — I implore you, see Bossuet : he is the most
learned and gentle man in the world, and just what
you want, for he belongs to no party !" The very
same day (September 1664) the Dean of Metz visited
the poor ladies, who were not predisposed to like
him, nevertheless Sceur Sainte Therese says in her

MERE AGNES ARNAULD. 127

Journal that he was " a learned man, et qui ne s'em-
porte point ;" and during the frequent kindly visits he
paid to the persecuted nuns, he won the esteem and
respect of both, and influenced the younger one so that
she signed the hated formulary on November 4, 1664,
on the understanding that she was making no further
expression of opinion than acquiescence in the orders
of her superior, the Archbishop. The Mere Agnes,
a worthy Arnauld, altogether refused to influence her
niece, whom she might certainly have withheld from
submission, as she herself refused to submit. Sceur
Therese expressed her resolution to act as her aunt
might act, but the elder woman steadily replied,
" No, my child, do not say thus ; it is not well so to
lean on a fleshly arm. If you believe it right to sign,
I shall be in no way troubled, so long as you do it
under due guidance." Bossuet was so much touched
at the real heroism and grandeur of Mere Agnes, that
he shed tears. Madame de Sevigne, writing to the
Marquis de Pomponne (an Arnauld), November 17,
1664, alludes to this : "Madame votre sceur, qui est
a nos Dames du faubourg a signe le formulaire, elle
voit a cette heure la communaute, et paroit fort con-
tente. Madame votre tante ne paroit pas en colere
contre elle."1 But Sceur Therese could not be happy
under what she had done, and early in 1665 she re-
1 Lettres, vol. i. p. 98. See also p. 105, etc.

128 BOSSUET IN PARIS.
tracted, as did the few others who had followed the
same course. The nuns were once more together at their
monistery " des Champs," and there Bossuet visited
them (June 29, 1665), with the Archbishop of Paris,
who solemnly announced his intention of removing all
the disobedient nuns and dispersing their Community.
Sceur Therese gave vent to some expression implying —
what after all was the simple truth — that the Arch
bishop persecuted the Port-Royalists. He replied
rather angrily, " Ces messieurs have written an Apology
for you, in which they say that Port-Royal bears the
sanguinary marks of my cruelty : one would think I
had been cutting your throats ! "
" Monseigneur," Sceur Therese immediately an
swered, " such troubles cause the heart to bleed ;''
and then, catching an expression of tenderness and
sympathy on Bossuet's countenance, she added, " If
not sanguinary marks, they are at all events very pain
ful and hard to bear. We have been as good as dead
to one another for the last ten months, and God only
knows all that we have suffered."
" It is true, quite true," burst from Bossuet's lips,
whose upright spirit of justice and fairness had evi
dently suffered under his Archbishop's line of action.
This apparently was Bossuet's last appearance among
them. ' He was too independent in character and too
generous in heart to be an efficient supporter of Aich-

ANNE OF AUSTRIA. 129
bishop's Perefixe's tyranny, and later on, when we
consider his own dealings, as one in authority, with
rebellious Religious, we shall find a very different course
adopted. In i66r, the opening discourse of the Synod
of Paris, the first held there since 1620, was com
mitted to the well-known preacher.
One of his most devoted friends at Court — Anne of
Austria — was about to pass from the scene of earthly
grandeur and turmoil in which she had played so
conspicuous a part during a long train of years. This
princess, of whom Voltaire says that "her whole
career in France had been one of sorrow," ' in spite
of her talent and many charms; died a suffering death
from cancer. This terrible malady began several
years earlier. It had always been the one thing which
the Queen dreaded most, and at the time when she
offered herself to God to bear any sufferings He might
please to send, her woman's weakness had prayed
that cancer might be excepted. On one occasion,
when visiting the sick in a hospital, Anne of Austria
left the bedside of a cancer patient hastily, exclaiming,
" Seigneur, tout autre fieau que celui la !"2 The same
courage which had upheld her through many a weary
struggle during her Regency seems to have endured
through the last struggle with bodily pain and weak-
1 Siecle de Louis XIV., vol. i. 46.
2 Floquet, vol. ii. p. 267.

130 BOSSUET IN PARIS.

ness, which continued for some time. Bossuet and
his old friend the Marediale de Schomberg were both
present at the Queen's deathbed. In January 1664
we find Bossuet preaching at Saint Sulpice on the
patron's festival (Jan. 19th) before the Queen-Mother,
who had laid the first stone of the new church some
years earlier, and after dwelling on the need of due
preparation for the last day, he turned to Anne of
Austria, saying, "Madam, it beseems your Majesty
most seriously to think upon this last day. We turn
aside from the thought — your subjects shrink from it,
loving in you a mother as well as a Sovereign. But,
Madam, however your subjects may fly from the
thought, it is necessary that your Majesty should make
it your familiar, frequent companion. May your
Majesty be so occupied with God, may your heart be
so penetrated with the fear of His Judgment, your
soul with the awe of His Justice, that you may fitly
prepare to give account of the great power committed
to you, of all the good you are able to do, of all the
evil you can either hinder or remedy; for this God
requires of you."
The Queen-Mother died on January 20, 1666, in
severe suffering, but bearing it with " heroic patienee
and the calmness of heavenly resignation." On Feb
ruary 2, the Feast of the Purification, Bossuet, when
1 .CEuvres, voL xii. p. 70.

CENSORSHIP. 131
preaching before the Court on the subject of the day,
added a few touching words concerning the royal
lady who had been a true friend to him. He spoke
of her earnestness in maintaining her son's heritage
intact, of her tenderness and charity, and that piety
which had led her always to seek to promote God's
glory in the country of her adoption; and alluding
to her unchanged looks (she was not old, and had
preserved her personal attractions in spite of illness),
exclaimed, " How have we lost one who did not seem
to grow old, and who was untouched by years ? How
did that strong constitution become so speedily sub
ject to a malignant poison which has baffled all skill?
What things of nought we are, and how vain are
strength and fair looks, when, while the countenance
is yet bright with health and beauty, corruption is so
stealthily invading both, that, almost as soon as per
ceived, it has taken possession of the citadel of life." '
Bossuet now thought very seriously of breaking his
connection with Paris, and of giving himself up en
tirely to his work at Metz; but he had too many
devoted friends and admirers in the great city for this
to be easily accomplished, and he was soon obliged
to return to Paris, where the Archbishop (Pere'fixe)
and the King consented to appoint him Censor of
one of the great Port-Royal works which had recently
1 CEuvres, vol. xi. p. 287.

132 BOSSUET IN PARIS.
appeared, namely Nicole's " Perpetuite de la Foi sur
1'Eucharistie." Bossuet revised this book as the
several volumes appeared, and the three first volumes
(published respectively in 1669, 167 1, and 1674) bear
his approbation.1 While engaged in this work Bos
suet had several interviews with Arnauld, and ex
pressed himself as gratified at the deference with
which Arnauld treated him, while the great Port-
Royalist on his side was no less pleased with their
intercourse.2 The result was that Arnauld requested
Bossuet to revise the version of the New Testament
which had been made by the solitaries of Port-Royal,
and which had been somewhat hardly dealt with, the
Archbishop and several Bishops having forbidden it
to be read (1667), the Council ordered its suppression,
and at the same time Pope Clement IV. condemned
it officially. Bossuet was an advocate for the Holy
Scriptures being circulated in the vernacular, though,
of course, he considered it most important that all
translations should be authorized, lest the truth should
suffer harm; and he saw no reason for the vehement
condemnation passed upon the Mons version (so the
Port-Royal translation was called). In a letter to
Marechal de Bellefonds, dated December 1, 1674,
1 The othei two volumes were not published till after Bossuet's
death. 2 Abbe Le Dieu..

THE MONS TESTAMENT. 133
Bossuet says: " If the Mons version is in any way to
be blamed, it is chiefly for affecting too much finish,
and for aiming at a style in the translation which the
Holy Spirit did not condescend to impart to the
original. . . . The Mons version would have been
more reverent and more in conformity with the
seriousness of the original if it had been a little more
simple, and if the translators had mingled less of their
own industry and their own natural intellectual elegance
with God's Word. But I do not think it can be said,
without too great boldness, that this version need be
prohibited." " I regret," he says in the same letter, " to see
people taking up a particular version more for the
translator's sake than because it is God's Voice, —
more touched by the talent or eloquence of the inter
preter than by the thing itself. I would have the
Holy Truth of God revered, enjoyed, and loved in
the simplest versions." '
There were so many imperfect versions of Holy
Scripture, Bossuet said,2 that he earnestly desired one
that should be satisfactory, and he greatly wished to see
this Mons version so amended as to fill such a place.
Accordingly, with the Archbishop's approval, a series
of conferences to this end were held at the Hotel de
1 CEuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 175.
Abbe Le Dieu.

134 BOSSUET IN PARIS.
Longueville, between Bossuet, Arnauld, Nicole, Sacy,
and de la Lane; but they had scarcely got through
the Epistle to the Romans when Mgr. Perefixe died
(1671), and his successor de Harlay would not allow
the work to continue.
In February 1669 the Faculty of Theology of Paris
received notice that the King purposed publishing a
declaration in order to abolish, or at least restrain,
the right of Committimus, — which had been greatly
abused, and against which a great outcry had been
raised ; and inasmuch as their privileges would suffer
by such restraint, they pleaded against it, selecting
Bossuet as their advocate before the King : and so ably
was their cause maintained, that some of the judges,
albeit learned men, were much shaken by his argu
ments. But the cause was a bad one — not even
Bossuet's eloquence happily could hinder the necessary
reform, and one is glad to think that its use in such a
direction was exceptional, and, one would hope, not
in harmony with his wishes.
The Queen-Mother had often expressed her inten
tion of appointing Bossuet to one of the sees which
fell to her disposal (the King having given her the
province of Bretagne as her dower), and this alone,
were any such proof required, is enough to refute
Voltaire's sneering remark that his funeral oration
upon Anne of Austria procured him the Bishopric of

APPOINTED BISHOP OF CONDOM. 135

Condom.1 But he was quite sufficiently known to
Louis XIV, the Archbishop of Paris, and indeed to all
the world, to make it unnecessary to seek out any
other reasons for his appointment to any position in
the Church whatsoever. Bossuet chanced to be at
Meaux, the guest of his predecessor, de Ligni, then
Bishop of that diocese, preaching on the occasion of
a prise d'habit, when, on September 13th, 1669, a
courier arrived, bringing him the letters which con
tained his appointment to the Diocese of Condom.
He was not consecrated at the time, which was one of
great interest. Three days before, September 10,
1669, the beautiful, unhappy, heroic Queen of Charles I.
of England, breathed her last, " death coming gently
to her under the garb of sleep." 2 Her most touching,
most romantic history is too well known to most
English readers to need repeating. The child of
France's great King, Henri IV, she was born, Novem
ber 25, 1609, shortly before her royal father fell a
victim to the traitor Ravaillac's knife, May 14, 1610,
thus beginning her life amid scenes of blood and
horror, as alas ! she was doomed to encounter yet
more terrible scenes. Married in 1625 to Charles I.,
she was a loyal and devoted wife through the long
years of trial which the Martyr King endured before
1 Siecle de Louis XIV., vol. ii. p. 108.
2 Oraisons Funibres, CEuvres, vol. xii. p. 466.

1 36 BOSSUE T IN PARIS.
his country degraded itself in the sight of God and
man by shedding his blood. There were bright days
at first — days when, as her devoted friend Madame de
MotteviUe says, Henrietta Maria used to boast of
being " the happiest woman in the world ; " the days
when Vandyke painted her, and poets sang her
charms. But these soon changed to storm, and " the
secret abhorrence of all authority and the itching for
innovation which stirred the hearts of men,"1 led to
all the miseries of civil war — miseries the cup of which
the Queen drank to the dregs. After giving birth to
a princess at Exeter, June r6, 1644 — who became
eventually Duchess of Orleans and the spiritual child
of Bossuet — the Queen of England escaped in a
Dutch vessel from the inhospitable country which
had set a price on her head. A vessel in the Par
liament's service fired upon her little ship; but, as she
said with reference to an earlier peril, " queens are
not made to be drowned,"2 and she landed safely at
Chastel, a rocky cove near Brest. Henrietta Maria's
own country gave her a hearty welcome. Anne of
Austria, with her two sons, Louis XIV. and the Duke
of Orleans, then children, met her on the way to Paris,
and supplied her liberally with money and all she
could want, until the war of the Fronde reduced them
1 Bossuet, CEuvres, vol. xii. p. 453.
2 "Les reines ne se noyoient pas." — Ibid. p. 458.

QUEEN HENRIETTA MARIA. 137

to an almost equally needy condition. Some his
torians have written as though the Queen of England
had met with miserly treatment from her relatives, but
clearly this was not so. All her life Henrietta Maria
was noted for her exceeding liberality. Bossuet says,
" Elle eut une magnificence royale et l'on eut dit
qu'elle perdoit ce qu'elle ne donnoit pas;"1 and so long
as Charles I. lived she could receive nothing that was
not immediately sent to him — clothes, jewels, furni
ture, everything was sold for his benefit. Her eccentric
niece Mademoiselle2 says in her memoirs that, on first
coming to Paris, the Queen of England appeared in due
royal splendour, but that it all vanished by degrees,
and at last her whole tend and personal arrangements
were "as mean as possible." In the year 1646, Lady
Morton, who had had Charles I.'s youngest child in
her keeping ever since its birth, contrived to escape
with the little princess and join the Queen, and when
the civil war of the Fronde broke out in 1648 they
remained in Paris. This was the time of money
straits, when, as Bossuet himself says, "Henriette, d'un
si grand cceur, est contrainte de demander du secours :
Anne, d'un si grand cceur, ne peut en donner assez."2
The French Court took refuge at Saint-Germain, but
Henrietta Maria, who was on most affectionate term?
1 CEuvres, vol. xii. p. 443. 2 De Montpensier.
3 CEuvres, vol. xii. p. 461,

138 BOSSUET IN PARIS.
with the Conde family, went to the Louvre with the
express intention of acting as mediatrix between the
antagonistic parties. Her experience of the terrors of
civil war made her most anxious to induce those she
loved on either side to listen to the voice of the peace
maker before it was too late. Voltaire draws a vivid,
though disagreeably satirical, picture of the difference
of character between the two national wars — the fri
volous tone of the one, who made war with "des
eclats de rire," " des couplets et des epigrammes,"1 —
and he alludes to the often-told story of Cardinal de
Retz's visit to the Queen of England on a snowy
Epiphany day of 1648, when he found her fireless,
sitting by the bed where she kept the future Duchess
of Orleans, for the sake of warmth. Mme. de Motte
viUe says that the Cardinal himself relieved the
Queen's wants. An autograph letter found in the
Imperial Library of St. Petersburg, from Henrietta
Maria to the French Ambassador in London, reveals
the touching fact that she had that day written to
entreat permission to return to England and share her
husband's fate, for she knew now that Charles was
in the hands of the most bloodthirsty of his subjects.
A letter was enclosed to Lord Fairfax, entreating
him to help her to see the King her husband " before
* Steele ,de Louis XIV., vol. i. p. 49, etc.

CHARLES I.'S MURDER. 139
he be proceeded against by any trial." x We may not
here dwell on the ever-fresh fascination of the exquisite
pathos of that Royal Martyr's death. His mock trial,
his unrighteous execution, his hurried burial at Wind
sor amid the fast-falling snow — all were over, and
some ten days had passed by, before his devoted wife
learned the reality of her sorrow. Her sanguine
character buoyed her up, and when at length Lord
Jermyn heard the terrible tidings, and tried to prepare
the Queen, she could not be led to see what he wished
her to discover. Beleaguered as the royal party was in
the Louvre, it was difficult to obtain tidings from the
outer world ; but now, roused by Lord Jermyn's hints,
the Queen induced one of her gentlemen to make an
attempt to pass the double line of besiegers, and bring
her news from the Court, then at Saint-Germain-en-
Laye. Pere Gamache, the Queen's Confessor, was
there, and that evening, when he had said grace after
supper, Lord Jermyn entreated him not to retire as
usual, but to remain at hand in case the dreadful
tidings that she was a widow, and a widow through
so fearful a deed of blood, should break upon the
unhappy Queen. At length the poor woman could
bear her agonising suspense no longer, and detecting
at last that those around her had fuller information
than she possessed, Henrietta Maria drew the whole
1 Strickland, Lives, vol. v. p. 350.

140 BOSSUET IN PARIS.
agonising truth from Lord Jermyn. "She stodd,"
Pere Gamache wrote, "motionless as a statue,
without words and without tears. To all we could
say she was deaf." Her household, appalled at a
grief so awful in its silence and stillness, hung round
her, vainly striving to offer comfort or sympathy. At
last the Duchesse de Vendome (wife of Henri IV. 's
eldest son by la belle Gabrielle, and consequently
sister-in-law to Henrietta Maria), to whom the Queen
was warmly attached, succeeded in rousing her frorrr
the deadly stupor of her crushing grief. Her natur
ally religious mind led her to seek comfort in devo
tion, and Henrietta Maria retired to the Carmelite
Convent in the Faubourg Saint-Jacques. Mme. de
MotteviUe has recorded the touching messages sent
by the desolate widow to her royal sister, Anne of
Austria, to the effect that " King Charles, her Lord,
whose death had made her the most sorrowful woman
on the wide earth, had been lost because none of
those in whom he trusted had told him the truth;
that a people, when irritated, becomes like an infuriate
wild beast whose rage nothing can moderate ; and she
prayed that the Queen Regent might be more fortu
nate in France than she and King Charles had been
in England. But, above all, she counselled Anne of
Austria to hear the truth, and to labour to discover it,
for " she believed that the greatest evil which could

MARRIAGE OF THE DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. 141
befall sovereigns was to rest in ignorance of the
truth, which ignorance reverses thrones and destroys
empires." With the exception of some visits to England after
the Restoration of Charles IL, the widowed Queen of
England continued to lead a life of retirement and
devotion, chiefly at Chaillot, where she founded a
Convent of the Visitation, in a large building which
had once belonged to Catherine de Medicis. Fresh
sorrows awaited her : the young Duke of Gloucester
died in September 1660 of small-pox, and in the De
cember following his eldest sister, the Princess of
Orange, fell a victim to the same disease; so that
when, on March 3r, i66t, Henrietta Maria's youngest
and favourite child, who had shared so many of her
trials, was married to the Duke of Orleans, the mar
riage was as quiet as Court etiquette allowed. It
was not a happy marriage : the young princess was
beautiful, vain, and childish, and the Duke of Orleans
was not an attractive husband. " Philip of Orleans
seemed to have inherited no grace of royal blood.
Weak and puny in body, effeminate and cowardly in
character, he was incapable of either a noble impulse
or a generous action : shunning the society of men to
cower amid that of women, he affected their ways ;
and while lavishing the worthless offering of his cold
corrupt heart on all sides, he possessed all the peculiar

142 BOSSUET IN PARIS.
jealousy of a man capable of no love save that of
self."1 So writes one of his countrymen. It was a
sore trial to the Queen of England, but, as Bossuet
says of her, latterly, after all her sorrows and dis
appointments, she had ceased to feel anything serious
save her sins.2
In 1661, Henrietta Maria stood as sponsor for the
Dauphin, the only child of Louis XIV. and Maria
Theresa of Austria, who we shall soon find becoming
the pupil of Bossuet. Several visits to England fol
lowed. The Queen's health was failing, but her high
spirit bore her through much that might have crushed
other people. At last she consented to have a con
sultation of the first physicians, and Varlot, Esprit, and
Juelin, respectively first physicians to the King, the
Duke and the Duchess of Orleans, met at the Chateau
de Colombe, where the Queen was. They proposed
to treat the sharp pain and sleeplessness from which
she suffered by means of opium, but Henrietta Maria
positively refused to take it, saying that it always dis
agreed with her, and that her English physician, Dr.
Mayerne, had warned her that any considerable dose
would be very dangerous to her constitution. The
physicians, however, overruled their patient, and she
1 Remarques Historiques, CEuvres, vol. xii. p. 468.
* "Apres tant de maux et tant de traverses, elle ne connut
plus d'autres ennemis que ses peches. "—Ibid, p. 466.

DEATH OF HENRIETTA MARIA. 143
consented to take the medicine that night. Pere
Gamache says that the Queen was better than usual
that day ; she talked and laughed during supper, and
ate with more appetite than her wont ; and when she
went to bed, she fell asleep naturally. However, the
lady in waiting roused her and administered the medi
cine that had been ordered, and then, as the Queen
fell asleep again at once, left her till the morning,
when, returning with a fresh dose, she found her royal
lady totally insensible, and regardless of all the loving
cares and words which were speedily showered upon her.
The doctors who were fetched said that the coma was
temporary, and that Her Majesty would soon recover,
and at first Pere Gamache believed them ; but seeing
no change in the state of utter unconsciousness which
shrouded his royal penitent, the good Father sent in
haste for the Cure of Colombe to administer Extreme
Unction. After this the Viaticum was given to the
Queen, who was quite able to swallow, and very
shortly afterwards she ceased, to breathe, her soul
passing away without the slightest external struggle or
agitation. Henrietta Maria had faced death many a
time in the course of the civil wars of both France
and England, as also perils by land and water, and that
with a brave, unterrified spirit; but she always shrank
from the thought of a calm, deliberate death, apart
from the entourage of danger and excitement : " Je

144 BOSSUET IN PARIS.

songe a bien vivre, je ne songe pa§ k mourir,"1 she
would say, when the subject was pressed upon her;
and now those who loved her (and that meant every
one who approached her royally generous person) felt
that God had dealt very graciously with the Queen in
taking her so gently from the world, where she had
suffered so much, to the life where her trae hopes
were set.
Queen Henrietta Maria was buried with all the
state due to the daughter, wife, and mother of Kings,
at Saint Denis, but the funeral office of most real
importance took place later, when, at the request of
her daughter, the young Duchess of Orleans, Bossuet
pronounced a funeral oration over the royal lady he
had known so well during her exile. This service was
held at Chaillot on November 16, 1669, in the con
vent which the Queen had founded. The chapel was
decorated with the wonted funeral magnificence of
those times, and beneath a gorgeous canopy a wax
effigy of the Queen lay; the Duke and Duchess of
Orleans, all the English nobility then in France, and
many other great names, were gathered there, and
there it was that Bossuet spoke the oration which has
always been considered a masterpiece of its kind."
1 Remarques Historiques, CEuvres, vol. xii. p. 437.
2 " Penche comme au bord des gouffres de I'eternite, Bossuet
y laisse tomber sans cesse ces grands mots de temps et de mort,

FUNERAL ORATION. 145

There is always something jarring to the Christian's
sense of reality in pouring out laudation and pane
gyric on those who are gone far beyond its reach to
receive God's judgment, and not even Bossuet's elo
quence can altogether do away with this feeling; but
it must be granted that he sinks the mere panegyric
of the Queen as far as the exigencies of the time and
public feeling would allow, and strives to bring out
the character of the Christian, tried and purified by
suffering, rather than the Sovereign's dignity.
"Combien de fois," he exclaims, "a-t-elle en ce
lieu remercie Dieu humblement de deux grandes
graces : l'une, de l'avoir fait chretienne ; l'autre,
qui vont troublant de leur chute tous ces abymes silencieux.
. . . Jamais les rois ont-ils recu de pareilles lecons? jamais
la philosophie s'exprima-t-elle avec plus d'independance ? Le
diademe n'est rien aux yeux de l'orateur ; par lui, le pauvre
est egale au monarque, et le potentat le plus absolu du globe est
oblige de s'entendre dire, devant des milliers de temoins, que
toutes ses grandeurs ne sont que v&.iite, que sa puissance n'est
que songe, qu'il n'est lui-meme que poussiere, et que ce qu'il
prend pour un trone, n'est en effet qu'un tombeau. . . . L'Eveque
de Meaux a cree une langue que lui seul a pariee, ou souvent le
terme le plus simple, et l'idee la plus relevee, I'expression la plus
commune et l'image le plus terrible, servent, comme dans 1'Ecri-
ture, a. se donner des dimensions enormes et frappantes. . . .
Toutes les Oraisons funebres de Bossuet ne sont pas d'un egal
merite, mais toutes sont sublimes par quelque cote. Celle de la
Reine d'Angleterre est un chef-d'oeuvre de style et' un modele
d'ecrit philosophique et politique. " — Chateaubriand, Ginie du
Christianisme, Pt. iii. L. iv. p. 307.
K

146 BOSSUET IN PARIS.

— messieurs, qu'attendez vous? Peut-gtre d'avoir
retabli les affaires du Roi son fils ? Non : c'est de
Favoir fait reine malheureuse." '
After King Charles's murder, Cromwell had caused
a medal to be struck bearing the inscription "Et
nunc, Reges intelligite;" and now Bossuet took the
same words, "Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings; be
learned, ye that are judges of the earth" (Psa. ii. 10),
as the text of his Oration, drawing out, in his opening
passages, how it is God Himself that is the Teacher
of Kings, and how, through "every extremity of
human events," He had taught the Royal Lady for
whom they mourned.2 It is through the sharpness of
the Cross of suffering that sin is atoned for, intentions
purified, earthly desires changed to heavenly longings ;
that the world's charms become savourless ; that self-
reliance and pride shrivel up and cease to be. " We
forgive ourselves so easily," Bossuet exclaims, " when
fortune forgives us ! and it is so easy to believe ourselves
¦ CEuvres, vol. xii. p. 463.
Vous verrez dans une seule vie toutes les extremites des choses
humaines ; la felicite sans bornes, aussi bien que les miseres ; . . .
Voila les enseignemens que Dieu donne aux rois : ainsi fait-il voir
au monde le neant de ses pompes et de ses grandeurs. Si les
paroles nous manquent ... les choses parleront assez d'elles-
memes . . . et s'il n'est pas permis aux particuliers de faire des
lecons aux princes sur des evenements si etranges, un Roi me
prete ses paroles pour leur dire, Et nunc Regis, inlelltfite;
erudimini, qui judicatis terram. " — Ibid. p. 440.

HENRIETTE D'ANGLETERRE. 147
skilful and enlightened above all other men, when we
are the most conspicuous and most fortunate among
them ! Reverses are the only instructors who can
rebuke us profitably, and wrest from us the confession
of failure, so hard for pride to make. But when mis
fortune opens our eyes, we review our errors in bitter
ness of heart : we are overwhelmed alike by what we
have done and left undone, and we no longer see how
to defend that presumptuous wisdom which once we
believed infallible. We see that God Alone is All
Wise ; and while vainly deploring the mistakes which
have ruined our earthly prosperity, a happier contrition
teaches us to mourn over those which concern eternity,
with this most blessed difference, that these are re
paired even while we weep for them." *
This funeral oration was published at the earnest
request of the young Duchess of Orleans, who —
having, of course, known Bossuet during the past
years of his constant preaching before the Court —
now drew to him with the strong preference of a
warm young heart. Henriette d'Angleterre's married
life was not a happy one, as has already been said,
and with such a husband as the contemptible, worth
less Duke Philippe, the temptations which crowded
around a beautiful, fascinating, clever, and indiscreet
girl of seventeen were inevitably great Very shortly
1 Ibid. p. 464.

t48 BOSSUE T IN PARIS.
after their marriage, the Queen Mother complained
very harshly of her young daughter-in-law, both to
Henrietta Maria and Lord Jermyn.1 Louis XIV.
himself paid a dangerous attention to his lovely sister-
in-law, though even Voltaire, who delights in scandal,
affirms that Henriette exercised great discretion in this
case.2 Still the young Duchess of Orleans was the
life of the French Court : the reigning Queen was a
good woman, but dull and stiffened with Spanish
etiquette, and all the charms, all the grace of that
pleasure-loving Court lay with Madame.3 All this
makes it more remarkable that the young Princess
should have turned from all her flatterers and adorers,
her dazzling companions — the world of the la Val-
lieres, the Montespans — to the grave society of the new
Bishop of Condom. So it was, however, and from the
time of her mother's death the Duchess of Orleans saw
Bossuet frequently, putting herself under his spiritual
guidance, and receiving regular instructions from him
three times a week. Bossuet seems to have felt a
fatherly interest in the beautiful and (practically) un
protected young creature who thus threw herself upon
his care. He did not restrict himself to spiritual
1 Strickland's Lives, vol. v. p. 453.
= ". . . lefreinqu'elle-memeavait mis a son propre penchant,
de peur qu'il ne devint dangereux." — Siecle de Louis XIV. vol.
i. p. 4°3'
3 Lettres de Mme. de Sevignl, vol. i. p. 261 ; vol. ii. p. 189.

DIPLOMATIC MISSION. 149
instructions, but, finding how very imperfect Madame's
general education had been, and holding, as he ever
did, that a knowledge of general literature, and history
in particular, is invaluable to Royal personages, he led
her to improve herself by reading, and himself directed
her historical studies, in which her naturally quick
perceptions soon found a vivid interest. All this was
interrupted by politics. A secret negotiation was
carried on during the spring of 1670 between the
Kings of France and England, Louis XIV. desiring
to detach the latter from his alliance with Holland;
and to this end he employed his fascinating sister-in-
law as plenipotentiary with her own brother Charles
II. It was on this occasion that the Duchess of
Orleans took to England her lady-in-waiting, Made
moiselle de Keroual, better known as the notorious
Duchess of Portsmouth, who established so firm a
hold over the passions of the weak King of England,
and ruled him so unhappily.
Henriette d'Angleterre proved herself a successful
Ambassadress, and had returned triumphant, and sur
rounded with all that homage and admiration could
give.1 There was one drawback — the jealousy and
violence of her husband. The Duke of Orleans had
followed her to England, and these first few days after
1 " Le plaisir et la consideration que donnent les affaires se
joignant en elle aux agremens que donnent la jeunesse et la

150 BOSSUET IN PARIS.
their return were marred by painful and degrading
scenes between the royal pair. Suffering from one
of these harassing discussions, and feeling ill, the
Duchess, who was then at Saint Cloud, drank, on the
evening of June 29, 1679, a glass of chicory- water,
such as she was in the habit of taking; but before
finishing the draught she exclaimed that she was
poisoned, and begged that the glass of water might
be examined ! In a moment the Duchess retracted
this order, but she repeated the assertion that she was
dying. The Duke and some of the ladies present
drank the remainder of the bottle's contents, in order
to reassure her, and she made no further allusion to
poison, except to say to the Material de Grammont
that she had thought for the moment that she had
been accidentally poisoned. At first the seriousness
of the attack did not seem to have been perceived by
those around. " Madame lay on a little bed, dis
hevelled, pale, looking like a corpse, and every one
was coming and going in and out of the room, gossip-
ping and laughing," says Mademoiselle de Mont-
pensier. But Madame herself never altered in her
belief that the hand of death was upon her, and, as
Bossuet touchingly says, " un regret immense de ses
beaute, il y avait une grace et une douceur repandues dans toute
sa personne qui lui attiroient une sorte d'hommage, qui devoit lui
etre d'autant plus agreable qu'on le rendoit plus a la personne
qu'au rang." — Mlmoires de Mme. de Lafayette.

DUCHESS OF ORLEANS' ILLNESS. 151
peches ne lui permit pas de regretter autre chose." '
She asked for the crucifix which Anne of Austria had
used on her deathbed, and, receiving it, exclaimed,
" O my God, why have I not always put all my trust
in Thee?" Madame also asked for the last Sacraments
to be given her, as too that Bossuet might be fetched.
"Monsieur de Condom! Monsieur de Condom!"
she kept exclaiming, expressing her wish " to die in
his hands."
Meanwhile, in order not to lose time, the Duchess's
ordinary Confessor, P. Chrysostome d'Amiens (of
whom her husband said that he was " of no use at all
but to look well as the Duchess's Confessor sitting
in her carriage !"), and also a neighbouring priest
were fetched — a Canon of Saint Cloud named
Feuillet, a rough, harsh man — who began by re
proaching the dying Princess with her past pleasures
and luxuries, accusing her of having no love save for
the world and its good things, and frightening only
where he should have ministered hope and comfort
as well as stimulated penitence. Henriette did not
resent this harsh treatment, but she was crushed and
appalled by it. The King had just visited her, and
was astonished at the calm fortitude she showed.
Apparently he was the first to realise that the Duchess
really was, as she told them, dying ; and, after he had
1 Oraison Funebre, CEuvres, vol. xii. p. 492.

152 BOSSUET IN PARIS.
said so, the doctors admitted the fact Meanwhile
the first messenger sent to Paris for Bossuet had not
found him : Madame's agonies and her consciousness
that death was drawing momentarily nearer led her
to cry out earnestly for the priest whose fatherly ten
derness had won her, and from whom she now craved
that consolation which the harder Canon Feuillet had
not given her. The Duke despatched a second and
a third messenger, and at last, to her great satisfaction
and the relief of all the bystanders, Bossuet arrived.
As he came to her bedside, she exclaimed faintly,
"Ah! Monsieur, I have sought salvation too late !"
The Bishop's tears were falling fast at the sight of this
beautiful young creature, towards whom he had acted
so fatherly a part, thus suddenly called upon to die,
and that in such agony. Commanding his emotion,
however, he answered, " Hope, Madame, hope."
" I have it to the uttermost," Henriette answered ;
" I submit to God's Will, I am willing to die, I hope
in His Mercy." Then, kneeling by her side, the
Bishop repeated out loud acts of faith, hope, and
charity ; after which he poured forth eloquent words
of the Christian's high and holy confidence in Him
Who never turns a deaf ear to the cry of His children,
and peace seemed to come back as he spoke to the
dying princess, while all around hung spell-bound by
his words, which seemed to bring a new and heavenly

HER DEATH. 153

atmosphere into the chamber of death.1 Canon
Feuillet himself, who was present, expressed later on
his own strong sense of the contrast between his
method of dealing with such conditions and that of
the Bishop of Condom, greatly to the benefit, one
might hope, of those at whose deathbeds he assisted
in future.2
Madame de Lafayette, who was present throughout,
says that during a short respite from pain, the Duchess
spoke to her waiting-maid in English, and bade her,
after her death, give the Bishop a ring which Henriette
had lately had made for him. Then she asked her
husband's forgiveness, declaring at the same time that
she had never been faithless to him. Bossuet re
minded her that those who filled so exalted a station
as she had done owed much to others in the way of
example, especially when in God's House and at His
Altar. " Do you," he asked, " ask His forgiveness for
every irreverence of which you have ever been guilty,
and offer such reparation as is possible ? "
" Indeed I do, with all my heart," the Duchess
answered. Her pains became more intense. Bossuet held the
1 " II y avait, pour ces tristes occasions, une grace particuliere
attachee a ses paroles. Elles sembloient porter le repentir et la
confiance dans ces cceurs, l'oubli mSme, et le mepris de la vie."
— Oraison Funebre de Bossuet, P. de la Rue.
2 Floquet, vol. iii. p. 397.

154 BOSSUET IN PARIS.
crucifix to her, saying, " Behold our Lord Jesus Christ
opening His Arms to you. It is He Who gives you
eternal life, He Who will one day raise again this poor
body which now suffers so terribly."
" I believe it, I believe it," she replied, while her
feeble hand could scarce guide it to her lips ; but she
held it there lovingly. A few moments more and she
whispered, " I am just dying."
" Madame, you believe in God, you hope in Him,
you love Him ?" Bossuet asked.
" With all my heart," Henrietta replied. They were
her last words. She expired at 3 a.m., June 30, 1670,
after nine hours of intense suffering.1
The question of poison was a terrible one : the
Duchess's death was so sudden, and took every one
so by surprise, that perhaps in those days, when crime,
for an object, was looked upon almost as a matter of
course, it was hardly to be wondered at that, after the
cry, " Madame se meurt !" and a few hours later,
" Madame est morte !"= foul play was suspected. Both

' Madame de Sevigne writes : " II vous dira la mort de Ma
dame, c'est a dire, l'etonnement ou l'on a et^ en apprenant qu'elle
a ete malade et morte en huit heures, et qu'on perdoit avec elle
toute la joie, tout l'agrement et tous les plaisirs de la Cour." —
lMtres, vol. i. p. 261.
2 " Les coeurs, apres plus d'un siecle, retentissent encore du
fameux cri, Madame se meurt, Madame est morte !" — Genie du
ChrUtianisme, Pt. iii. L. iv. p. 306.

QUESTION OF POISON. 155
in France and England the report was believed ; Vol
taire, indeed, says that the whole Court, the English
Ambassador, and all Europe credited it A former
servant of the Duke of Orleans told Voltaire the name
of the man who, according to his story, administered
the poison, which he affirmed to be powdered diamond
dust ! But Voltaire denies the truth of the assertion,
while he retails some Court gossip which he says was
the cause of all these " odious rumours." * He says
that the Duchess had been very much out of health
for some time, and was suffering from abscess in the
liver at the time of her death ; and Bossuet records
that in a post mortem examination, at which a large
number of surgeons and others assisted, proof positive
of a natural death was obtained, independently of the
fact that the Duke and others had finished drinking
the chicory water which had been given to the
Duchess. Bossuet went to the Duke to tell him of his wife's
death : he had been removed from her room in a state
of abject misery, probably as much from sheer cowardly
terror of death as from affection for her. His mean,
selfish nature asserted itself on every occasion ; even
when requested by her to summon the Bishop of Con
dom to what she felt was her deathbed, he did so with
the remark that the Bishop's name would look well in
1 Slide de Louis XIV., vol. i. p. 427.

156 BOSSUE T IN PARIS.
the Gazette !'" This contemptible prince had two
daughters by Henriette d'Angleterre, — Marie Louise,
who married Charles II. of Spain in 1679, and Anne
Marie, who married Victor Amadeo, Duke of Savoy,
afterwards King of Sardinia. In 1671 he married
again — the Princess Elisabeth Charlotte of Bavaria,
daughter of the Elector Palatine; and Madame de
Sevigne says of the marriage : " You can fancy how
Monsieur is to have a grand ceremonial marriage, and
also a wife who does not understand French. . . .
Alas ! if this Madame could in any way replace her
whom we have lost!"2 From this second marriage
the present Orleans family is descended, Philippe
Egalite being the grandson, and Louis Philippe
great-grandson of the widower of Henriette d'Angle
terre. The same morning, after the Duchess's death,
Bossuet went to Versailles to inform Louis XIV., who
was much distressed, and for the moment impressed,
by his beautiful sister-in-law's sudden death. Two
days later he gave the Bishop of Condom the ring-
already mentioned, which she had made ready to give
him. It was a valuable emerald, and Bossuet wore it
all his life. Not long after his death, his nephew, the
Bishop of Troyes, who might have been expected to
1 Remarques Historiques, vol. ii. p. 470.
* Lettres, vol. ii. p. 189.

MADAME'S FUNERAL ORATION. 157

value such a jewel if he did not value his uncle's
sermons, sold it by public auction.
The King himself requested Bossuet to preach the
funeral oration of his late spiritual child, and it was
not a task he could refuse, although, when the com
mission was given, he was greatly shaken by the scenes
he had just witnessed. It was not, however, till
August 2 1 that the ceremony took place at Saint Denis,
that once celebrated resting-place of so many royalties,
so cruelly desecrated during the great Revolution.
Bossuet appeared on this occasion for the first time
in his episcopal robes ; the whole Court seems to have
been present, with the exception of Louis XIV. him
self; but his Queen, Marie Therese, was there, the
Grand Conde and his son, the Due d'Enghien, and a
vast body of Clergy, Cardinals, Bishops, and Priests,
gathered together for the Assembly General, besides
many English noblemen and others.
"Bossuefs genius had been conspicuous in his funeral
oration over the Queen of England," says Cardinal de
Bausset,1 " but he put forth the whole tenderness of his
soul in that spoken over her daughter;" and even Vol
taire ^admits that it had "the greatest and rarest of
successes — that of making the Court weep. Bossuet
was forced to pause after uttering the words, ' Woeful
night, when, like a thunder-clap, the startling news was
1 Vie, vol. i. p. 248.

1 5& BOSSUE T IN PARIS.
spread abroad, Madame is dying, Madame is dead;'
and the whole audience burst into sobs, while the
orator's own voice was choked with tears." *
The oration must be read as a whole to appreciate
the pathos, the earnestness and eloquence with which
it abounds. " Vanitas vanitatum," — the fitting text ;
and yet, while pressing on his listeners that " health
is but a name, life but a dream, glory but a shadow,
pleasure and delight but a perilous gleam," he guards
against the error of imagining that " life is a thing to
be despised, a mere game of chance, in which man
may go heedlessly on as the tide drifts him. . . . All
is vanity in man, if we take him on the worldly side,
but, on the contrary, all is real and weighty, if we look
at him as with respect to God."
" Greatness and glory ! " Bossuet exclaims, after
rehearsing some of the late political events of his
country, and referring to the diplomatic offices the
dead Princess had rendered to Louis XIV. " Great
ness and glory ! Dare we utter such words in the
presence of death, triumphant over both ! No, of a
truth, sirs, I dare not employ those proud names,
with which human arrogance strives to deaden the
sense of its own nothingness. It behoves us now to
perceive that whatsoever is mortal, let it be decked
with all external greatness that can be devised, is never-
* Steele de Louis XIV., vol. ii. p. 108.

VANITAS VANITATUM. 159

theless intrinsically devoid of grandeur. Hearken to
the words — not of a philosopher or a scholiast, not of
a monk meditating in his cloister; rather would I
confound the world's reasoning by the mouth of those
whom the world esteems most highly, by those who
know it best : — I will use no argument save one which
comes from a royal throne. It is a King who cries
out, 'Thou hast made my days as it were a span long,
and mine age is even as nothing in respect of Thee.'1
So it is, Christians : all that can be measured comes
to an end, and all that is born to end can scarce be
said to have left the nothingness wherein it is so soon
again to sink. If our being, our substance, is nought,
whatsoever we build thereon, what is it ? The build
ing is not firmer than the foundation, nor the accidents
of position greater than the being around whom they
cling. Since nature keeps us so low, what can fortune
do to raise us ? Consider the most notable distinc
tions which divide men — there is none more marked
or more telling than that which raises a conqueror
over those who lie conquered beneath his feet. Yet
that conqueror, glorying in his title, must needs him
self fall conquered by death."
And so he goes on awhile — then suddenly turning
to the immediate subject, Bossuet describes the last
scenes, which were as yet so startlingly familiar to the
1 Psa. xxxix. 6. In the Vulgate it is "substantia mea."

i6o BOSSUET IN PARIS.
courtiers gathered round him : that disastrous night
when the cry, " Madame is dying! Madame is dead !"
re-echoed through the land, and, apart from personal
feeling, those pleasure-loving, self-seeking men and
women were forced to face the unwelcome truth that
neither youth, nor beauty, nor greatness could avert
or delay the hand of Death for one hour ! " Most
frequently," Bossuet said, " the change comes gradu
ally, and death sends warnings before the final blow.
But Madame passed at once from morning to evening,
like the flowers of the field. The forcible language
of Holy Scripture, 'in the morning it is green and
groweth up, in the evening it is cut down and
withered,' was literally fulfilled in her." And then,
after dwelling upon her loving and attractive qualities
(which, apart from any deathbed panegyrics, were
clearly at all times great1), he touchingly adds,
" Madame met death gently and sweetly as she had
ever met all else. . . . But what matters it if her
life was short ? That which must end can never be
long. . . ." And the true Priest's heart comes forth
in his cry, " I trust for her to that Mercy to which she
appealed so heartily and so humbly;" followed by the
warning to those who listened, — " As you gaze upon
> "Elle gagnoit tous les cceurs, c'est -a-dire la seule chose
qu'ont a gagner ceux a qui la naissance et la fortune semhlent
tout donner." — Ora'son Fun., vol. xii. p. 495.

DEEPER IMPRESSIONS. 161

these courtly places where she no longer moves, re
member that the glories you admire were her greatest
dangers in this life, and that in the next she has to
undergo a strict examination concerning them, when
nought can avail her save her full resignation to God's
Holy Will and her deep and humble penitence."
For the moment that giddy, voluptuous world of
Paris seems to have been staggered and impressed ;—
even the profligate de Bussy wrote, on July 10, 1670:
" If anything can detach those who love the world
best from it, it would be the thoughts which this death
arouses." * But the tone in which he proceeds does
not convey the impression that the Comte de Bussy
was so detached himself, whatever "thoughts" his
intellect might suggest ! The medley of surface and
excitement-loving religion with actual unbelief and
profligacy — the listening as to an opera singer to
Bossuet or "le Pere Bourdaloue qui preche divine-
ment bien aux Tuileries"2 — while persons whose very
names it was a disgrace to mention were received and
caressed — comes out forcibly in all contemporary
records. Yet in the midst of those garish, sickening
scenes of brilliant vice, there were spots whereon the
healing shadow rested, where the good seed did not
dry up and wither without taking any root. Among
these we may reckon the beautiful and erring Louise
* Lettres de Sevigne, vol. i. p. 263. 2 Ibid, vol. i. p. 279.

162 BOSSUET IN PARIS.

de la Valliere, who had been appointed a maid of
honour, in r66i, to the Duchess of Orleans, and
whose loathing for her own sinful life, and longing to
escape from it, were doubtless quickened by the shock
of her royal mistress's death. It was in the year fol
lowing that she made a desperate effort to escape
from the trammels and temptations of her brilliant
position, which was scarcely looked upon as disgrace
ful by those around ; and escaping to the Convent of
the Visitation at Chaillot, she would probably have
devoted herself at once to the life of penitence she
adopted a short time later, had not the King sent
Colbert to fetch her back forcibly. Twice this hap
pened while the impressions of Henriette d'Angle-
terre's early death were vivid. But it is a subject to
which we shall have to return later.

PRECEPTORSHIP. 163

CHAPTER IV.
BOSSUET PRECEPTOR TO THE DAUPHIN.
Death of President de Perigny — Bossuet appointed in his
place — His Difficulties as to the See of Condom — His
Consecration — Resignation of the See — Pecuniary
Difficulties — The Dauphin — Bossuet's Views as to his
Education — Religious Instruction — Classical — Bos
suet's Love of Homer — Conversation with the Bishop
of Autun — Virgil — History — Letter to Pope Innocent
concerning the Dauphin's Education — Pere Gratry's
Criticisms of Bossuet's Philosophy — Traite de la
Philosophie — La Logique — Du Libre Arbitre — Histoire
Universelle — Politique Sacree — Marriage of the
Dauphin — His Character — Bossuet appointed Chap
lain to the Dauphiness — Her Description by Mme. de
Sevigne — Birth of the Due de Bourgogne— Death of
the Dauphiness — The Dauphin's Second Marriage-
Wars — His Death — His Coldness and Slackness to
wards Bossuet.
MEANWHILE a fresh tie between Bossuet and
the Court was about to be formed. In Sep
tember 1670 the President de Perigny, Preceptor to
the Dauphin, died. At the time of this nobleman's
appointment, two years earlier, there had been a strong
feeling among the public that Bossuet was the right
man to hold so important an office. In 1665 Colbert
had commissioned his brother, the Bishop of Lugon,

164 BOSSUET PRECEPTOR TO THE DAUPHIN.
to furnish a list of the ecclesiastics in France best
suited to the post, and he had given Bossuet a high
place in it, saying of him, " L'Abbe Bossuet, a doctor
of Navarre, has shown his talent by his preaching,
which is of a class not easily sustained. He teaches
an austere but most Christian doctrine, and those who
know him are aware that his life is in accordance with
what he preaches. I have always considered him a
very able man, and I know him to be a very good
one. His countenance tells the truth — it is very
spiritual; his manners are modest, cheerful, and
taking : in short, I know nothing but what is good of
him."1 The Archbishop of Paris, the minister Le
Tellier, and others, had pressed his merits upon the
King, although Bossuet himself refused to take any
steps to obtain the appointment; and the Due de
Montausier, Governor to the Dauphin, urging the
claims of M. de Perigny, who was already reader to
the King, Louis XIV. gave it to him. The Due de
Montausier was a worthy and upright man. " I am
very glad that he is the Dauphin's governor," Mme. de
Sevigne wrote, on hearing of his appointment, Sept. 4,
1668; "there is no one in France I would sooner
see holding it, except myself!"2 Mme. de Sevigne
tells a story of him, to the effect that one day the
Duke was explaining the Cardinalate to the Dauphin,
1 Floquet, vol. iii. p. 10. * Letlres, vol. i. p. 212.

DE PERIGNY. 165

and told him that that dignity depended entirely on
the Pope, who could make his groom a Cardinal if he
pleased ! Just then Cardinal de Bonzi appeared, and
the Dauphin appealed to him. " Sir, is it true that, if
the Pope chooses, he can make his groom a Cardinal ?"
De Bonzi was amazed ; but guessing how the matter
stood, he answered discreetly, "It is true, Monseigneur,
that the Pope selects whom he will to be Cardinals,
but he has not as yet taken any from out his stables.'"
Possibly the King had repented of his choice, even
during the short time that de Perigny held the office,
for he was a small-minded man, and his petty jealousy
soon came across the King, who proposed attaching
Huet, afterwards Bishop of Avranches, to his son's
suite; but the suggestion was met with such vehe
ment opposition by de Perigny, who looked upon it
as depreciating himself, that the Due de Montausier
recommended the King to give up the appointment,
advantageous as it might be to the Dauphin, rather
than raise the inevitable commotion attending it. On
de Perigny's death, the King at once appointed Bos
suet to fill his place, and it was Archbishop Perefixe
who took the information of Louis XIV. 's wishes to
the Doyenne de Saint Thomas du Louvre, where Bos
suet was. De Perigny died on Sept. 1st, and the 2,1st
of that month was already fixed for Bossuet's conse-
1 Leltres, vol. ii. p. 430.

166 BOSSUET PRECEPTOR TO THE DAUPHIN.

cration as Bishop of Condom. He held strong opin
ions as to the duties of Bishops, and he was also
fully alive to the important and engrossing task which
the office of Preceptor to the future King of France
ought to be; and his conscience shrank from attempt
ing to combine the two. Accordingly, while acknow
ledging the compliment paid to him by the King,
Bossuet represented that he was but just recently
appointed to the charge of a diocese, and therefore he
felt unable to undertake any fresh responsibility. To
this Louis XIV. replied that he intended to have a
Bishop as his son's preceptor, and he added, — " Be
consecrated, and then follow the dictates of your con
science; I will leave you entirely free as to your
bishopric." This was all very well for the King to say, but the
"Grand Roi" had no dispensing power, and his
authority could not satisfy the Bishop-elect's scruples
as to what seemed to him a breach of ecclesiastical
discipline — scruples, indeed, which were not very
common to the mind of Churchmen at that day, who,
for the most part, did not hesitate to accept whatever
posts of honour or profit came in their way. In his
perplexity Bossuet referred the matter to two learned
holy priests — Feret, Cure of S. Nicolas du Chardon-
neret, and de Poussey, Cure of Saint Sulpice. They
decided that, everything being arranged for his con-

EPISCOPAL CONSECRATION. 167
secration, it should proceed, and that afterwards the
question as to his retaining both offices should be
settled. Accordingly, on S. Matthew's Day 1670,
Bossuet was consecrated at Pontoise, where the As
sembly of the Clergy was sitting — the Coadjutor of
Rheims, Charles Le Tellier, consecrating, assisted by
the Bishops of Autun and Verdun. The ceremony
took place in the Church of the Cordeliers, and was
attended by the whole Assembly : the Abbe de Fro-
mentieres, afterwards Bishop of Aire, preached on the
occasion, and the next day Bossuet took the oaths as
Bishop of Condom before the King — a form which he
repeated the day following as Preceptor to the Dauphin.
But Bossuet's mind was not at rest as to holding the
two appointments, and he could not reconcile his idea
of a Bishop's duty with his necessary attendance at
Court; so at the end of a year — October 31, 167 1 —
he resigned the See of Condom, together with all its
emoluments, which amounted to 40,000 livres, having
so far barely received what would pay the expenses of
his patent and consecration. On his first nomination
to Condom, Bossuet had resigned all his offices at
Metz, and all he possessed now was the Priory of
Plessis and the Doyenne of Gassicourt, which together
scarcely produced 14,000 livres. That, in doing this,
Bossuet was seeking to satisfy his own conscience
rather than to gain the world's applause, may be

168 BOSSUET PRECEPTOR TO THE DAUPHIN.
inferred from Mme. de Sevigne's writing satirically as
though he were holding large preferments1 — a slander
which she contradicts a little later, saying, " I did not
know that M. de Condom had resigned his Bishopric."2
But right as he clearly was in surrendering these emo
luments, Bossuet was left in a position scarcely fitting
for the Dauphin's Preceptor, and Louis XIV., who,
whatever his faults, did not lack liberality, or a
sense of les convenances, offered Bossuet the choice
between three abbeys, all vacant in consequence of
Cardinal Mancini's death. Bossuet accepted that of
Saint Lucien at Beauvais, which was worth 20,000
livres. Writing about this to the Material de Belle-
fonds, he says : " This abbey which the King gives
me extricates me from cares and difficulties which
could not go on long with the present call upon my
thoughts. Do not be afraid, however, that I am going
to increase my expenditure in a worldly fashion. A
luxurious table is out of keeping with my office as well
as my taste, and my relations shall never make a har
vest out of the Church's revenues. I shall pay all my
debts as speedily as possible: they chiefly concern
necessary outlay in Church matters, such as my bulks,
vestments, and the like. As to all benefices, assuredly
they are intended for those who serve in the Church,
and so long as I hold no more than what is requisite
' Lettres, vol. ii. p. 152. 2 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 162.

PECUNIARY DIFFICULTIES. 169
for my position, I do not know that I ought to have
any scruples. Beyond that I will certainly not go,
and, God knows, I have no wish to raise myself. So
soon as I shall have finished my work here, I shall
be quite ready to retire, and to work wherever God
may call me. As to what is necessary thus to fill my
position, it is difficult at present to decide that accur
ately just yet, on account of various unforeseen ex
penses. As far as I know I am not fond of money,
and I daresay I can go without many conveniences.
But I do not feel myself able to get all that is neces
sary, supposing we go no farther than that, and I
should lose half my wits if I were straitened in my
household affairs. I shall learn by experience what I
can do without, and then I shall come to a resolution,
in which I most certainly will endeavour not to come
before God's Judgment with a doubtful question on
my conscience. ... It was impossible to put matters
straight in the way you suggested. I shall try that in
the end all I do may be to the edification of the
Church. I know I am blamed for certain things,
without which, I am daily convinced, I could have
done no good. I like regularity, but there are seasons
in which it is very difficult to adhere strictly to it.
Where the ruling object is to do right, it comes out
sooner or later — one cannot do everything at once."1
1 CEuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 152.

170 BOSSUET PRECEPTOR TO THE DAUPHIN.
The Prince to whom Bossuet was about to devote
the next ten years of his life was the only legitimate
son of Louis XIV. by his Queen, Marie Therese of
Austria, to whom he was married June 9, 1660. The
Dauphin, Louis, was born November 1, 1661, and his
godmother and great-aunt, Henrietta Maria, Queen of
England, gave him the name of Toussaint, in memory
of his having been born on All Saints' Day. This
prince verified the saying which was popularly applied
to him in his youth : " Fils de roi, pere de roi, jamais
roi."1 He married a Bavarian princess in 1680, and
was the father of the Duke of Burgundy (Fenelon's
pupil, and in his turn the father of Louis XV.), as also of
Philip of Anjou, King of Spain, and of Charles, Due de
Berri. Monseigneur himself died before Louis XIV.,
April 14, 171 1.2 The amount of pains and self-devo
tion with which Bossuet entered upon his task of
Preceptor certainly warranted his conviction that its
duties were too onerous to be compatible with those
involved in ruling a diocese. An unusually clear
insight into his views and practices concerning the
Prince's education is given us, both through the records
of Bossuet's secretary, the Abbe Le Dieu, and through
his own letter, " De Institutione Ludovici Delphini,"
1 Steele de Louis XIV., vol. ii. p. 256.
a" Ce 14 Avril 171 1, onze heures du soir, mourut a Meudon,
de la petite vferole, Mgr. Louis Dauphin." — Le Dieu, Journal,
vol. iv. p. 330.

DAUPHIN'S RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 171

addressed to Pope Innocent IX. in 1679, that Pontiff
having requested him to set forth his opinions and
thoughts on the subject* The whole work was under
taken in a spirit of religion, as a thing to be done for
God's Sake, and as in His Sight, not merely as an
honourable and profitable office, likely to promote the
worldly interests of the preceptor.
Bossuet fully intended to begin by endeavouring to
win the boy's affection and to obtain his confidence ;
he gave up his whole time and attention to him, and
even went so far as to be present every night when he
was put to bed, and send him to sleep with stories !
Nothing was devolved on others. Although Huet, the
sous-precepteur, and deCordemoy, reader, were both able
men, Bossuet attended to every lesson himself in the
smallest detail, partly on the ground that a child learns
more readily where there is no break in style or
manner of teaching. As might be expected, the reli
gious education of the Dauphin was of primary im
portance in Bossuet's eyes,2 and morning and evening
he read a chapter of Holy Scripture with his royal
pupil, who was taught to remain uncovered during this
instruction out of reverence to God's Word ; and if,
* CEuvres, vol. xxiii.
2 Yet Bossuet desired no affectation of external observance in
his Prince, and warned him against an exaggerated outward dis
play, which might easily be unreal, and designed to meet men's
eyes rather than God's.— See Politique, CEuvres, vol. xxiv. p. 57.

172 BOSSUET PRECEPTOR TO THE DAUPHIN.
as would sometimes happen, his attention wandered,
and he showed any irreverence or carelessness of
manner, Bossuet used to take away the Bible from
him, as a reminder of the respect due to God's Word.1
The great orator and patristic student now devoted
his theological stores to explaining Holy Scripture in
simple language to a little child, "plane et simpli-
citer," he says himself; often pointing out to him that
many things in the Word of God were not only beyond
his comprehension, but beyond that of the human
mind altogether. The Gospels were read over several
times before the Old Testament, meanwhile, however,
referring to those prophecies and quotations which
enable the student of the New Testament better to
understand it ; and by degrees Bossuet led his pupil
to read each part of Holy Scripture by the light of all
the rest, whether history or prophecy. Church History,
the Lives of the Saints, and the Acts of Martyrs were
turned to from time to time, and the Catechism, which
Monseigneur learned by heart, was frequently explained
and dwelt upon, and the three words, piety, good
ness, and justice (pietas, bonitas, justitia), fixed in
his mind as the groundwork of all Christian life and
all Royal duties. His personal devotions were not
neglected, and the instructions and prayers selected
and prepared for the Dauphin's use were subsequently
1 CEuvres, vol xxiii. p. 4,

SECULAR EDUCATION. 173

re-arranged and given to the public under the title of
" Prieres Ecciesiastiques," together with the " Cate
chism e de Meaux." ¦
As regarded the secular side of the Prince's educa
tion, Bossuet's view was that " one is not to represent
to one's self a prince always with a book in his hand,
a knitted brow, and eyes downcast. His chief book
is the world, his main study attention to what passes
before him, in order that he may profit by it." 2 And
again he says, " But of all men whom a prince should
know, it behoves him to know best — himself."3
Nevertheless he took great pains to ground the
Dauphin well in grammar, without making that neces
sary branch of study so dry and unattractive as it too
generally becomes to children. With this view he
taught it very much by word of mouth, after writing
careful papers, for he did nothing by halves (and these
grammatical notes were found among his papers after
his death), trying to make his pupil see the application
of the rules he learnt, to interest him in the elements
of philology, and to draw his attention to the varieties
of expression and elegance of which well-chosen lan
guage is capable. The Dauphin was also made to
learn select passages in prose and verse both from
French and Latin authors, which he was led to repeat
* CEuvres, vol. v. 2 vol. xxiii. p. 592.
3 Ibid. p. 600.

174 BOSSUET PRECEPTOR TO THE DAUPHIN.
when they were applicable to the things he heard or
talked about. Arithmetic and a certain portion of ma
thematics and geometrical drawing (the first books of
Euclid are mentioned) Bossuet did not attempt to
teach himself (as we have seen, he had no taste for
the science), but he superintended the lessons of an
able master, Francois Blondel, in this department, and
took care, so he says, that his pupil should not be
wearied or disgusted by them. Geography he taught
the Prince himself, rather as an amusement than as a
serious lesson, — going on imaginary journeys and
voyages, investigating or exploring countries, visiting
(in imagination) all the most notable scenes of the
world, and talking over their peculiarities, the events
that had happened there, the manners and customs of
their inhabitants, and all the endless subjects of
interest which may be drawn out in such a manner
for the instruction of an intelligent child.
The solidity of Bossuet's classical studies has been
already dwelt upon, but so conscientious was he in his
desire to be as thorough a preceptor as possible, that
he set himself to work anew, and prepared his own
mind to teach the rudiments of Latin and Greek by a
renewed and deep study of all the Greek Classics.
" Poets, orators, historians, philosophers, — all the
mighty monuments of Rome and Athens, were once
more carefully studied, and Bossuet made himself so

LOVE OF HOMER. 175
fully master of their genius and their style, that it may
be said he is the only author who has been able to
impart the purest tone of the ancient classics — so diffi
cult to attain — into the French language." ¦ Probably
this was no distasteful task, though had it been, it would
not therefore have been neglected. But Bossuet's enthu
siastic love of Homer has been mentioned before ; he
always found rest and recreation in that study, and he
knew most of the Iliad and Odyssey by heart, going on
for almost any length of time pouring out whole pas
sages from these, or from the writings of Virgil and
Horace. Years after, when Bishop of Meaux, he was
walking in the gardens of Germigny with the Bishop of
Autun, and the conversation turning on Homer, Bossuet
kindled and went off into a long passage of the Iliad,
which he repeated with enthusiasm. His brother
Bishop expressed admiration and surprise at Mgr. de
Meaux' intimate knowledge of the Greek poet : —
" What is there to wonder at," Bossuet asked, " after
spending so many years in teaching grammar and
rhetoric?" " But at what school ?" asked the Bishop of Autun,
puzzled. " Why, at Versailles and Saint-Germain !" Bossuet
answered, smiling ; and he went on to tell — not with
out some self-complacency — that while educating the
¦ Cardinal de Bausset, Vie, vol. i. p. 303.

f76 BOSSUET PRECEPTOR TO 7HE DAUPHIN.
Dauphin, his mind was so full of Homer that not
unfrequently he spouted him when sleeping, waking
himself by the energy of his own declamation ; and
on one occasion he even framed some Greek verses in
his sleep, which he was able to remember when
awake. Bossuet never walked in the country without a Virgil
in his pocket, and his familiarity with classical authors
generally was so great, that when any discussion on a
classical point arose, he was usually able to give an
authoritative answer at once. His Classics are nearly
as much marked and annotated as we have already
said' his Bible and Greek Testament were. Numbers
of spirited translations, made by Bossuet with his pupil
in early days, were found among his papers at his
death, in the Prince's handwriting, especially passages
from Cicero and Sallust ; and while still quite a child,
Monseigneur had acquired a considerable and ready
knowledge of Latin and Greek. Bossuet disapproved
of introducing young students to isolated or detached
passages of great writers : as a rule he made the
Dauphin read a work entire, so as to accustom him
not only to study great authors in detail, but to look
at the large aim and end, the ensemble, of a book,
" believing" (he says in his letter to Pope Innocent)
" that detached portions are never properly under
stood, and that the true beauty of each can only be

HISTORICAL TRAINING. 177
perceived by viewing the whole as you would view a
building, so as to take in its design and idea."
Bossuet says that his pupil's favourite authors were
Virgil and Terence, Sallust and Caesar, especially the
latter. It is easy to understand that a young prince,
brought up at a time when war and the glory of military
enterprise was so prominent, should have listened with
more practical interest to warlike events than any other
side of history. " We used to follow the great Captain
in all his marches," says Bossuet ; " we watched him
encamping, preparing his troops for battle, we saw
him plan and execute his designs, reward or punish
his soldiers, train them, encourage them, control them.
We saw how he could lead a powerful army through a
country without damaging it; how he kept up dis
cipline among his troops ; how he retained his allies
by faithfulness and protection ; how he adapted his
plan of action to the place and the foe he had to en
counter ; how he could pardon the vanquished and yet
put down rebellion ; how he would govern the people he
conquered so wisely that they acquiesced in his victory."
It would take a big book, Bossuet observes, were
he to collect all the notes and extracts made by his
royal pupil, under his guidance, from the various
authors they read together, especially from Cicero.
But the most considerable labour the Dauphin's
preceptor undertook is yet to be mentioned. Rightly
M

1 78 BOSSUET PRECEPTOR TO THE DAUPHIN.
looking upon history as the most important of all
secular studies for a king, as " the ruler of life and
politics," or as he says in one of his great Orations,
"the wisest counsellor of princes, for therein the
greatest kings take no rank save through their virtues,
and abased for ever by the hands of death, they come
singly, without court or train, before the judgment-seat
of time and nations:"1 thus regarding history, he
made it the prominent feature in the Dauphin's edu
cation. Above all, Bossuet desired to give him a
thorough and familiar knowledge of the history of his
own country. " He who would judge well concerning
the future," Bossuet wrote for his royal pupil's instruc
tion, " must diligently consult the past." ' And again
he says, " Great things to the great. The higher a
man's eminence, the greater should be his virtues. A
prince should think great thoughts ; ' the liberal de-
viseth liberal things' (Isa. xxxii. 8). Put away vulgar,
common ideas, and seek after royal thoughts; and
these are such as concern the common welfare : great
men are not born for themselves; great powers, on
which all stand and gaze, are meant for the good of
all mankind." 3 But in order to spare him the weari
ness of toiling through irrelevant matter, lest he should
learn to dislike the study, his preceptor spared the
1 CEuvres, vol. xii. p. 479. 2 Vol. xxiii. p. 625.
3 Ibid. p. 646.

HISTOIRE DE FRANCE. 179

prince the labour of turning over original documents,
always excepting such interesting chroniclers as de
Commines and du Bellay, and himself compiled and
prepared all his historical lessons, teaching them viva
voce while the boy was quite young, making him repeat
the facts, then write them in French in his own words,
and then put them into Latin as a theme, carefully
correcting all these exercises. Every Saturday the
Week's lessons were reviewed, and the Dauphin read
aloud what he had written. In this way the Prince
acquired a thorough knowledge of the groundwork of
French history, and his notes may be found among
the works of Bossuet under the title of " Abrege de
l'Histoire de France."1 This History scarcely deserves
such a position, since, though doubtless the result of
Bossuet's painstaking labours,2 and written under his
1 CEuvres, vol. xxv.
2 An enormous quantity of notes, extracts, and abridgments
prepared for these lessons remain, as well as chronological and
geographical tables and charts — numbers of these from Theo-
phylact, Procopius, Nicetas, Comnenus, Cantacuzenus, Mon-
strelet, Belleforet, Godefroi, Saint-Gelais, de Commines, de
Villars, Guicciardini, Davila, de Thou, etc. etc. — are in Bossuet's
own writing, while other works he committed to trustworthy
deputies, always, however, himself giving them the plan on which
they were to work, and revising the results ; applying the rules
of true and deep criticism to each topic with a thoroughness not
often met with. The Bibliotheque du Roi was laid under con
tribution for his son's education, and papers are still extant giving
summaries and notices of Memoires there found, sent in by the
Garde des Manuscrits at Bossuet's request.

iSo BOSSUET PRECEPTOR TO THE DAUPHIN.
guidance, it is really the young Prince's composition,
and not worthy of Bossuet as an author. The original
manuscripts (which Cardinal de Bausset had examined)
are in the Dauphin's handwriting, corrected and added
to in that of Bossuet, but this is .all. This History
ends with the Life of Charles IX., and it is noteworthy
that in the manuscript the account of the Massacre of
Saint Bartholomew's Eve is in Bossuet's writing, and
that a zealous Huguenot could scarcely speak with
more emphatic abhorrence, or with less mind to justify
in any degree that atrocious wickedness.1 The last
paragraph of the book, and its sententious little moral,
savour of the young Prince's composition, rather than
that of his gifted tutor.
Nor did Bossuet's literary labours for his pupil stop
here. To quote his own words as to the training in
philosophy he aimed at imparting : — " With respect to
philosophical matters, I so arranged them as to set before
him seriously, and in all the absoluteness of their prin
ciples, such as are unquestionable and useful in daily
life. As to those questions which are open to varying
opinion and disputation, I was content to set them
before him as a matter of history, judging that it was
suitable for him to hear both sides impartially, without
entering into their disputes; and that because one who
is born to rule must needs learn to judge, but not to
1 CEuvres, vol. xxv, pp. 620-627.

PHILOSOPHICAL TRAINING. 181
dispute. But believing that real philosophy consists
chiefly in recalling the mind within itself, in order thence
to raise it firmly to God, we began therewith, as at once
the easiest, and also the most solid and useful which
can be set before a student. For herein a man need
only study himself in order to become a perfect philo
sopher, and without laboriously consulting many books,
or toiling over the utterances of bygone philosophers,
or hunting up experiences from afar : he needs but to
observe what he finds within himself in order to re
cognise the Author of his being. Therefore, during
his earliest years, I sowed the seeds of this most
useful and beautiful philosophy, using every means to
teach the prince to distinguish between body and
mind — i.e., between that which rules and that which
obeys — so that in the soul ruling the body he may see
represented God ruling the whole world and the soul
itself. Then, as he grew older, I thought it well to
teach him a more systematic philosophy, the plan of
which I took from the Gospel, ' Take heed to your
selves'1 (Luke xxi. 34), and from King David, 'Such
knowledge is too wonderful and excellent for me, I
cannot attain to it'2 Resting, therefore, on these two
foundations, I wrote a Treatise ' On the Knowledge
1 Attendite vobis.
2 In the Vulgate, which Bossuet quotes, " Mirabilis facta est
scientia tua ex me. " — Psal. xxxviii. 6 ; English version, xxxix. 5.

182 BOSSUET PRECEPTOR TO THE DAUPHIN.
of God and of Self,' ' wherein I set forth the structure
of the body and the nature of the mind, by means of
details which every one has experienced in himself,
showing how a man who knows how to see himself
clearly will see God more really present than aught
else, since without Him man has neither life nor
breath nor being — according to that great treatise
on Philosophy which the Apostle set forth at Athens,
the very theme of all philosophy, saying of the Lord,
- He is not far from every one of us, for in Him we
live and move and have our being. He giveth to all
life and breath and all things' (Acts xvii. 25-28);
Following S. Paul's example, who uses this truth as
familiar to all philosophers, in order to lead them
onwards, I have undertaken to kindle this idea of the
Divinity, which nature has placed within our souls
when created, from the sole contemplation of our
selves ; so that it may be seen clearly that those who
will not perceive wherein they are superior to the mere
beasts are at once the blindest, most wicked, and in
dolent of men." 2
This Treatise, written for the immediate instruction
of one young prince, has become of world-wide fame
among philosophers. Pfere Gratry, in his own great
¦ Traiti de la Connaissance de Dieu et de Soi-mhne, CEuvres,
vol. xxiii. p. 33.
2 De Instil., CEuvres, vol. xxiii. p. 9.

TRAITE DE LA CONNAISSANCE DE DIEU. 183
work, " La Connaissance de Dieu," speaks of it as " a
boolt truly vast in its results and its depth." * Those
who wish to study a masterly analysis of the great
Orator's philosophy, as contained in this Treatise and
elsewhere, will find it under the Article " Bossuet" in
that book, where the striking manner by which he
draws out the dependence of every faculty of the soul
on God is ably summed up — the "hidden spring"
which, while leaving hold on the material, is linked by
a secret point to a Higher Principle. "Ce ressort
cache dont parle Bossuet," says Pere Gratry, " est une
intuition du genie. Qui ne connait pas ce ressort
cache ne comprend rien a l'ame humaine. L'ame de
l'homme tient a la matiere, qui est au-dessous d'elle,
et la touche, c'est evident : mais elle n'y tient pas tout
entiere, et elle touche autre chose que le matiere, elle
touche Dieu, qui est plus haut qu'elle . . . et cette
attache necessaire a Dieu donne a Tame une vertue
secrete, et un ressort cache, par lequel elle peut
s'eiancer plus haut qu'elle, vers I'eternel et l'infini,
pour le concevoir." 2
It is marvellous to think of the energy and activity
of mind which could thus lavish on one child such
* "L'oeuvre de Bossuet, ceuvre veritablement immense par
ses resultats et par sa profqndeur, est une ceuvre d'application
de la Philosophie a la Theologie, et reciproquement."— vol. ii.
p. 47.
2 De la Connaissance de Dieu, vol. ii. p. 68.

»84 BOSSUET PRECEPTOR TO THE DAUPHIN.
intellectual stores; for though now Bossuet's "Traite"
is known to all students of philosophy, and valued as
one of his most able works, it was not published till
after his death in 1722, when, having been first found
among Fenelon's papers, it was supposed to be his.
The fact was, Bossuet had lent it to him when he was
superintending the education of the Due de Bour
gogne, reckoning it as a thing of no public value.
Bossuet's original manuscript was discovered in 1741,
by dint of pressure put upon that nephew, the Bishop
ofTroyes, who proved himself so unworthy a guardian
of his great relative's papers, and was re-edited.
Another work Bossuet composed for the Dauphin's
benefit was a treatise on Logic,1 which he says he took
from Plato and Aristotle, not with a view to train his
pupil in mere verbal subtleties, but to form his judg
ment by solid reasoning. This was followed by a
"Traite du libre Arbitre,"2 and by a work called
" Histoire Universelle," which has enjoyed a great
reputation ever since it was given to the world in 1781.
Nicole says that there is so much talent, soundness of
judgment, dignity, and enlightenment in it, as to make
it one of the most useful books ever written;3 and
Voltaire says that Bossuet " invented a new kind of
eloquence which could hardly have succeeded in any
1 CEuvres, vol. xxiii. p. 249. 3 Ibid. vol. xxiii. p. 426.
" Lettres, vol. xii, Lett. 89.

HISTOIRE UNIVERSELLE. 185
other hands ! He applied the art of oratory to history,
which would appear to discard it. His ' Discours sui
I'Histoire Universelle' had no model, and has had no
imitators. His style has found nothing save admira
tion. Men were amazed at the majestic vigour with
which he depicts the government and manners, the
rise and fall of mighty empires, and at the vigorous,
energetic, and truthful touches with which he draws
and discusses nations."1
It appears from Bossuet's Letter to Pope Innocent
XL that he had written the chief part of this history
during the earlier stages of the Dauphin's education,
and had read it with him, but later on the author
carefully reviewed it, adding to and improving it.2 His
original plan and intentions are set forth in the dedi
cation to the Dauphin. " Even were history useless
to other men," he says, " it behoves princes to read it.
1 Siecle de Louis XIV., vol. ii. p. 108.
2 Sainte Beuve says of the Histoire Universelle: ^"Ce fameux
Discours . . . s'adressait, dans la pensee du gr2rrd Eveque, bien
plus a la posterite qu'a son indolent et inattentif eleve. On peut
dire que Bossuet medita de tout temps cet ouvrage, pour lequel
il amassait bien des reflexions et des pens^es des les annees de
son sejour a Metz, lorsqu'il avait sous les yeux le spectacle des
Juifs nombreux de ce pays, et qu'il conferait avec les plus savants
de leur rabbins." — Nouveaux Lundis, vol. ix. p. 282. Saint
Beuve half complains of the dryness of the early part of this
work, half admires its unity and complete absence of superfluous
words : " On essayerait vainement de detacher quelques passages,
et c'est peut-etre un eloge." — p.. 286.

186 BOSSUET PRECEPTOR TO THE DAUPHIN.
There is no better way for them to discover how
much depends on passion and interest, on the right
use of time and opportunity, on good or bad counsels.
. . . When princes behold even the most hidden
vices of their fellows exposed to the gaze of all men,
notwithstanding the false flattery they received during
their lives, they may well be ashamed of the idle
delight they take in the praise of man, and realise that
true glory can only follow merit. Moreover, it is a
shame, I do not say for a prince, but for any educated
man, to be ignorant about the human race, and the
memorable changes that time has made in the world."1
Bossuet goes on to explain the epochs into which he
divides, his Universal History, which are twelve —
beginning with Adam and ending with Charlemagne.
He had intended to write a second part, continuing
from Charlemagne up to Louis XIV., but this he never
did. The arrangement and condensation of facts is
masterly : perhaps to modern readers this may be a
more obvious merit than the eloquence which Voltaire
praises in the book. Anyhow, the whole serves to
bring out forcibly what may be looked upon as the
key-note of the history: " In a word, there is no earthly
power which does not promote other aims besides its
own, whether it will or no. God Alone knows how to
subject all things to His WilL"2
' CEuvres, vol. xxiv. p. 260. * Ibid, p, 655.

POLITIQUE SACREE. 187
A work called "Politique Sacree" was written towards
the end of Bossuet's preceptorship, when the Dau
phin, then in his seventeenth year, required, as Bossuet
thought, "more instruction than he had yet had in the
principles, rules, and duties of policy." This work is,
as it professes to be, almost literally in the words of
Holy Scripture, from which every proposition and illus
tration is taken. The amount of Holy Writ quoted,
and the thorough knowledge and application of it, are
very remarkable; and Bossuet starts by telling his royal
pupil that " God is the King of kings, and to Him it
appertains to guide and teach them as His ministers,"
— hence His Word is their surest and most infallible
rule. The book is written in the form of propositions,
which establish such points as — " All men have the like
end and object, which is God;" "Each man is bound
to care for his fellow-man ;" and the like. The whole
tone, putting forward strongly, as it does, the Divine
Right of Kings, bears a tone and a stamp rejected in
France not long after, and, as it would seem, for ever.
Nevertheless there are passages which it is curious to
find from the pai of so absolute a royalist, and which
might have satisfied some of his republican successors.
Such as —
" The Son of God did not merely fulfil the ordinary
duties, etc., . . . but He was likewise a good citizen.
. . . He was recognised pour bon citoyen, and it was

188 BOSSUET PRECEPTOR TO THE DAUPHIN.
used as a recommendation to Him that a certain man
' loved the nation.' " '
Probably a few years later there were many in
France who, without agreeing in Bossuet's absolutist
principles, would have been ready cordially to agree
with his proposition that "that government is the best
which is the furthest removed from anarchy." 2 Pos
sibly, too, had all Bossuet's principles been lived out
by kings and people, the bitter days of Revolution
would never have come. But neither princes or
nobles, alas ! acted up to the precept : " Be not
proud : be familiar and accessible ; do not imagine
yourself of a different metal to that of which your
subjects are made. Put yourself in their place, and
be to them what you would wish' were they in yours.
. . . The prince is a public personage who ought to
feel that something is wanting to himself when any
thing is wanting to his people and the State." 3 There
are many pithy truths, too, in these pages, such as —
"The very sight of the monarch has a charm for
his people, and nothing is easier for him than to win
a passionate love for his person." * There is a chapter
on the self-restraint which monarchs should practise,
which must have required some vigour for a servant
of Louis XIV. to write; but Bossuet never forgot that
1 Politique, vol. xxiii. p. 509. " Ibid. p. 526.
3 Ibid. p. 542. *- Ibid. p. 555.

THE DAUPHIN'S CHARACTER. 189
he was still more God's servant than the King's.
" ' Go not after thy lusts, but refrain thyself from thine
appetites. If thou givest thy soul the desires that
please her, she will make thee a laughing-stock to
thine enemies' (Ecclus. xviii. 30, 31). Therefore
resist your own will, and above all be firm against
yourself. The first of all empires is that which a man
maintains over his passions — that is the source and
root of all authority. He who has an empire over
himself is fit to have it over others, but he who is not
master of his own passions, has no strength in him
— he is weak from the very foundation."1
Such were the really vast labours Bossuet undertook
in order to satisfy his sensitive conscience towards his
pupil, on whom he never ceased to inculcate his own
grand view of royal dignity: " Je n'appelle pas majeste
cette pompe qui environne les Rois, ou cet eclat ex-
terieur qui eblouit le vulgaire. C'est le rejaillissement
de la majeste, et non pas la majeste elle-meme."2
Pity it seems that so much care and energy and
self-devotion should not have had more fruit. Mon-
seigneur by no means answered to the efforts made by
his preceptor. Bossuet himself writes from Versailles
to the Maredial de Bellefonds, July 6, 1677, — "I am
nearly at the end of my labours. Monseigneur is so
big, he cannot be much longer under our rule. There
1 Politique, CEuvres. vol. xxiii, p. 576. 2 Ibid. p. 643.

190 BOSSUET PRECEPTOR TO THE DAUPHIN
is much to endure with so very inattentive a mind ;
there is no visible encouragement; — one has to go oh,
as S. Paul says, hoping against hope. He makes
fairly good beginnings, but there is so little that is
stable about him, that the least thing in the world may
overthrow all one has done. I would fain see a more
solid foundation, but it may be that God will do what
we cannot" *
That Bossuet strove earnestly to correct this fault
of inattention may be further judged from the lessons
on attention given in the " Connaissance de Dieu et
de Soi-meme," where he speaks strongly of its neces
sity, and of the way to cultivate it by conquering dis
sipation of mind and wandering thoughts.2 The need
of a strong will, not led by passion, is also dwelt
upon;3 and in the "Politique" he returns to the sub
ject: "You may have truth before your eyes, but if
you do not open them you will not see. And the soul
opens its eyes through attention. ... Be attentive
and thoughtful in all things. ... It is attention every
where that is our safeguard. . . . The inattentive man
must fall into one of two faults ; — he will wander wildly,
or he will be in a lethargy as one that dreams. The
first of these faults produces heedless men, the second
stupid ones."4
1 CEuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 203. 2 Ibid. vol. xxiii. p. 156.
3 Ibid. p. 162. 4 Ibid. p. 611.

HIS MARRIAGE. 191
The Dauphin is generally spoken of in contem
porary Memoires as excessively indolent and careless,
and obstinate, subservient to his father to excess,1 and
there is no doubt that his morals were as loose as un
happily were those of most of his royal relatives.2 He
was very fat and apparently self-indulgent, and Louis
XIV. used to say that he had "la bonne mine d'un
prince allemand." He was, as Sainte Beuve says,
wholly material, a mere dense indolent mass of flesh.3
Bossuet's duties with respect to this prince came to an
end late in 1679, when the Dauphin was just eighteen,
and he was shortly after married to the Bavarian Prin
cess Marie Anne Christine.4 Mme. de Sevigne, men
tioning Bossuet and Mme. de Maintenon among those
who were sent to meet the young Dauphiness at
Schlestadt, says, "If Madame la Dauphine believes
1 Gault de Saint-Germain.
2 Mme. de Sevigne, Lettres, vol. viii. p. 188.
3 N. Lundis, vol. ii. p. 1 15.
4 There is some discrepancy in the dates assigned to this mar
riage, which Cardinal de Bausset speaks of as taking place in March
1681. Voltaire fixes it on March 8, 1680 (Siecle de Louis XIV.,
vol. ii. p. 256) ; but Mme. de Sevigne, writing on January 24,
t68o, says, "lis seront maries demain a Munich" (by proxy);
"on envoie d'ici des habits magnifiques, que l'electeur avoit
demande pour lui et pour sa sceur," vol. vi. p. 320. On the 2nd
February she writes, "II y a huit jours qu'elles (les dames de la
Dauphine) sont partis avec toute la maison pour Schlestadt, " p.
346, and there seems no reason to question the accuracy of Vol
taire's date.

192 BOSSUET PRECEPTOR TO THE DAUPHIN.
that all Frenchmen and Frenchwomen are as clever
as these two specimens she will be disappointed ! " *
Bossuet was appointed Premier Aumonier to the bride,
and in that capacity was the first to take the oath Of
allegiance. The Due de Montausier also resigned his
post as Governor at the Dauphin's maniage, and Mme.
de Sevigne reports him as having said, when taking
leave, "Monseigneur, si vous £tes honne"te homme,
vous m'aimerez, si vous ne l'£tes pas, vous me hairez,
et je m'en consolerai."2
The Bavarian Princess is represented by Mme. de
Maintenon as attractive; her figure, arms, and hands,
beautiful; and she also says that, notwithstanding a great
desire to please, she shewed both wit and dignity. At
Strasbourg the magistrates received her with a German
speech, on which the Princess said, "Messieurs, speak
French — I have ceased to understand German." Mme.
de Sevigne says that she wrote to the Dauphin, "avec
des nuances de style, selon qu'elle a ete pres d'etre sa
femme, qui ont marque bien de l'esprit"3 The same
gossip-loving lady, to whom we are indebted for so
many life-like pictures of her time, says that on the
Princess's arrival, Monseigneur "behaved very well,
though he forgot at first to kiss her when saluting her.
I think," she goes on to say, ''that this princess will
bring us a great deal of devotion, but all the same she
1 Lettres, vol.vi. p. 362. 2 Ibid. p. 372. s Ibid. p. 384.

THE DAUPHINESS. 193
will have to give up the Angelus; do you suppose she
will ever hear that at Saint-Germain ? It was all very
well for Munich ! She wanted to go to confession on
the eve of the final marriage ceremony, but there was
no Jesuit to be found who understood German, — a
Canon of Liege was accidentally found, who tried to
evade the honour, saying that he had never confessed
any one but a soldier wounded in the trenches. How
ever he did as best he could, and so did the Princess.
All this will soon be arranged, for the Princess is no
way behind the Queen in the matter of frequent Com
munion. Her soul will not be in the Pere Bourda-
loue's charge."1
The general impression made by the Dauphiness at
Court seems to have been favourable, though the
Parisian mind was disposed to sneer at Munich ways
as " provincial," and to those ways the Dauphiness was
wedded. " She has no beauty, but her ugliness is not
striking or disagreeable; her face is unsuitable, but
her esprit is most suitable to her position ; everything
she says or does shows how clever she is. She has
bright penetrating eyes, takes in and perceives every
thing quickly ; she is very natural, and no more em
barrassed or awe-struck than if she had been born in
the Louvre. She shows great gratitude to the King,
but without lowering herself at all. She does not
1 Lettres, vol. vi. p. 398.

194 BOSSUET PRECEPTOR TO THE DAUPHIN.
seem to think of herself as having been in an inferior
position to that which she now fills, but as having
been chosen out of all Europe to occupy this. Her
manner is noble, full of dignity and kindness ; she is
fond of poetry, of music, of conversation ; she does
not mind being alone for four or five hours, and is
amazed at the trouble we take here to amuse our
selves. She shuts her door against slander and gossip :
the other day, the Duchesse de la Ferte was going to
tell her as a secret, some joke about the poor Princesse
Marianne,1 whose troubles might be respected; but
Madame la Dauphine said, with a very serious tone,
' Madame, je ne suis point curieuse.' " 2 " No Princess
born in the Louvre could acquit herself better. . . .
She is very obliging, but with dignity and without
any silliness. All her opinions are Muni'ch-made,
and she does not adopt any others. She is asked to
play : ' I do not like gambling.' She is asked to go
out hunting : ' I never liked la chasse.' What do you
like then ? ' I like conversation, I like to be at peace
in my own room, I like to work.' What she does like
very much indeed, is to please the King. This wish
is worthy of her right mind, and she succeeds so well
in the undertaking, that the King bestows a great deal
• The Princesse de Conti, a natural daughter of Louis XIV. by
Louise de la Valliere, and married to the Prince de Conti, January
1 68a 2 Lettres, vol. vi. p. 413.

BIRTH OF THE DUC DE BOURGOGNE. 195
of his time upon her, at the cost of his ' anciennes
amies' who put up but impatiently with the priva
tion."1 " Madame de Coulanges is charmed with the
Dauphiness, and she has good reason to be. . . . She
went to a cabinet where Madame la Dauphine retires
in the afternoon with her ladies, and there she chatted
delightfully. Nobody could have more intelligence
or esprit than this Princess ; she makes herself quite
adored by all the Court." 2
Such a woman seems to have been the wife Bossuel
might have wished for his pupil, and might have hoped
to see retain his affections, but unhappily it was not
so. Even in May 1680 Madame de Sevigne says that
the Dauphiness seemed " triste ;" 3 and if she was the
kind of woman to be inferred from the above descrip
tions of her, the Princess was not likely to find the
Court a congenial element, in spite of the King's
attachment to her, which was constant; and the
various scandals which surrounded her, which would
have tried most people sorely,4 must have been sicken
ing to any right-minded person. The Dauphiness also
extremely desired a child — naturally enough, as heir-
apparent to the Crown of France, and also she perhaps
hoped thereby to secure her husband's affection. The
desired heir came at length, August 6, 1682, and the
1 Lettres, vol. vi. p. 434. 2 Ibid. p. 440.
3 Ibid. p. 462. * Ibid. vol. vii. p. 92.

196 BOSSUET PRECEPTOR TO THE DAUPHIN.
much-desired Due de Bourgogne was received with en
thusiastic j oy. Louis XIV. , usually grave and maj estic,
was overwhelmed with delight, and thought no public
rejoicings sufficient for the occasion. But the Dauphin
was inconstant, and it was said that the Dauphiness's
strong German proclivities estranged even the King
from her.1 This Princess had two other sons, and
died, after giving birth to the last, April 20, 1690.
" Enfin voilk cette pauvre Dauphine morte bien triste-
ment, bien saintement," Madame de Sevigne wrote on
the 26th April. Bossuet waS in attendance at the
last, as well as Louis XIV. and the Dauphin. As the
end drew near, Bossuet suggested that the King had
better retire. " No, no," Louis replied, " it is well
that I should see how those like to myself die."2 The
Dauphiness begged the King's pardon for her want of
complaisance, and strove to kiss his hand : he em
braced her sobbing. She gave a last blessing to her
children, including the little son just born, but adding,
" Quoique, mon petit Berri, vous soyez cause de ma
mort." Madame de Sevigne, writing of this event,
wonders who will be asked to preach the funeral
oration, adding after, in a very worldly mind, that it
seems to her the Dauphiness had three virtues to be
1 Lettres de Sevigni, vol. vii. p. 487.
2 Ibid, vol. x. p. 288. Gault Saint-Germain. " Non, non,
il est bon que je vois comment meurent mes pareils."

THE DAUPHIN A GENERAL. 197
commended, — the three Princes she had borne, the
Dukes of Bourgogne, Anjou, and Berri, — and that
no more was needed. There is no allusion to Bos
suet's being requested to preach on this occasion,
and the oration was delivered by the Bishop of
Nismes. As early as the 1st of May following, Madame de
Maintenon wrote to the Due de Richelieu that there
was talk of a second marriage for the Dauphin ; but
whatever such ideas may have been entertained, they
were not carried out. Probably neither he nor the
King remained long inconsolable. What Bussy de
Rabutin wrote at the time is over-true : " The King,"
he says, " wept much for the Dauphiness at first,
but if I wished to be permanently regretted by some
one, I would not have that ' some one' with all the
affairs of Europe on his hands ! The living soon cause
the dead to be forgotten." *
The Dauphin had already, in 1688, been sent into
Germany, at the head of the army, as his father's Lieu-
tenant-General, the King addressing him publicly on
his departure in these words : " My son, in sending
you to command my armies, I give you the oppor
tunity of making your real merit to be known. Go,
and set it forth before all Europe, so that when I die,
there may be no cause to know that the King is
' Lettres, vol. x. p. 293.

198 BOSSUET PRECEPTOR TO THE DAUPHIN.
dead."1 The Dauphin made himself liked in the
army, and the King was proud, says Voltaire, to have
a son who imitated him without effacing him, and who
made himself beloved by the people, without giving
his father cause to fear him. During the siege of
Philisbourg (which, however, was practically conducted
by the famous engineer Vauban) the Dauphin won
great laurels, and the troops gave him the name of
Louis le Hardi ;2 and after his wife's death, he con
tinued his military and political life, being admitted
into the Council of State in 169T.
We cannot here enter into the wide field of European
politics at this period. The glory of France was on
the wane ; even her victories were unprofitable ; her
people were perishing miserably amid rejoicings and
Te Deums. It is noteworthy that Louis XIV. was
fighting against his brother-in-law, the King of Spain,
against the Elector of Bavaria, father to his daughter-
in-law, and against the Elector Palatine, whose
daughter his brother had married.3 The young Duke
of Burgundy was married to a daughter of the King
of Savoy. From this time we hear much of the
Dauphin's sons, and but little of himself. In 1708, after
the siege of Lille, the allies pressed on from Courtrai,
"¦ Siecle de Louis XIV., vol. i. p. 217.
* Lettres de Sevigne", vol. vii. p. 394.
3 Siecle de Louis XIV. , vol. i. p. 236.

TROUBLES OF FRANCE. 199
and seized the King's premier Ecuyer, imagining their
prisoner to be the Dauphin. The horizon grew
daily darker; famine and war alike pressed heavily on
the people ; and in a Council held during the winter
of 1709, at which both the Dauphin and his son, the
young Due de Bourgogne, were present, the Due de
Beauvilliers drew so touching a description of the
condition of their country, that the King's grandson
burst into tears, and the Council wept with him.1 We
must not pause to recapitulate Marlborough's victories,
or the struggles and intrigues which ended in placing
the Dauphin's second son, Charles Duke of Anjou, on
the throne of Spain, when Louis XIV. uttered his
celebrated bon-mot, " II n'y a plus de Pyrenees."2
On April 14, 17 r 1, the Dauphin died, seemingly little
noticed or cared for ; and not a year after, February,
1712, the Due de Bourgogne (who had become
Dauphin on his father's death) died, as well as his
young wife and eldest child, of a malignant measles
which was at that time devastating Paris. It was their
second son, born February 15, 17 10, who became
Louis XV. As before on the occasion of the Duchess
of Orleans' death, a cry of poison was raised, and the
actual Duke of Orle'ans was suspected by some of
being the cause of his royal relative's death,— without
any foundation, it would appear.
1 Siecle de Louis XIV., vol. i. p. 339. 2 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 32.

200 BOSSUET PRECEPTOR TO THE DAUPHIN.
We have thus glanced onwards over the life of
Bossuet's pupil, the Dauphin Louis, because it does
not again come into contact with that of Bossuet him
self. Although connected with the Prince's house
hold (as Aum6nier to the Dauphiness), there never
seems to have been any intimacy existing between
them ; not a trace of a letter on either side was found
among Bossuet's papers,1 and there are only three
occasions recorded on which the Dauphin visited his
former preceptor, — twice in 1688, on his way to and
from the army in Germany, and again in 1690, when
he arrived on a fine May moming at Germigny, accom
panied by the Due de Vendome and a numerous
suite, and slept one night under Bossuet's roof. The
contrast between this and the warm, hearty, and
devoted friendship which was kept up between Fenelon
and the Duke of Burgundy, who to the last continued
" the disciple, the friend, and the child of his pre
ceptor,"2 is striking. Probably a good deal of the
difference arose from the characters of the two men,
which must have been very widely different, as were
their positions in France; for the young Duke of Bur
gundy was a much more important, influential person
than his father, who had neither any power or wish to
influence public events, and it may be that, as Cardinal
de Bausset says, if he had been inclined to consult
' Cardinal de Bausset, Vie, vol. i. p. 429. 2 Ibid.

THE DAUPHIN'S CHARACTER.

Bossuet, he would have had nothing about which to
ask advice ! But though this might be so as regards
politics and statesmanship, it could hardly apply to his
private life, in which the Bishop who had taught him,
and sat by his bed to put him to sleep with stories,
might have been expected to have a strong hold over
the affections of the Prince, whose high position re
moved him from the home tendernesses other children
receive. Most likely the blame is not all to be attributed
to the Dauphin. The Due de Montausier was a dry,
hard man at best,1 and one gathers that the stupid,
heavy Dauphin was coerced and taught and drilled,
till, as a clever modern writer has said, he was simply
disgusted, for the rest of his life, with anything like
intellectual effort or intelligent thought. That Bossuet
intended and sought to be all that was kind and indul
gent to his pupil, as far as was consistent with the
duty he was too conscientious to neglect, we cannot
doubt ; but it is unquestionable that he did not possess
the marvellously loving and loveable nature which
makes one feel to this day as though Fenelon were a
personal friend, a kindly spiritual Father, ready to
listen and help each soul that turns to him. The
graver, more dignified, and possibly more learned
1 " Montausier, qui sous ses vertus de Caton et sous le manteau
de due et pair, avait un arriere-fond de pedant, et une durete de
cuistre." — N. Lundis, vol. ii. p. 115.

202 BOSSUET PRECEPTOR TO THE DAUPHIN.
Bishop of Meaux, had not the same power of winning
hearts as the gentle Archbishop of Cambrai ; he was
more fitting society for critical scholars and theologians
than for a dull prince ; and while regretting that the
Dauphin's colder nature shows to so much less advan
tage in this respect than that of his son, it is but fair
not to lay on him the whole blame of the indifference —
for it does not seem to have been a positive estrange
ment — which existed between himself and the precep
tor, whose name is so far more conspicuous in his coun
try's history than his own. Perhaps Fenelon would
have won a brighter response even from the Dauphin's
" inert mass of mindless matter."

ACADEMIE FRANCAISE. 203

CHAPTER V.
BOSSUET A BISHOP.
Bossuet elected a Member of the Academie Francaise—
Discours — His Habits of Life — Society — Allee des
Philosophes — Gatherings of Literary Men — Louise de
la Valliere — Her Penitence — Consults Marechal
de Bellefonds — Correspondence with Bossuet — She
leaves the Court — Mademoiselle de Blois — The
Duchess joins the Carmelites and takes the Habit —
Takes the Veil — Bossuet preacher on the Occasion—
Her After Life and Death — Madame de Montespan—
The Cure of Versailles refuses her Communion — Louis
XIV. consults Bossuet — He tries to separate the King
from her — Letters to Louis XIV.— The King relapses
— Bossuet's last Efforts — Mademoiselle de Fontanges
— Conversion of Mademoiselle de Duras — The Minis
ter Claude — Death of the Due de Rochefoucauld —
Bossuet's Correspondence.
BUT while Bossuet was carrying on the Dauphin's
education, as his first work and engrossing
duty, it must not be supposed that this was all which
occupied him. His influence was reaching far and
wide throughout the literary and Church world. The
Academie Franchise, that intellectual throne which
all literary Frenchmen coveted beyond all else, de
sired to make her boast of embracing Bossuet On

204 BOSSUET A BISHOP.
the death of Archbishop Perefixe the Academie would
gladly thus have filled his place, but it behoved them
to elect his successor, Mgr. de Harlay; and it was
only the seasonable death of an obscure member, the
Abbe Duchatelet,1 which enabled the Academie to
offer Bossuet a seat — a proceeding which was carried
on with such urgency that, in his Discours de reception,
Bossuet alludes to it half plaintively though gracefully,
as leaving him less than sufficient time to prepare his
formal address.2 It was June 8, 1671, that Bossuet
made his Discours. At that time it was not an invari
able custom, as it has since become, for the new
Academician to make his discourse chiefly a panegyric
on his predecessor, not even to make any allusion to
that individual; and accordingly Bossuet does not so
much as mention Duchatelet's name. Cardinal Riche
lieu, Louis XIV., and the Dauphin are eulogised, but
neither the Discours itself, or the reply to it made by
the Director, M. Charpentier, are specially remark-
1 " Immortel qui est mort tout entier," says the Editor of the
Discours. 2 " C'est qu'ayant abrege en ma faveur vos formes et vos delais
ordinaires, vous me pressez d'autant plus a vous temoigner ma
reconnaissance, que vous vous e^es vous-memes presses de me faire
sentir les effets de vos bontes particulieres ; si bien que m'ayant
6te par la grandeur de vos graces le moyen d'en parler dignement,
la facilite de les accorder me prive encore du secours que je
pouvais espirer de la meditation et du temps." — Discours,
CEuvres, vol. xii. p. 700.

SOCIAL HABITS. 205
able. Bossuet was faithful to his duties as an
Academician (they are not very burdensome) all his
life, and never failed duly to attend its meetings or
more private conferences.
As might be expected, the Dauphin's tutor — who
was also a well-known author, an Academician, and
the most celebrated orator of his day — was greatly
sought after by the world in which he lived without
mingling. Emphatically so; for while attentive to
all that was required of him by etiquette, or les bien
seances, Bossuet refused to enter into the polished but
frivolous society which surrounded him, and studiously
confined his relations with the great world to the
claims of necessity or duty.1 As was the case through
all his life, so at Court, Bossuet's manner of life was
simple, not to say frugal : his table admitted neither
1 Chateaubriand asks how it was possible that the Bishop of
Meaux, perpetually surrounded, as he was, with the pomps and
vanities of Versailles, could have attained the depths of spiritu
ality and meditation which poured forth in his sermons and
writings? He answers: "C'est qu'il a trouve dans la religion
toute une solitude ; c'est que son corps etoit dans le monde, et
son esprit au desert ; c'est qu'il avoit mis son cceur a l'abri dans
les tabernacles secrets du Seigneur; c'est, comme il l'a dit lui-"
meme de Marie Therese d'Autriche, qu'on le voyait courir aux
autels pour y gouter avec David un humble repos, et s'enfoncer
dans son oratoire, oil malgre le tumulte de la Cour, il trouvoit le
Carmel d'Elie, le desert de Jean, et la montagne si souvent
terooin des gemissements de Jesus." — Genie du Christianisme,
vol. ii. 1. iv. p. 307.

206 BOSSUET A BISHOP.
of luxury or profusion, his apartments were furnished
with modesty, and his household and equipage did
not exceed what was necessary. He indulged in no
show, in no fashionable amusements, and perhaps the
best compliment that could be paid to him, being who
and what he was, in those times, was that " he might
be taken for any ordinary ecclesiastic." *
But he could not help holding a literary court of
his own, and accordingly almost every man of any
note was eager to gather round Bossuet in the after
noons when he received people; and, weather per
mitting, he and his following used daily to walk up
and down the beautiful gardens and "pleached alleys"
of Versailles, Fontainebleau, or Saint-Germain, accord
ing to where the Court might be for the time. To the
end of his life, even in the last summer — that of 1703
. — Bossuet was to be seen, accompanied by a cortege
[comprising all the elite of the clergy and philosophers
of his day ; and though the leader's hair grew white and
his figure stooped, as years passed on from the early
time of which we are speaking, his " natural force did
not abate" nor the power and grasp of his thoughts and
words lose their fascination for those permitted to
share in them.2
1 Vie, vol. ii. p. 2.
* " La seul usage qu'il fit de son ascendant et de son autorite,
fut de reunir autour de lui des hommes qui pouvoient l'aider dans

HIS LITERARY ASSOCIA PES. 207
Among these were Fenelon, who was presented at
this time to Bossuet by his uncle the Marquis de
Fenelon, and who in his turn introduced the Abbe de
Langeron (son of that Mme. de Langeron who Mme.
de Sevigne calls " l'ame de toute la parure de I'Hotel
de Conde").1 Peiisson, who, though not in Holy
Orders, was an able and eloquent man, craved admit
tance into the group, and found it. He was a convert
la recherche et la propagation de la science biblique; l'Abbe de
la Broue, depuis Eveque de Mirepoix; l'Abbe de Saint-Luc,
aumonier du Roi; l'Abbe Renaudot, savant Orientaliste ; Cor-
demoy, auteur d'une Histoire de France; Nicolas Thoynard,
connu par son Harmonie des quatre Evangiles; puis Fenelon,
Fleury, Peiisson, La Bruyere. Au sortir de la lecon qu'il donnoit
a. M. le Dauphin, il trouvait souvent dans son cabinet cette troupe
d'elite qui 1'attendoit pour etudier 1'ecriture sainte : souvent aussi
il alloit, entoure de ce cortege, se promener au pare de Versailles,
dans l'Allee des Philosophes, sous ces arbres temoins de tant de
grandeur et qui devoient l'etre de tant d'abaissement. Dans ces
promenades qui rappeloient les entretiens du philosophe grec, ou
dans son cabinet qui faisoit songer a. 1'ecole d'Alcuin dans le
palais de Charlemagne, Bossuet, la Bible a la main, proposoit
^interpretation d'un texte sacre, l'explication d'un hebra'isme, la
solution d'une difficulte quelconque; chacun apportoit librement
son contingent a la science, l'un en philologie, l'autre en her-
meneutique, l'autre en histoire; le Pere qui presidoit le Conseil
comme on s'exprimoit a la Cour, animoit les efforts par les
charmes de la deference, et 'si la superiority de son genie ne
l'avoit pas fait reconnaitre, sa modestie l'eut fait oublier.'
L'Abbe de Fleury redigeoit les notes, arretees d'un commun
accord, a c6te des textes, sur les marges de la Bible de Vitry." —
Rzmarques Historiques.
1 Lettres, vol. vi. p. 310.

208 BOSSUET A BISHOP.
from Calvinism, and no one in the company better
appreciated Bossuet's learning. The Aliees of the
Petit Pare at Versailles, especially one called hence
forth the Aliee des Philosophes, was the favourite
scene of these gatherings, in which, though conversa
tion was perfectly free and unshackled, often turning
upon the literary novelties of the day, or on poetry
and art — when Bossuet would be carried away by his
enthusiasm, and draw forth from that unfailing me
mory stores of ready and happy quotations ; yet
graver subjects often prevailed. Discussions upon
matters the deepest of religion and philosophy would
arise — questions concerning difficult passages in Holy
Scripture, or dogmas, were raised; and sometimes
Bossuet would read or have read parts of his own
writings, and take the suggestions and opinions of his
friends for their correction or improvement. The
Politique Sacree was read and revised in this way — so
the Abbe Le Dieu tells us — during Bossuet's last re
sidence at Versailles, in 1703. Almost from his first
residence at Court, Saint-Germain had been the King's
winter abode, as was Versailles in the summer ; and
as there was no afternoon service on Sundays in the
Chapel Royal, Bossuet proposed to his group of
familiars that, instead of it, they should devote the
usual walk to the study of Holy Scripture, and the
suggestion being first made in Advent, they resolved

SUNDA YS AT COURT. 209
to begin with the Prophet Isaiah. A large Bible, with
ample margin for notes, was kept specially for the
purpose, and at the end of each walk it was the Abbe
Fleury's business to enter into this Bible the results of
the day." There, amid the gay and splendid Court,
trifling away their time in idle and often far worse
ways, Bossuet might be seen, Sunday after Sunday,
Bible in hand, while Fleury — who always carried
writing materials on purpose — took down his com
ments. This Sunday habit continued up to the year
1685, and to make sure of not losing their time
through unpunctuality, Bossuet used to invite his co-
operators in the work to dine with him before their
work. The Abbe de Longuerue says, moreover, that
the fare supplied to the body at Bossuet's table was
by no means so good as the mental fare which was to
follow !
Eventually many of the notes and dissertations thus
gathered were published. In 1691 Bossuet published
the " Dissertatio de Psalmis," to which were joined
the Canticles or Hymns of Praise found in Exodus
xv., Deuteronomy xxxii., Judges v., 1 Sam. ii., Isaiah
xii., xxvi., xxxviii., the Benedicite (Dan. iii. in the
Vulgate), Jonah i., Habakkuk iii., Judith xvi. ; and the
1 Cardinal de Bausset says, in 18 19, that this Bible (Vitry's ed. ),
containing Fleury's notes, as also some in Bossuet's own hand-
wi-ifinc, was in possession of a Paris bookseller named Brajeux.
O

210 BOSSUET A BISHOP.
three great Canticles of the New Testament1 In
1693 he further published, with a Latin preface to
each, the Books of Solomon,2 — Proverbs, Ecclesiastes,
and the Song of Songs — the latter of which, a year
later, he himself translated and published in French
for the benefit of the Ursulines of Meaux.3
But there were other tasks, more difficult and less
congenial, for Bossuet to perform during his Court life,
— tasks requiring the most delicate possible handling.
Mme. de la Vallifere's faults and her repentance are
alike matters of history. Louise Francoise de la
Baume le Blanc de la Valliere, born 1644, came of a
good Touraine family. Her father, the Governor of
Amboise, died early, and her mother marrying again,
their child was brought up in the family of Gaston
Duke of Orleans, and in 1661 she became maid 01"
honour to Henriette d'Angleterre, wife of Philip Duke
of Orleans. Her intellectual powers were small, and
her education had not been good, neither was her
beauty by any means perfect ; but her soft blue eyes
and fair hair, the tender and shrinking expression,
which truly represented her simple, trusting, straight
forward character, made her very attractive in a Court
where none of these were ordinary features. Admira
tion — not always honourable — was lavished on her, —
but no lover met with any response save the King, to
• CEuvres, vol. i. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid.

LOUISE DE LA VAXLlERE.

whom Louise de la Valliere gave her heart, with a pas
sionate devotion that was the less resisted from her
looking upon him as altogether beyond her sphere ;
and throughout her sad history it is evident that it was
the man, not the monarch, whom she loved. Even
the cynical Voltaire admits this.1 The most splendid
Court ever known lay at her feet, all its most brilliant
fe"tes were for her, — but "the little violet," as Mme. de
Sevigne calls Mme. de la Valliere,2 was not happy.
Her love for the King and for her children kept her
a while in her position of external glory and real deeply
felt shame. But when Louis XIV. put the stamp
upon her guilt by creating her Duchesse de Vaujour,
and legitimatising her children (two only lived,
Mademoiselle de Blois, born 1666, married later to
the Ptince de Conti,3 and Louis de Bourbon,
Comte de Vermandois, born 1667), her agony of
shame and repentance at thus receiving a price for
her sin led her to fly from the Court, and twice she
rushed off to the Convent at Chaillot, where her mis
tress, the Duchess of Orleans, had been so intimate,
and where she herself had friends, intending to break
through the guilty chains of passion which bound her.
1 Siecle de Louis XIV, vol. i. p. 403.
2 Lettres, vol. vii. p. 192: "Cette petite violette, cuisecachoit
sous l'herbe, et qui etoit honteuse d'etre maitresse, <l'£tre mere,
d'etre duchesse : jamais il n'y en aura sur ce moule."
3 See page 194.

BOSSUET A BISHOP.

A touching message to the King, in which Mme. de
la Valliere let escape that the struggle between affec
tion and repentance was hard, and that the former
was likely to triumph, had the natural effect, and after
an interview with Louis XIV. she returned to Ver
sailles,1 where evidently her flight was looked upon as
a mere ruse, the better to hold the King's affection.2
But this was not so, and though the bitter trial of
seeing the man she loved faithless to her, as he had
been to his Queen, tried her sorely, and her successful
rival, Mme. de Montespan, heaped all manner of in
sult upon her, these were not the only stimulating
causes of her penitence. Indeed this latter trial,
which would have been simply intolerable to one who
met it in a purely worldly spirit, was received by
Louise de la Vallifere as a direct punishment from
God, and as an expiation for her own sin. " Mme.
de la Vallifere remained under the same roof with
Mme. de Montespan," wrote a lady belonging to the
Court, " out of the spirit of mortification, — the poor
thing fancied that she could not offer a greater sacri
fice to God than through the cause of her sin, and she
1 Lettres de Sevigne", vol. i. p. 322.
2 Mme. de Sevigne writes, "Mme. de la Valliere ne parle
j.lus d'aucune retraite, c'est assez de l'avoir dit : sa femme de
chambre s'est jetee a ses pieds pour Ten empgcher : peut -on re-
sister a cela?" — Lettres, vol. iii. p. 264.

HER REPENTANCE. 213
thought it all the better that her penitence should be
shown in the very quarter where she had fallen."1
As has been already said, it is probable that some
of the sermons Mme. de la Valliere heard from Bos
suet went deeply into her poor quivering heart; so too
doubtless did the awfully sudden death of her former
mistress, Henriette d'Angleterre ; — she never gave up
her religious duties even through the saddest parts of
her life, and some of Bourdaloue's Lenten sermons,
which she heard in common with the King and the
Court, impressed her still more powerfully. Indeed,
as one reads some of those stern, uncompromising
denunciations of vice, one can hardly imagine how
any one, not utterly hardened, could have sat week by
week and listened to them unmoved.2 A severe ill—
1 Remarques Historiques, CEuvres, vol. xi. p. 258.
2 See Sermon sur [Impureti: "II n'y a point de peche, ni qui
jette I'homme dans un plus profond aveuglement d'esprit, ni qui
l'engage dans des desordres plus funestes, ni qui le captive da-
vantage sous l'empire du demon, ni qui forme dans son cceur un
ver de conscience plus insupportable et plus piquant, et tout
cela par une vertu qui lui est propre. D'oii je conclus, que ce
peche est done un signe manifeste de l'etat malheureux de la
reprobation," etc. — Bourdaloue, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 93.
See also sermons Sur V Aveuglement Spirituel, Preparation a
la Mort, etc., etc. Bourdaloue must have had a queer congre
gation sometimes, judging from contemporary records. For in
stance, Mme. de Sevigne says, "Le Marechal de Gramont etoit
l'autre jour si transports de la beaute d'un sermon de Bourda
loue, qu'il s'ecria tout haut en un endroit qui le tcucha: 'Mon

214 BOSSUET A BISHOP.

ness mercifully confirmed the penitential yearnings
which had been once quashed, — and, happily for the
poor penitent, she chose for her confidant and guide
the Marechal de Bellefonds, a gallant soldier, more
likely to be found leading his troops to battle than
acting as Director to a great lady at Court. But so it
was, and the Marshal performed his office admirably.
His own counsels were such as to lead poor Louise to
write to him, November 9, 1673, — "I feel that, not
withstanding the greatness of my faults, love has a still
larger influence over the sacrifice I am making than
the necessity of repentance." The Marshal, however,
sought other help for his penitent friend, and put her
into communication not only with his own sister, the
Mfere Agnes de Bellefonds, Prioress of the Carmelites
in the Rue Saint-Jacques, but also with Bossuet, with
whom he had been for long on the most intimate terms.
After a first interview1 she wrote to the Marshal that
"M. de Condom praises God's Mercy to me, and
advises me to fulfil His holy Will promptly. He even
Dieu, il a raison I' Madame eclata de rire, et le sermon en fut
tellement interrompa, qu'on ne savoit ce qu'en arriveroit." —
Lettres, vol. ii. p. 457.
¦ Mme. de la Valliere must frequently have seen Bossuet, but
apparently without becoming personally acquainted with him till
this time. He would naturally, one may suppose, shun her
society, until the occasion for being of use to her, spiritually,
arose.

LETTERS FROM BOSSUET. 215
thinks that I shall be able to do so sooner than I
imagine." Soon after we find Bossuet writing to the Marechal
de Bellefonds : — " Saint Germain, December 25, 1673.
" Since you left I have seen the Duchesse de la
Valliere several times : she is very well disposed, and
I hope will act accordingly. A rather stronger nature
than hers is would have already done more, but we
must not lead her to do what she cannot keep up.
For this reason, seeing that it is very much wished to
keep her from fulfilling her intention until the de
parture of the Court, and that possibly still more
might be done with the high hand of authority, if
there were any very sudden rupture, I have thought it
best to make sure of the chief point, and only to
loosen gradually the bonds which a stronger hand
than hers would have broken at once. What is very
satisfactory in her is, that she is not at all frightened
at any of the details of the condition she has resolved
to embrace, and her resolution grows daily stronger.
I do what I can to uphold her in her pious intentions,
and if I see any opportunity of forwarding matters, I
shall not lose it.
" Other matters are much as usual. M. de Turenne
has arrived, — grown very much fatter. He is in very
good humour with the King, and the King with him.

216 BOSSUET A BISHOP.
Madame de la Valliere has constrained me to speak on
the subject of her vocation with Madame de Monte
span. I said what was due, and as far as I was able
I set forth how wrong it would be to hinder her in her
good purposes. There is no great objection to her
retirement, but it seems that the idea of the Carmelites
is alarming. There has been an attempt to over
throw this intention by dint of ridicule. I hope by
and by there will be a different feeling on this head.
The King knew that I had been spoken to, but as
His Majesty has said nothing to me on the subject, I
have also been silent hitherto. I recommend the
Duchess to put her affairs in order as speedily as
possible. She shrinks exceedingly from speaking to
the King, and postpones doing so from day to day.
M. Colbert, to whom she has applied as to the tem
poral side, will not help her speedily, unless she acts
with rather more vigour than is her wont." '
It was a strange thing, to say the least of it, that
Madame de la Vallifere should need her rival's interces
sion to be allowed to retire from the world ; but at this
time Madame de Montespan was all-powerful, and the
King, although he had allowed himself to be entirely
separated from Louise de la Valliere, shrank from
seeing her so severely punished (for to him a life of
penitence in a Carmelite Convent could have no other
1 CEuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 161.

TO THE MARSHAL DE BELLEFONDS. 217

aspect) for what had been mainly his fault. No wonder
that Louis XIV. did not wish to speak on such a sub
ject with Bossuet. The King could not have heard
him preach so often without knowing full well that,
when the fitting season came, his son's preceptor
could "boldly rebuke vice;'' and although he was
giving up Madame de la Valliere, he had no intention
of a similar renunciation with respect to Madame de
Montespan. Of that more hereafter.
A month later, Bossuet wrote to the Marshal : —
" Saint Germain, January 27, 1674.
" I received your letter, and myself took yours
inclosed to the Duchess. The world has dealt very
hardly with her, and God very mercifully. I hope
that He will win the day, and that one day we shall
see her attain a very real holiness. I write now
from her room : she has shown me your letter, wherein
I see strong marks of M. de Grenoble.
" Alas ! when shall we repair the evil which we do
and cause to be done ? All our words and looks are
fertile in mischief, which we spread abroad ; some we
grieve ; others we teach to love the world. We give
way either to weak attachments, or to scornful dislikes;
we are ill-regulated, because we are wanting in the
ruling spirit of charity, and our want of regulation de
moralises others. Insensibly we impart to others what

218 BOSSUET A BISHOP.
we feel ourselves, and our own self-love is so great,
that we incite others to self-love. This is what may
be called the contagion of the world : there is a cor
ruption of others deliberately made, but that is coarser,
and more easily perceived. But the sort of contamina
tion which we impart without thinking, which is spread
merely by seeing what others do, which is conveyed by
tones of voice and expression of countenance, — this it
is which above all needs to call forth the frequent cry,
Who can tell how oft he offendeth ? O cleanse Thou
me from my secret faults, and from those which I cause
others to commit !' Until such time as truth shall reign
within us, vanity and lying will pour forth from out of
us, and infect all around." '
"Versailles, February 8, 1674.
" I have given your letters to the Duchesse de la
Valliere : they seem to me to have a good effect on
her. She is in much the same mind, and I think that
she gets her affairs forward after her own fashion, slowly
and gently. But if I am not mistaken, her actions are
inwardly strengthened by God's Grace, and the upright
ness which I perceive in her heart will overcome every
thing. ... I gave your compliments to Madame N.
She is better than the world gives her credit for being,
but not so good as she thinks herself, for she still mis-
1 Vol. xxvi. p. 162.

PROGRESS OF THE AFFAIR. 219
takes a slender wish to be good for goodness itself,
and that is a dangerous delusion for beginners." ¦
" Versailles, March 3, 1674.
" I have kept back my answer a long time, as well
as two letters from the Duchesse de la Valliere, mean
ing to give them to M. Desvaux, and finally I gave
them to Mere Agnes. It was not hard to find a good
reception for your letters to the Duchesse ; she receives
them joyfully, and is greatly touched by them. It
appears to me that her affairs are making progress,
without any effort on her part. God does not forsake
her, and without any violence He is loosening her
bonds. She does not say anything about final arrange
ments, but I think they will come soon, and that the
great step will be taken ; at all events, she is very
well disposed for it." ' " Versailles, April 6, 1674.
" I send you a letter from Madame de la Valliere,
which will show you that by God's Grace she is going
to carry out the intentions His Holy Spirit has put
into her heart. The whole Court is astonished and
edified at her calmness and cheerfulness, which in
crease as the time draws nearer. Indeed, there is
something so heavenly in her mind, that I cannot
think of it without a continual thanksgiving, and I see
1 Vol. xxvi. p. 163. ' Ibid. p. 166.

BOSSUET A BISHOP.

the Finger of God, the work of the Holy Spirit, in the
strength and humility of all her thoughts. Her affairs
have been arranged with a wonderful ease ; she
breathes nought save penitence, and without being
afraid of the austere life she is about to embrace, she
looks forward to its end with a hope which causes her
to forget the intermediate suffering. I am both de
lighted and dumbfoundered ! I talk, and she acts !
I say all the words, she does all the deeds ! When I
dwell upon all these things, I enter fully into the long
ing for silence and retirement, and I cannot utter a
word but what sounds like my own condemnation." J
Madame de la Vallifere's only remaining struggle
seems to have been quitting her child, Mademoiselle de
Blois, now twelve years old, and leaving her surrounded
by perils which no one could better estimate than her
self. The little girl was brought up by Madame Col
bert, and child as she was she was already in the world,
according to the custom of the day. Madame de
Sevigne, in January 1674, describes a visit to Madame
Colbert, when " Mademoiselle de Blois danced : she
is a prodigy of charms and grace. . . . The Duchesse
de la Valliere was there : she calls her daughter Made
moiselle, and the Princess calls her belle Maman. M.
de Vermandois was there too." 2 And again : " The
1 CEuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 168. 2 Lettres, vol. iii. p. 303.

FINAL DEPARTURE FROM COURT.

balls are full of little children. . . . Mademoiselle de
Blois is a chef-d'oeuvre: the King and everybody else
is enchanted with her. In the middle of a ball she
came up to Madame de Richelieu, asking, ' Madame,
can you tell me if the King is pleased with me ? ' All
sorts of pretty sayings come out of her charming
mouth ; she fascinates people with her wit, of which
no one could have more." '
This was the daughter, and such her position, for
whom, nevertheless, Louise de la Valliere was forced
to feel she could do nothing by remaining in the
world, but teach her child that a Duchy can gild
shame !
" I have but one step more to take," she wrote to
her friend, the Marechal de Bellefonds. " I can
readily give up riches and grandeur, but my feelings
are strong, and what you were told about Mademoiselle
de Blois is quite true. I love her, but she will not
keep me back a moment. I leave her without pain,
though I see her with delight. This sounds like a
contradiction, but nevertheless it is true. I must
speak to the King ; that is the worst. Pray to God
for me, that He may give me the courage I need to
do this." And again, on March 19, the Duchess
wrote : " At last I quit the world, without regret, but
not without pain. My weakness has kept me in it a
' Lettres, vol. iii. p. 317.

BOSSUET A BISHOP.

long time without any taste for it; — I might rather
say, amid infinite vexations. You know most of them,
and you also know the keenness of my feelings. I am
conscious daily that this is not diminished, and I am
well aware that the future would give me no more
satisfaction than the past or the present."
It was on April 20, 1674, that, all hindrances re
moved, Madame de la Valliere finally left the world
and retired to the Carmelites' House. She was not
thirty at the time. The first day of her arrival she
had her beautiful hair cut off, and asked for the reli
gious habit, and the next day she wrote : "I am
so calm and so satisfied, that I cannot be suffi
ciently grateful to God for His Goodness to me."
The coarse serge dress, the plain food, abstinence
and fasting, toil, strict silence and inward mortification
of the Carmelites' life, were all so many welcome tests
to the sincerity of her craving for a real repentance ;
indeed, she would fain have found the rule harder and
more severe. .Her ardent zeal, her absolute submis
sion and earnest penitence, led to the shortening of
her probation, and on the 2nd June she was admitted
to the veture ox prise d' habit. Madame de la Valliere
had asked Bossuet to preach the sermon customary
on these occasions, and he had promised to do so ;
but when the time came he was in attendance as
Aumonier on the Dauphin, who was beginning his

THE CARMELITES. 223
military career at the siege of Dol, where Louis XIV.
commanded in person. Bourdaloue, who was next
asked, was also unable for some reason to be present,
and the sermon was preached by the Abbe de Fro-
mentibres, afterwards Bishop of Aire. The postulant
took the name of Sceur Louise de la Misericorde. She
asked to be permitted to be a lay sister only, but this
was refused, and she could only obtain a promise that
she should share freely in the hardest work of the
Community. How little her real mind could be under
stood by the Court she had left may be gathered
from Madame de Sevigne's chatter on the subject :
" I want to tell you about the Duchesse de la
Vallifere," she writes to the Comte de Guitard ; " the
poor thing has drunk the very dregs of everything ;
she would not spare herself a tear or an adieu. She
is gone to the Carmelites, where for a week she saw
her children and all the Court; that is, all that remains
of it. She has had all her beautiful hair cut off, but
she has kept two nice curls on her forehead. She
talks away and tells marvels ! She declares that she
delights in her solitude, and she fancies herself in a
desert, chained up to that grating !" '
Bossuet's account to the Mere Agnes de Belle
fonds is probably truer, as it is certainly more satis
factory : — ' Lettres, vol. iii. p. 340.

224 BOSSUET A BISHOP.
" Saint Germain, March 19, 1675.
" Since the last interview I had with ma Sceur Louise
de la Misericorde, I feel as though I could do nothing
but perpetually pour myself out in acts of thanksgiving
for her. I had not seen her for four months, and I
found her gone so much farther in the ways of God,
with such true light and such clear and strong con
victions, that one cannot but see the work of the Holy
Spirit therein. As far as I am able to judge, this soul
will prove a very miracle of grace. All she needs is
some one who can teach her to open her heart, and who
knows how to lead her on, without letting her be con
scious of it herself. God has laid the foundations of
great things in that heart of hers. Indeed, it is alto
gether a ' new creature,' and I am more than ever
satisfied with the appropriateness of my text1 I quite
expect, dear and reverend Mother, that I shall preach
the sermon, for it does not seem as if we should travel
at present. I am sincerely glad of it, and I pray most
heartily that God may enable me to say some helpful
word to this soul. My soul travails therewith, and I
know not how or when it will bring forth. Pray, my
dear Mother, that the Uncreated Word, conceived
eternally in the Bosom of the Father, and in time
1 Bossuet had chosen the words, " Behold, I make all things
new" (Rev. xxi. 5), as the text for his sermon on the occasion
of Madame de la Valliere's approaching profession.

MADAME DE LA VALLlERE'S PROFESSION. 225
clothed with flesh for the sake of man, may fill my
mind. Do not let ma Sceur Anne Marie de jesus
forget me before God. I always put you two together,
and as a third I join ma Sceur Louise to you. May
the Holy Trinity bless you all three. May the Holy
Trinity give us all one heart and one soul to love God
in the spirit of peace. So be it." '
It was on June 4,2 1675, that Madame de la Valliere
took the solemn vows which separated her for ever from
the world wherein she had lived so conspicuous a sinner
— so much more remarkable a penitent. So singular a
scene as the Convent Church presented on that bright
summer's morning probably has never been seen : no
country save France, no period save that of Louis
XIV., could have afforded it. There, in the Chapel of
an Order vowed to the extremest asceticism, was assem
bled in gorgeous attire, only half overawed by the un
usual solemnity of the occasion, scarce hushing their
idle cacquet, the whole fine world of the Court and of all
Paris, to gaze upon and gossip over the intense, heart
felt, though no longer bitter, penitence of one of the
most lovely women who had ever adorned that fine
world. They gazed upon the injured Queen Marie
* CEuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 175.
2 Cardinal Bausset gives the 26th June as the date, but
various contemporary records prove the earlier day to be the
correct one. P

226 BOSSUET A BISHOP.

Therese, whose only blame seems to have been hei
utter endurance, patient and unfailing, of every wrong
that could be heaped upon her, — this Queen they
beheld leading the rival who had helped to poison her
happiness, who had caused her bitterest tears, her
keenest pangs of wifely jealousy — now, according to
the Queen's own opinions, so much happier than her
self!1 — to the Altar. How strange, how intensely
moving must have been her thoughts, as she went
through the ceremonial of covering her rival with the
pall which intimated that rival's death to the world !
Beside the Queen was another lady, well known once
as the profligate Duchesse de Longueville,2 but who
now had numbered more than twenty years of a life
¦ Marie Therese, when seeking shelter as she was wont to do
in some religious house, before any of the great festivals, had
often astonished the nuns among whom she went by her austeri
ties, and in answer to their comments, she would say, "Ah,
dear Sisters, your prayers and penitence give me a thousand times
more pleasure than the theatres and the hollow amusements of
the Court!" — Remarques Historiques, vol. xii. p. 500.
2 Madame de Longueville's career will not bear detail. She
was one of the three ladies of whom' Cardinal Mazarin said to
Don Louis de Haro, " Nous en avons trois entre' autres, qui nous
mettent en plus de confusion qu'il n'y en eut jamais en Baby-
lone." Her political intrigues during the minority of Louis XIV.
and in the Fronde were only to be equalled by her intrigues of
a more personal character. When at length she forsook her
former ways and became devote, the world amid which she had
lived could only sec a fresh intrigue in her devotion ! " Femme
singuliere,'' wrote Grouvelle, " qui eut le talent de faire encore

THE SPECTATORS. 227

of penitence, and who must have looked with a strange
half-sympathy, half-envy, at the younger, perhaps more
real, penitent before her. The King was not present.
Perhaps it was hardly to be expected that he should
assist at a ceremony which conveyed so deep though
silent a sentence of condemnation upon himself. Why
was Louise de la Valliere only to do penance for the
sin in which he had at least his full share ? and might
not the same Divine Justice which required of her so
utter and ample a self-sacrifice exact of the guilty
King a further separation from Madame de Montespan,
the ruler for the time being of his heart, if heart he
possessed? Already Bossuet was involved in nego
tiations concerning this lady, which must have added
in no small degree to the delicacy and difficulty of his
present task in speaking the truth, yet without giving
such offence as might hinder his hopes of withdrawing
the King from his unlawful connection with Madame
de Montespan.
It was not an easy task which the great preacher
had undertaken, and when he gave out his text from the
du bruit en faisant son salut, et de se sauver sur la meme planche
de 1'enfer et de l'ennui !"
Some one remarked once in the presence of her brother, the
Grand Conde, that " tous les devote etoient des gens sans
esprit." " Je ne sais trop ce que c'est que devotion,'' the great
soldier replied, " mais je sais bien que ma sceur n'est pas une
sotte !"

228 BOSSUET A BISHOP.
Book of Revelation, "He that sat upon the throne
said, Behold I make all things new," many present must
have marvelled how he would reconcile the various
conflicting elements with which he had to deal.
" It will be a grand spectacle, doubtless," he began,
"when He Who sitteth on the Throne whence the
universe is ruled— He Who can do as readily as He
saith, inasmuch as by the Word of His Mouth He can
do all things — when He shall from that Throne, at the
end of the world, make known that He reneweth
everything; and when at the same time we behold
all nature changed into a new world prepared for
God's elect. But when, in order to prepare us for
these marvellous changes hereafter, He works secretly
in the hearts of men by His Holy Spirit, changing,
kindling, renewing them utterly, filling them with
aspirations hitherto unknown, it is a no less wonderful
sight. Nothing, Christians, can be more marvellous
than these changes we behold. What have we seen ?
and what do we see ? What formerly, and what now ?
No need for me to dwell upon them — these things
speak for themselves.
" Madame, this is a spectacle worthy of the presence
and of the gaze of a religious Queen. Your Majesty
does not come hither to bring worldly pomp into this
solitude : your humility moves you to take part in the
lowliness of the religious fife, and it is well that you

BOSSUET'S SERMON. 229
whose position so often constrains you to take part in
the world's display, should sometimes bear your share
in such ceremonies as teach us to despise it. Come
then and marvel with me at these great changes
worked by the hand of God. All that was of the old
man is put away from without, and within the change
is greater yet ; while to celebrate these pious novelties
I myself am breaking the silence of years, and a voice
long unheard awakes these holy echoes."1 Then fol
lowed a withering summary of what the glory of this
world is worth — a picture of Alexander the Great,
greedy of fame, " desiring to make a noise in the world
in his life, and after his death. And he had his wish —
no one ever made such a name : ... he lives yet on
men's lips, his glory uneffaced by the course of ages.
It is not the glory that is lacking to him, but where is
he to receive the glory ? "
The whole tone of the sermon is grave, close in
application, severe. " Go and ponder thereon," the
preacher said towards the end ; " do not dwell upon
him who speaks to you, whether he has spoken well or
ill ; what matters it how a mortal man speaks ? There
is an invisible Preacher speaking to your hearts — and
to Him preachers and listeners alike must give heed."
Perhaps these words fell coldly on the ears of
those to whom the higher side of penitence was a
1 CEuvres, vol. xi. p. 563.

230 BOSSUET A BISHOP.
mystery, and who looked upon the solemn scene of
that day as a Court spectacle only.
" The Duchesse de la Valliere was professed yes
terday," Mme. de Sevigne writes, June 5, 1675.
" Madame de Villars had promised to take me, and
then, through some misunderstanding, we thought
we should not find places. We might have got in,
although the Queen had said that she would not have
the ceremony thrown open ; anyhow, we were not to
be there, and Madame de Villars was very much
disappointed. This beautiful and brave woman per
formed this last action, like all the others of her life,
nobly and charmingly. Everybody raved about her
beauty; but what will surprise you is, that M. de
Condom's sermon was not so divine as was expected." *
Bossuet wrote to Marediel de Bellefonds, June 20,
1675 :—
"Ma sceur Louise de la Misericorde has at last
achieved her sacrifice. She is really a miracle of
grace." 2
Louise de la Valliere's remaining years bore testi
mony to the reality of her repentance. The Carmelite
rule is ascetic, but she delighted in going beyond it
All her life she kept up the practice of rising two
hours before the Community, spending the time in
prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. She had to be
1 Lettres, vol. iii. p. 404. 2 CEuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 1.79.

MADAME DE LA VALLIERE AS A NUN. 231
restrained in the bodily mortifications and self-denials
she sought to practise in spite of delicate health and
much physical suffering. She was much sought after
in her retirement — by some, doubtless, out of curio
sity, by others out of a better motive ; but she dis
couraged visitors as much as possible. In the
autumn of 1676 her brother, M. de la Valliere, died,1
and she was induced to ask some favour of the King
on her nephew's behalf, which Louis XIV. granted,
saying that " if he were assez homme de bien to see so
saintly a Carmelite, he would come himself and tell
her how much he sympathised in her loss."2 The
Queen occasionally visited her, and on one occasion,
having asked if she was satisfied with her condition,
Sceur Louise answered, "Non,je ne suis pas aise, mais
je suis contente."
A curious inroad was made upon her conventual
life in the winter of 1679, when all the Court thought
fit in turn to go and congratulate the Duchess on her
daughter's marriage. "Mademoiselle de Blois' mar
riage promises well," Mme. de Sevigne writes, Dec 29.
" The King bade her tell her mother what he is doing
for her ; all the world has been to pay their compli
ments to that pious Carmelite; I hope Mme. de
1 Governor and Grand-Senechal of the Province de Bour-
bonnois. 2 Lettres de Sevign/', vol. v p. 170.

232 BOSSUET A BISHOP.
Coulanges will take me to-morrow. M. le Prince (de
Conti) and the Duke hastened to her, and it is said
that she adapts her style perfectly to her black veil,
and mingles her maternal tenderness with that suit
able to the bride of Christ. The King marries her
daughter as if she were the Queen's child being married
to the King of Spain ! He gives her five hundred
thousand gold crowns, as is usual in such cases, only
with the difference that these will be paid, and the
others seldom do more than grace the contract This
gay wedding is to be on Jan. 15." *
And a few days later, having paid the promised visit,
Mme. de Sevigne describes it thus : —
"What an angel appeared at last! for the Prince de
Conti detained her some time. To my eyes she re
tains all her old beauty. I thought her neither puffy
or yellow. She is not so thin, and looks happier.
She has just the same eyes, and the same way of look
ing at you. Austerity, bad food, and want of sleep
have not dimmed her eyes or made them hollow, and
her queer habit does not in the least lessen her grace
fulness or bon air. Her modesty is much the same as
when she became mother of a Princesse de Conti, but
it is suitable to a Carmelite. She spoke very plea
santly to me. . . . M. de Conti loves and honours her
devotedly. . . . She is his directress." 2
1 Lettres, vol. vi. p. 276. * Ibid. p. 286.

MADAME DE LA VALLIERE S DEATH. 233

It was no longer the fine world, but Bossuet only,
who went, in 1683, to tell Sceur Louise of the death
of her son, the Due de Vermandois. At first the
mother's heart burst forth in sobs and tears at the
tidings ; but then, collecting herself, she said touch-
ingly, " I ought to weep for his birth far more than for
his death ;" " and, hastening to pray before the Altar,
she returned shortly, calm and composed. The
triumph of charity was yet before Louise de la Val
liere, when she ministered to and comforted the
woman who had treated her so cruelly in the day of
her power — Mme. de Montespan.
She died June 6, 17 10. The day before her death,
Sceur Louise, though bowed down with infirmities,
rose, as was her wont, at 3 a.m., for prayer ; but her
strength failed her before she could reach the Chapel,
and a lay Sister found her in the corridor, where she
had fallen. She was carried to her bed, and, having
received the last Sacraments, her long life of penitence
closed peacefully.
A more difficult and less satisfactory work fell to
Bossuet with respect to Mme. de Montespan. This
lady, Athenais de Mortemar, and her two sisters,
Mme. de Thiange and the Abbess of Fontevrand,
were among the most beautiful women in France, and
their brother, the Due de Vivonne, a Marshal of
Siecle de Louis XIV., vol. i. p. 418.

234 BOSSUET A BISHOP.
France, was one of the most brilliant and literary men
at Court.1 Her empire over Louis XIV. was of a
wholly different kind to that of Mme. de la Vallibre,
from whom she had estranged the King. Proud and
imperious, she exercised the power of vehemence and
resolution to a degree of which the King was for long
quite unconscious.
At this time — the spring of 1675 — her connection
with the King (notwithstanding that her husband,
Louis de Gondrin, Marquis de Montespan, was living)
was notorious, and she had two sons, the Due de
Maine and the Comte de Venin, acknowledged by
him. On Maunday-Thursday of that year Mme. de
Montespan went to confession to a priest called
Lecuyer, who, as a faithful servant of Christ, could
but refuse her absolution. Indignant at the affront,
though not ashamed of its cause, Mme. de Montespan
complained to the King, who sent for M. Thibaut, the
Cure of Versailles. Of course the Cure had only to
say that the priest in question was perfectly right.
The King's own conscience must have told him the
same ; but, before taking any further steps, he con
sulted the Due de Montausier, Governor to the
' Voltaire tells of him, that Louis XIV., asking one day,
"Mais a quoi sert bon de lire?" the Due de Vivonne, who was
fat and well-liking, replied, " La lecture fait a 1'esprit ce que vos
perdrix font a mes joues." — Ibid. vol. i. p. 424.

MADAME DE MONTESPAN. 235
Dauphin, and M. de Condom, " of whose doctrine he
thinks so highly," Mme. de Maintenon wrote. Bos
suet replied unhesitatingly, like the Cure, that the
Abbe Lecuyer had done no more than his duty, and
the Duke having expressed the same opinion, Bossuet
again addressed the King, and spoke with such
earnestness and force that Louis XIV. was greatly
moved, and took leave of his advisers with the
emphatic promise not to see the lady in question
again.1 Accordingly Mme. de Montespan received
orders to leave the Court, and she was sent to Paris,
where, at the King's desire, Bossuet visited her every
evening, endeavouring to convince her of the fitness
and necessity of this separation. Vainly, however.
Hers was not the really religious mind or tender
conscience of Louise de la Vallifere ; and she was
accustomed to believe herself irresistible and absolute,
so that Bossuet was met only by the wildest, most
insulting reproaches. The unhappy woman did not
hesitate to accuse him of trying to detach the King
from her, in order to gain influence over his mind for
purposes of the Bishop's own ;2 and, when tired of
invective and vehemence, which were only met by
patience and gentleness on Bossuet's part, she changed
1 " Je ne la verrai plus. "
2 In after years she owned that she had made private investi
gations as to his life, hoping to find some ground for accusation,

236 BOSSUET A BISHOP.

her tone, and began to try what flattery would do,
offering to obtain every conceivable appointment in
Church and State for him, the Cardinal's hat included,
if he would but take her part now. Later on an
attempt was made by a renegade priest to assert that
Bossuet had been privately married in his early life to
a certain Mademoiselle de Mauieon, and Voltaire,
always ready to receive any cry that might be damag
ing to religion, took up the story.1 It is not necessary
here to go into all the chain of proofs which utterly
refute the assertion. Enough that, at the alleged
period of the marriage, the lady was not born ! When
Dean of Metz, Bossuet was intimate with her aunt, a
devout lady attached to the household of Henriette,
Duchess of Orleans, and not unnaturally often noticed
the little girl, then nine years old. In after days he
befriended her, to the extent of becoming caution-
naire for her in certain difficulties arising concerning
her inheritance — a halle au poisson, — which proved a
troublesome dowry for a woman. Her gratitude was
lasting, and in his last illness she came to visit him.
Such is the real history of Bossuet's connection with
Madlle. de Mauieon,2 which, had it been possible,
Mme. de Montespan would have been only too glad to
prove as a blot on his character, in her furious anger.
1 Siicle de Louis XIV., vol. ii. p. 107, etc.
3 Mimoires de Le Dieu, vol. iii. p. S8.

BOSSUETS INTERFERENCE. 237
A letter from Bossuet to the Marechal de Belle
fonds shows how trying these events were to him : —
"June 20, 1675.
" Pray for me, I beseech you, and ask God to free
me from the heaviest burden which can be laid upon
a man, or at least to put to death all that is earthly in
me, so that I may act in and through Him Only.
Thank God, through the whole course of this business
I have not once thought of myself. But that is not
enough — one ought to be a St. Ambrose, a true man
of God, altogether of another world, whose every act
might preach, whose every word were an oracle of the
Holy Spirit, whose whole demeanour were heavenly.
God chooses the weak things of the world to confound
the things which are mighty, and the things which are
not to bring to nought things that are ;' but to do this
one ought not 'to be,' — that is, one ought to be
nothing whatever in one's own eyes — emptied of one's
self and wholly filled of God." 2
For a time the prospect seemed hopeful : Louis
XIV. appeared to be in earnest ; he rather took pride
in making public his resolutions, though it may be
that most of those who knew the King shared Bour-
daloue's feeling, who, when Louis addressed him with,
" Mon Pfere, you ought to be well pleased with me —
Mme. de Montespan is at Clugny !" replied, "Yes,
1 I Cor i. 27, 28. " CEuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 179.

238 BOSSUET A BISHOP.
Sire, but God would be better pleased if Clugny were
seventy miles from Versailles !" However, the King
appeared so determined to do what was right, that he
was permitted to make his Easter Communion, after
which he went off with the army without having seen
Mme. de Montespan, or even writing to her. Bossuet
continued to visit her, at the King's desire, and she
appeared to be more amenable to his counsels ; at all
events, she gave largely to the poor, under his influ
ence, and he was hopeful about her. Some letters of
Bossuet's to the King, written at this period, prove
that he believed in the genuineness of the King's good
intentions, as well as the respect in which he held his
own office as God's minister : —
"Sire, — The Day of Pentecost, when your Majesty
proposes to communicate, draws near. Although I
doubt not that you think seriously about that which
you have promised to God, I bear in mind your orders
that I should remind you of it, and this seems a time
which obliges me to do so. Remember, Sire, that you
can know no true conversion unless you endeavour to
root out from your heart, not your sin only, but its
original cause. Holy Scripture tells us that true con
version is not satisfied merely to crush the fruits of
death — it goes to the root, which will infallibly grow
again if not torn up. This is not the work of a day,
1 grant; but the longer and more difficult it is, so

LETTERS TO LOUIS XIV. 239
much greater the need to labour diligently. Your
Majesty would not think that you had thoroughly
subdued a rebel town while the original promoter of
rebellion remained in office there. And so your heart
will never be at peace with God so long as this violent
love, which has so long estranged you from Him,
reigns therein.
"But, Sire, it is the heart which God requires.
Your Majesty knows the terms in which He bids us
give it to Him wholly; you promised me to read those
words, and re-read them frequently. I send you, Sire,
more and not less urgent words, spoken by the Same
God, which I beseech your Majesty to place with the
first. I have given them to Madame de Montespan,
and they caused her to shed many tears. And of a
truth, Sire, there is no fitter cause for tears than the
consciousness of having pledged to a human being the
heart which God claims for Himself. How difficult
it is to loosen the bonds of so unhappy and fatal an
entanglement ! Nevertheless, Sire, it must be done,
or there is no hope of salvation. Jesus Christ, Whom
you are about to receive, will give you strength, as He
has given you the wish, to do it.
" I do not ask you, Sire, to extinguish in one
moment so violent a flame — it were impossible ; but,
Sire, endeavour gradually to diminish it, dread to fan
it. Turn your heart to God, think often of the obli-

240 BOSSUET A BISHOP.
gation which lies on you to love Him with all your
strength ; think, too, of the sad state of a heart which
is so cumbered with creature love as to be unable to
give itself to God, to Whom that heart is due.
" I hope, Sire, that the great interests which day by
day occupy your Majesty more and more will help
towards your cure. Much is said of the perfection of
your troops, and of what they are capable under so
great a leader, and 1, Sire, the while, think within
myself of a more important war, and a far more diffi
cult victory, which God puts before you.
" Sire, meditate on these words of the Son of God,
which seem uttered on purpose for mighty kings and
conquerors : ' What shall it profit a man if he gain the
whole world and lose his own soul ? or what shall a man
give in exchange for his soul ?' What will it profit you,
Sire, to be victorious and redoubtable externally, if
within you are vanquished and a captive ? Pray, then,
that God would set you free. I ask it with all my heart.
My anxiety for your salvation increases day by day,
inasmuch as every day I see your danger more vividly.
"Sire, grant me a favour : desire Pere de la Chaise
to let me know something about you. I shall indeed
be thankful, Sire, if he should tell me that distance
and occupation are beginning to have the good results
we hoped for. This is a precious time. At a distance
from all dangerous occasions, you can consult your

COUNSELS TO THE KING.

real needs quietly, you can form resolutions and make
rules for your conduct. May God bless your Majesty ;
may He give your Majesty victory, and with victory
peace within and without. The more your Majesty
gives your heart in all sincerity to God, the more you
put all your trust and confidence in Him, the more He
will protect you with His All-powerful Hand.
" I see Madame de Montespan as often as I can,
in compliance with your Majesty's commands. She
is fairly calm; she occupies herself largely in good
works, and she is very much moved by the truths I
lay before her, which indeed are the same as those I
have put to your Majesty. May God impress them
on the hearts of both, and perfect His work in you, so
that all the tears and struggles and efforts which you
have made may not be in vain.
" I say nothing about Mgr. the Dauphin. M. de
Montausier will give you a faithful report of him.
" I am, with profound respect and submission, Sire,
de votre Majeste le tres humble, tres obeissant, et tres
fidele sujet et serviteur, J. Benigne,
" Anc. Ev. de Condom." *
The next letter, written a little later (July 10, 1675),
is evidently a reply to one from Louis XIV, asking
for advice concerning his general life; for Bossuet
1 CEuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 1S0.
Q

242 BOSSUET A BISHOP.
says, " You do well to set yourself seriously to regulate
your conduct, for after having dealt so strictly with
yourself in a matter which touches you so deeply, you
are not likely to neglect your other duties which agree
with your inclinations." Giving the King various
counsels as to the laws which should rule him, Bossuet
says, " Your people, Sire, expect more than ever to see
you guided by God's laws. They have been greatly
comforted by the open profession made by your Ma
jesty of your intention to put away those things which
made your life displeasing to God, and they are con
vinced thereby that you will be doubly attentive to the
obligation He has laid on you to watch over their
troubles." This letter (which is a long one) was written, accom
panied or speedily followed by a paper called an
" Instruction," Quelle est la devotion d'un Roi; in which
Bossuet gives the love of God as the foundation and
touchstone of the whole fabric. Bossuet himself, years
after (August 23, i7or), said that, after reading it, the
King said, " I have never heard anything about that —
no one ever told me about it." He points out how
" a king may practise the Love of God, and of his
neighbour (which flows from it), at every moment of
his life : so far from his manifold occupations hinder
ing it, that love will enable him to perform them with
vigour, with gentleness, with inward satisfaction, and

LOUIS XIV.'S IRRESOLUTION. 243

a peace of conscience which exceeds worldly joys. . . .
What, then, has the King to alter in his life in giving
himself to God ? Nothing, save sin. . . . There is no
need for long prayers or much reading, which is weari
some to those unaccustomed to it, or the like. One
prays to God coming and going, when one turns to
Him with the heart. Let the King say his usual
prayers heartily, and that is enough. All outward
things will be the same, that sin only excepted which
disorders his life, dishonours, disturbs it, and which
involves the rigorous punishment of God in this world
and in the next. What a blessing to be able to put
away so great an evil !" *
But unhappily, Bossuet gave his royal penitent
credit for a more stedfast will to put away sin than
Louis XIV. possessed. While he was thus striving to
strengthen the King's resolution to keep the promises
he had made before the whole nation, Madame de
Montespan's friends were doing their best to bring
her back to Court, and the crowd of idle, profligate
courtiers who felt their own vices condoned by a
Sovereign's example, or who dreaded the prospect of
a stricter, less voluptuous life at Court, threw all their
weight on the wrong side. Madame de Montespan
was Surintendante of the Queen's household, and the
much-injured Queen had always been gracious to her,
1 Vol. xxvi. p. 187.

244 BOSSUET A BISHOP.
and the chattering courtiers said that it was unfair to
deprive the lady of her office and position on account
of what was more the King's fault than hers. More
over, they pleaded that with his present intentions all
scandal had ceased to exist; that the King would
henceforth have nothing to do with her save as an
attendant on the Queen ; and they went so far as to
say that it was unworthy of the King's firmness of
character to suppose it necessary to banish Madame
de Montespan after the decision he had come to.
Louis XIV. was only too ready to hear the devil's
advocates pleading against his better conscience. Ab
sence had quickened his feelings for Madame de
Montespan, and before his return to Versailles he sent
orders that she was to be there when he arrived !
Bossuet heard the tidings, and, faithful to his office,
he determined to make one more effort, cost what it
might, to keep the King from undoing all he had
attempted to do. He went forth, and some eight miles
from Versailles met the King. His saddened counte
nance told its tale, and directly that Louis XIV. saw
him, he closed the Bishop's lips by saying, " Do not
speak to me. I have given orders that apartments may
be prepared at Versailles for Madame de Montespan."
What could Bossuet do but retire mournfully, sonow-
ing over the inconstancy of purpose shown by his
Royal Master?

DOWNFALL OF MME. DE MONTESPAN. 245
The unhallowed bonds were renewed, and the
daughter afterwards married to the Regent Duke of
Orleans, and the Comte de Toulouse, were both born
after this period.1
But Madame de Montespan's day was destined to
pass in her turn. For a time she continued the prin
cipal figure in the Court scene ; but her attractions
began to lose their power over the King, and her
vehement reproaches were not calculated to win him
back. Mademoiselle de Fontanges became a danger
ous rival, and Madame de Maintenon grew daily more
necessary to Louis XIV., whose " tormented soul," -
Voltaire says, " required the sedative of her reason
able, intellectual conversation," after the death of the
Duchesse de Fontanges and her son, in i68r, until
Madame de Montespan " possessed no more than a
heart weary of her and her murmurs."3 In 1685 the
King married one of his daughters by Madame de
Montespan, commonly called Mademoiselle de Nantes,
1 "Les mondains spirituels et malins lui pardonnent peu de
s'etre laisse duper par Louis XIV. and Madame de Montespan,
ou plutdt par la passion du cceur, et pour avoir vu les deux amants
bien et dument et confesses, absous et admis a la reconciliation
pendant un jubile^ de les avoir crus si solidement convertis qu'ils
pussent ensuite se revoir a la Cour sans danger, devant temoins. "
— Saint Beuve, vol. ii. p. 340. But this is hardly true, as
Bossuet's interview with the King proves. He would fain have
hindered the meeting, had it been possible.
2 Sie: le, vol. i. p. 438. 3 Ibid. vol. ii. p. I.

246 BOSSUET A BISHOP.
to the grandson of the Great Conde, and after this
Madame de Montespan altogether disappeared from
Court life.
After the disappointment of his hopes, Bossuet never
theless continued to see Madame de Montespan occa
sionally at the house of her sister, Madame de Thianges;
but he never permitted any intimacy or intercourse
that could infringe upon the dignity of his office. The
lady herself testified genuine respect for and confidence
in him, and after she left the Court he saw her more
frequently than before. Madame de Montespan was
supposed to be " converted," and Madame de Mira-
mion was considered the chief agent in her conver
sion ;' but unlike Louise de la Valliere, she did not
even nominally forsake the world until the world for
sook her, and at no time does her life seem to have
taken a character of true repentance. She certainly
retired for a time to the Convent of the Filles de Saint
Joseph, in the Quartier Montmartre, but it scarcely
seems to have been in order to devote herself to
religious exercises ;2 and soon after she bought a
chateau called Petit-Bourg, between Paris and Fon-
tainebleau, and resided chiefly there, leaving it even-

1 Lettres de Sevigne', vol. ix. p. 133.
2 " Madame de Montespan ouvrit hier sa porte (a S. Joseph),
et, couchee dans son lit, elle recut les compliments de tous ceux
qui voulurent lui en aller faire." — Ibid. vol. ix. p. 145.

MADEMOISELLE DE DURAS. 247
tually to the Due d'Autin, one of her sons by Louis
XIV.1 Once, in 1695, being at Treves, in the diocese of
Meaux, Madame de Montespan, accompanied by her
sister, the Abbess of Fontevrauld, and the Duke and
Duchess of Nevers, went to see Bossuet at Germigny.
In April 1691, Louis XIV. consulted Bossuet as to a
tutor for the Comte de Toulouse ; and probably the
autograph letter on this subject speaks truly enough
in the conclusion, where the King says, " Believe that
it is impossible to have greater esteem for any one than
mine for you, united to the most entire confidence." 2
There was another phase of Bossuet's life at this
time, probably more satisfactory to his own mind as
Christ's minister. Turenne's conversion from Pro
testantism has been already mentioned ; his example
had great weight with many, among others with a
niece, Mademoiselle de Duras, whose mother was a
sister of Turenne's, and a staunch Protestant. This
lady was a lady-in-waiting to Madame, and both her
high connexions and her own intellectual capacity
gave her large influence. Shaken in her confidence as
to Calvinism, she read Bossuet's "Exposition" care
fully, and the result was a strong desire to consult him
and hear his explanation of certain matters. But feel
ing her own incompetence as a woman to discuss
1 Lettres, vol. ix. p. 160. 2 Vie, vol. ii. p. 79.

248 BOSSUET A BISHOP.
or argue theological questions, and wishing to be
perfectly honest and fair in her judgment, Mademoi
selle de Duras. felt that she should like to hear the
matters on which she was doubtful discussed by one
of the Protestant ministers she had learnt to respect,
and she communicated with Bossuet through the Due
de Richelieu, asking whether he would consent to
meet M. Claude, one of the leading Protestant pastors
of the day, at her house. Claude was a deservedly
esteemed man ; — he had been a pasteur at Nismes and
at Montauban, and a member of the Consistory of
Charenton, and was acknowledged as one of the most
learned and eloquent among the Protestants of his
time. After some delay, Bossuet and M. Claude met,
on March 1, 1678, at the house of Comtesse de
Roye, a sister of Madlle. de Duras, and a con
siderable number of persons assembled to hear the
discussion — chiefly Protestants, the wife of Marechal
de Lorge (another sister) excepted. The discussion
turned chiefly on the authority of the Church itself
a point on which Madlle. de Duras felt that the
whole matter depended. It lasted for five hours, and
Bossuet, in his own account thereof, says that M.
Claude defended his position most skilfully.1 It is
not necessary to follow the line of Bossuet's argument,
which is familiar to all Churchmen, proving that
1 CEuvres, vol. xiii. p. 503.

CONFERENCE WITH CLAUDE. 249
Protestants, who profess to reject the Church's
authority in order to take their stand upon that of
Holy Scripture, can have no foundation whatever —
they cannot tell whether that Scripture be true
or false. " I could not believe the Gospel," S.
Augustine says, "were I not to receive it on the
authority of the Church."1 Madlle. de Duras was
finally convinced of the enors of her early educa
tion, and on the 22nd of that same month she was
received into the Church by Bossuet In the evening
of the very day of the conference, Bossuet had
related what took place to the Due and Duchesse de
Richelieu, the Bishop of Mirepoix, and some others;
and as they requested him to commit to writing what
appeared to them valuable as a clear and useful state
ment of true doctrine, he sat down, and in their pre
sence wrote an account of the conference with great
rapidity. This paper was circulated in manuscript for
some time, but after a while, as generally happens, in
accuracies slipped into the copies made, and at length
Bossuet felt obliged to rewrite the paper, especially as
Claude had written a counter-statement based on
certain mistakes which had arisen. Bossuet proposed
another conference to Claude, which the pasteur
refused, on the ground that such proceedings were
forbidden by the King. This difficulty was easily
Cont. fund. Manich

250 BOSSUET A BISHOP.
removed; and Louis XIV. gave all requisite authorisa
tion and pledges of security to Claude, but he never
would face Bossuet again. Bossuet published the
discussion under the title of "Conference avec M.
Claude," in 1682, and in a second edition he added
Claude's paper, with some " Reflexions " of his own
upon it.1
Madlle. de Duras died at Saint-Cloud in 1689,
having the comfort of Bossuet's spiritual ministrations
on her deathbed.
The celebrated Due de la Rochefoucauld (author of
" Les Maximes," which Voltaire says tended more than
any other book to form the national taste, and give it
a tone of "justesse et precision " 2) was another friend of
Bossuet's, to whose last hours he was called upon to
minister. After a life of excitement and distraction,
political, literary and courtier-like, the Duke died calmly
and hopefully. " II est fort bien dispose pour sa con
science," Mme. de Sevigne writes, March 15, 1680 ;3
and on the 17th "at midnight he breathed his last in
the arms of M. de Condom." 4
1 CEuvres, vol. xiii. p. 506.
° Siecle de Louis XIV., vol. ii. p. 105. 3 Lettres, vol. vi. p. 401.
* Ibid, p. 404. The Due de la Rochefoucauld had been in
timately connected with the Duchesse de Longueville, who
betrayed his confidence both in love and politics. She died a
short month after him, and Mme. de Sevigne', after being present
at the Duchess's " Oraison funebre," remarks, " II y avoit bien
a river sur ces deux noms." — Vol. vi. p. 447.

VARIED CORRESPONDENCE. 251
At this time, too, Bossuet was engaged in an active
correspondence with many persons of importance;
comforting the Marechal de Bellefonds under his dis
grace with the King, and discussing theological ques
tions with him; — going into various learned matters
with M. Dirois, a doctor of la Sorbonne, with
Mabillon the eminent Benedictine, and many others.
His correspondence with Pope Innocent XL and
Cardinal Cibo were all doubtless part of the chain of
circumstances which was gradually drawing Bossuet on
to one of the most important epochs of his life as
regards the Church of France — the Great Assembly of
1682.

252 BOSSUET IN THE ASSEMBLY.

CHAPTER VI.
BOSSUET IN THE ASSEMBLY.
Bossuet thought of as Archbishop of Lyons — Bishop of
Sens, Beauvais, etc — Nominated Bishop of Meaux — As
sembly General — Letters to Dr. Dirois and deRance—
Struggle between the Pope and the Gallican Church
— Affair of the Regale — Louis XIV. 's Declaration —
Bossuet preaches before the Assembly — The Four
Articles — De Harlay — Declaration of the Clergy of
France — Confirmed by the King's Edict — Indignation
at Rome — Letters to Dr. Dirois— Bossuet's Defence
of the Gallican Church.
FREE from his duties as preceptor, but unable to
leave the Court by reason of his appointment
as chief aumdnier to the Dauphiness, Bossuet re
mained quietly awaiting God's Will, and labouring
diligently at whatever his hand found to do on the
Church's behalf. Whenever any important see fell
vacant public opinion hastened to bestow it upon him.
When the Archbishopric of Lyons was vacant, Bossuet
wrote to Madame d' Albeit :
" You must not be surprised if I say nothing about
the various reports concerning the Archiepiscopate of
Lyons. Whatever may be said, I feel in my own heart

APPOINTMENT TO MEAUX. 253
that it is not intended, and that nothing will come of it;
but I think it is more faithful to God not to dwell upon
anything that concerns myself, except when necessary
— ' sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' "' Lyons,
Sens, and Beauvais respectively invited the King to
give them the well-known orator as their Bishop, and
both the Bishops of ChaJons and Meaux endeavoured
to obtain him as coadjutor. The latter prelate died
while yet seeking to bring about this appointment
(April 27, i68r), and the King immediately nominated
Bossuet as his successor, adding the special compli
ment of himself sending Pere de la Chaise to announce
the nomination to M. de Harlay, Archbishop of Paris,
desiring him to publish it in the Assembly of Bishops
then sitting at the Archeveche. In a letter to M.
Dirois,2 dated May 23rd, sending him the Histoire
Universelle, Bossuet alludes to his appointment, by
inviting the Doctor to come and see him some future
day at Germigny, the country residence of the Bishop
of Meaux ; but the first direct mention of his return
to the episcopal office (if it can be so called) is in a
letter to de Ranee, Abbot of la Trappe, dated June
22, i68r, in which he says, "Your promise to pray
that God will guide me in my episcopal functions is a
great comfort to me, but you will not get off with that
only. For the last ten years I have had it in my mind
1 CEuvres, vol. xxviii. p. 122. 2 Ibid. vol. xxvi. p. 277.

254 BOSSUE T IN THE ASSEMBL Y.
that, if it should please God once again to call me to
any office in His Church, I should do two things — first,
go to spend some time actively with the late M. de
Chalons, and secondly, spend some time in prayer
with you. God has deprived me of the first help by
the death of that worthy prelate, but I beg you not to
deny me the second. ... I am full of delight when I
think of doing this, and if you agree, I will arrange
my affairs accordingly, as soon as ever I hear from
Rome." '
But Bossuet was not able to carry out his intentions.
He was too weighty and powerful a man to be left out
of the great struggle impending between the Pope and
the Gallican Church; and he was nominated by the
metropolitan assembly of Paris as their deputy to the
Assembly General, even before he received his bulls,
and he was immediately chosen to preach the opening
sermon before the Assembly.
" I shall be deprived of the comfort I looked for,"
he writes (Sept. 1681) to de Rance.a "The Assembly
of Clergy is about to meet, and I am not only required
to be a member, but to preach the opening sermon.
. . . Anyhow, if I cannot come and pray with you,
do you pray for me; the matter is important and
worthy of your attention. You know what these
Assemblies are, and the spirit which usually prevails in
' CEuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 278. * Ibid. p. 283.

THE ASSEMBLY GENERAL OF 1682. 255
them. I see indications which give me some small
hope about this one; but I dare not trust to my
hopes, and in truth they are mixed with not a little
fear." The whole position was difficult and complicated.
Cardinal de Bausset says that "the Assembly of 1682 is
the most memorable epoch of the Gallican Church's
history." ' That Church had always prided itself on
its spirit of nationality, and, as it professed now, " its
submission to the Papal See was subject to the canons
given by God's Holy Spirit and consecrated by the
whole world's respect, confirmed by the customs and
institutions received throughout the kingdom."2 But
there came a time when the audacious leaders who
always spring up in periods of crisis made use of the
public excitement for their personal ends, and these
men invoked the Pope's intervention in the affairs of
their Church just as they invoked the army and gold
of the King of Spain in their secular affairs. " It was
thus," says Cardinal de Bausset, " that Ultramontane
1 Hist, de Bossuet, vol. ii. p. 94.
2 " Hinc apostolica; potestatis usum moderandum per canones
Spiritu Dei conditos et totius mundi reverentia consecratos :
valere etiam regulas, mores et instituta a regno et Ecclesia Gal-
licana recepta. Patramque terminos manere inconcussos ; atque
id pertinere ad amplitudinem Apostolicae Sedis, ut statuta et con-
suetudines tantse Sedis et Ecclesiarum consensione firmatae, pro-
priam stabilitatem obtineant." — Cleri Gallicani de Ecclesiastica
Potestate Declaratio, CEuvres, vol. xxi.

256 BOSSUET IN THE ASSEMBLY.
views insinuated themselves among some members
of the Clergy, and the ancient maxims of the royal
independence were obscured by the bold sophistry of
certain writers. But those who had been rather car
ried away than straying wilfully, returned naturally to
the old doctrine of the Gallican Church, when the
general excitement had somewhat cooled." *
The immediate reason which led Louis XIV. to
convoke the Assembly of 1682 was in order to
strengthen his hands in the contest he was carrying
on with Pope Innocent XL The Regalia, which was
the moving cause of the contest, was in itself of
comparatively little importance. It was a certain
right by which the Kings of France took possession of
the revenues of vacant sees, and disposed of the bene
fices pertaining to them until such time as the newly-
appointed prelates had taken the oaths of fidelity, and
had been registered in the Chambres des Comptes de
Paris. Certain sees in France claimed their exemption
from this Regalia, and were permitted to assert their
claim. But in February 1673 Louis XIV. put forth a
Declaration affirming the droit de Regale to be inalien
able, and requiring all Bishops and Archbishops who
had not taken the oaths to do so within two months.
Almost all those prelates to whom this declaration
1 Hist., vol. ii. p. 205.

LOUIS XIV. AND INNOCENT XI. 257
applied yielded at once, but the Bishops of Alet and
Pamiers refused to take the oaths. The King nomi
nated to benefices in their dioceses in consequence ;
they appealed to their Metropolitans, the Archbishops
of Narbonne and Toulouse, who decided against them,
and then the two Bishops appealed against this deci
sion to the Holy See. " Instead of taking the part of
a mediator, which would have been so suitable to his
character as Head of the Church, Innocent XL con
stituted himself supreme judge, and pronounced
judgment in so absolute a manner, that Louis XIV,
however disposed to be moderate, and however re
spectful to the Holy See, could not but be deeply
offended at so extraordinary a proceeding." *
Three briefs were launched in rapid succession at
the offending monarch, and the third (Dec. 29, 1679)
was couched in such threatening terms, that Louis
XIV. was constrained to take measures to ensure
respect for his crown and peace for his kingdom.
The Assembly of Clergy was sitting at Saint-Germain-
en-Laye when this brief was published in France, and
they immediately addressed a letter to the King, ex
pressing their "extreme displeasure" at the Pope's
utterances, and their belief that these were calculated
to " injure the cause of religion and the glory of the
Holy See rather than to produce any good effects."2
' Card, de Bausset, Hist. vol. ii. p. 114. 2 July 10, 1680.

258 BOSSUET IN THE ASSEMBL Y.
On the ist January i68r, however, Innocent XI.
addressed a brief to the Chapter of Pamiers, in direct
violation of all past concordats, excommunicating
every one who had submitted to the Metropolitan's
decision, and practically defying the Gallican Church
as a National Church. The Assembly of Clergy, led
by the Archbishop of Rheims, thereupon petitioned
the King to call the Bishops of France together, either
as a National Council, or an Assembly General of all
the Clergy of the Kingdom. This prods-verbal bears
Bossuet's signature, May 7, 1681, five days after his
nomination to the See of Meaux. The Assembly
General was convoked, and opened Nov. 9, 168 r,
Bossuet preaching in the Church of the Grands Augus-
tins, as desired.
"I preached the Assembly sermon yesterday," he
wrote to M. Dirois' (Nov. 10, i68r), "and I should
have preached it with equal confidence in Rome as at
Paris, for I believe that truth may be boldly spoken
everywhere, so long as it is tempered with discretion
and inspired by love." His text was from Numbers
xxiv. 5, " How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy
tabernacles, O Israel:"2 — Unity the subject. Bossuet
wrote concerning the sermon to the Cardinal d'Estrees,
to whom he sent it, as follows : —
CEuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 288.
2 Vol. xi. p. 588.

LETTER TO CARDINAL D'ESTREES. 259
"PARIS, December I, 1681.
"... It was indispensably necessary that I should
speak of the liberties of the Gallican Church. Your
Eminence will at once see what that involved ; — and I
set two points before myself, one, to do this without
any loss to the true greatness of the Holy See ; — the
other, to explain those liberties from a Bishop's point
of view, not a magistrate's. I have no more to say, —
your Eminence will judge whether I have kept the
conditions. I may say generally that the authority of
the Holy See was duly revered by all the audience.
I took pains to keep up its dignity as much as I
could ; and while setting forth the ancient doctrine of
France with all possible respect, I strove equally to
put a limit on those who abuse it, as to set it forth
itself. "Such was my intention — your Eminence will judge
as to how far I succeeded. . . . The tender ears of the
Romans have to be considered, and I have done so
with all my heart. There are three points which may
wound them : the independence of the temporality of
kings, episcopal jurisdiction as held direct from Jesus
Christ, and the authority of Councils. You know that
these are questions which we treat very straightfor
wardly in France, and I have striven so to speak, as
neither to betray the doctrine of the Gallican Church,
or to offend the dignity of Rome. This is as much as

260 BOSSUET IN THE ASSEMBL Y.

can be required of a French Bishop, when constrained
by circumstances to deal with these questions. In a
word, I have spoken plainly, — for that is a duty every
where, above all in the pulpit; but I have spoken
respectfully, and that — God is my witness — with a
good intention. Your Eminence will believe this, and
I hope that you will feel the truth of my position, and
study it so as to be prepared to shut the mouth of
those who may attack me. . . .
" One word as to the temporalities of kings. It
appears to me that nothing can be more offensive
than the Ultramontane opinion, or more calculated to
raise a great obstacle in the way of the conversion of
heretic or infidel kings. What sovereign power would
subject itself to a master able to deprive him of his
kingdom by a decree? " *
Bossuet read his sermon before preaching it to the
Archbishops of Paris and Rheims, who entirely con
curred in all that it expressed ; — the King also read it
attentively, expressed his satisfaction, and begged
that it might be printed, a request repeated by the
Assembly ; and accordingly, early in January 1682, the
sermon was published.
The question of the Regale was arranged by mutual
concession, and a letter drawn up by Bossuet was
sent from the Assembly to the Pope, February 3,
1 CEuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 290,

STRUGGLES OF THE ASSEMBL Y WITH ROME. 261

1682, — most moderate and respectful, explaining a
discussion " the precise nature and object of which,"
Cardinal de Bausset says, " it would appear that Inno
cent XL knew but little." Evidently, from a letter
Bossuet wrote to M. Dirois, February 6, 1682,1 he did
not anticipate any further ill will from Rome ; and he,
as well as the Gallican Church generally, were much
surprised and rather indignant, when, after waiting
three days after receiving the letter before he deigned
to open it, and three months before he answered it,
the Pope wrote back a scolding, imperious letter, as if
he were addressing a collection of rebellious school
boys ; desiring them to efface all traces of their letter,
as, should the document be preserved, it would cast
an everlasting opprobrium over the Clergy of France.
He proceeded to annul and reverse everything which
the Assembly had done, or might do !
The Assembly was not to be dealt with thus. " It
was evident," says Cardinal de Bausset, "that the
authority attributed to himself by the Pope, and the
judgment which he pronounced in such a matter, were
incompatible with the principles accepted in France
from time immemorial, and always recognised by the
Holy See itself." 2
The Assembly had no intention of leaving the
validity of its deliberations to depend upon the Pope's
1 CEuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 299. 2 VU, vol. ii. p. 150.

262 BOSSUET IN THE ASSEMBLY.

consent, and the edict of January 1682 as to the
Regale was already working well. But it was necessary
that the Assembly should assert itself and justify its
proceedings before the whole Gallican Church which'
it represented. Therefore Bossuet was directed to
address a letter in the name of the Assembly to all the
Bishops and Ecclesiastics in the kingdom, which he
accordingly did, in language so dignified and so
stringent, that the Pope, or, as Bossuet supposes (for
he says the Pope's Council must have studiously con
cealed the truth from his Holiness), his advisers,
must have winced as they read it1 This letter was
not, however, sent all over France, as was intended,
and the Assembly broke up without it having been
given to the public.
It was in the interval between the edict and the
Pope's brief that the famous Quatre Articles had been
proclaimed. The Abbe le Dieu says, that in January
1700, during a journey to Meaux, he asked Bossuet
who had originated the idea of this Declaration, and
the Bishop replied that it was Colbert, then Secretary of
State.2 Bossuet and the Bishop, of Tournai (de
Choiseul Praslin) were appointed to draw up these
Resolutions. The latter was the senior Bishop, and
as such took the lead ; but they did not altogether
agree. Both rejected the Infallibility of the Pope, but
1 Vol. xxi. 3 Memoires, Le Dieu, vol. i. p. 8.

THE FOUR ARTICLES. 263

Bossuet differed from his colleague as to the "in-
defectibility " of the Holy See. This led to the retire
ment of the Bishop of Tournai, and Bossuet alone
drew up the Declaration. He had some difficulties
to contend with among his brother Bishops, several
of whom thought him disposed to yield too much
to the overweening claims of Rome. Among these
was Archbishop de Harlay. Some historians look
upon de Harlay's line throughout the Assembly
as a matter solely of policy, not religion. Sainte
Beuve says, that years before he had taken as
his motto "le Roi avant tout" — "the Catholic and
the Christian yielded to the subject— God and the
Pope took the second place." ' There can be no doubt
that the Archbishop was — though most captivating,
handsome, talented, and brilliant — a thoroughly
worldly, self-interested, profligate man.
There were many disputes over the drawing up
of the Articles. Bossuet first drew up the preamble,
which was unanimously accepted. He then submitted'
to the Commission four different sets of articles after
the manner of the Ancient Councils ; and of these the
Commission adopted that one which has since been so
celebrated under the title of the Four Articles of the
Clergy of France. But this form was accepted con
trary to the opinion of the Archbishop of Paris, who
1 N. Lundis, vol. v. p. 165.

264 BOSSUET IN THE ASSEMBLY.
would not have allowed any mention of the Pope's
primacy or superiority.1
No trace remains of the three rejected projects ; Car
dinal de Bausset says that in the Declaration adopted
we have the clearest possible characteristics of Bossuet's
own mind and position, " checking alike those who are
wanting in respect for the legitimate authority of the
Holy See, and those who would exaggerate it to a
degree which is incompatible with the maxims of
religion, and the principles of that submission which is
due to the secular power." 2
As a matter alike of history and theology, this
Declaration is important. It is entitled :
Declaration of the Clergy of France concerning Eccle
siastical Power. March 19, 1682.
Certain persons having attempted to overthrow the
decrees of the Gallican Church, its liberties which our
ancestors so zealously upheld, and its foundations,
resting on the holy canons and the traditions of
the Fathers : Certain others under pretext of these
liberties, daring to deprive the primacy of S. Peter,
and his successors the Pontiffs of Rome divinely
appointed, of that obedience which is due to them
' AbW le Dieu. 2 Vie, vol. ii. p. 171.

THE DECLARATION. 265

from all Christians, and the Apostolic See of that
majesty which is so venerable in the eyes of all
nations for the preservation of faith and the unity of
the Church : Heretics meanwhile, leaving nothing
undone to put this power, which maintains the peace
of the Church, in a light insupportable to kings
and people, thereby separating simple souls from the
Communion of the Church and of Jesus Christ:
With the aim of remedying these evils, we, the Arch
bishops and Bishops assembled at Paris by order of
the King, with other deputies representing the Galli
can Church, have judged it fitting, after mature
deliberation, to confirm and declare :

That S. Peter and his successors, Vicars of Jesus
Christ, and the whole Church herself, have only
received power of God in things spiritual, and pertain
ing to eternal salvation, not in things civil or temporal,
the Lord Himself having said, " My Kingdom is not of
this world," and also " Render unto Csesar the things
that be Caesar's, and unto God the things that are
God's;" as also firmly declareth the Apostle, "Let
every soul be subject unto the higher powers : for there
is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained
of God: whosoever therefore resisteth the power,

266 BOSSUET IN THE ASSEMBLY.
resisteth the ordinance of God." Therefore kings and
princes are in nowise subjected by God's appoint
ment to any ecclesiastical power in temporal things ;
neither can the authority of the Keys of the Church
directly or indirectly depose them, or their subjects be
dispensed from the obedience and fidelity of their
oaths to the same : and this doctrine we affirm to be
necessary for the maintenance of public peace, no less
profitable to the Church than to the State, and to be
everywhere and every way observed as agreeable to
the Word of God, to the tradition of the Fathers, and
the example of the Saints.

II.
That the full powers held by the Holy Apostolic
See and the successors of S. Peter, as Vicars of Christ,
in spiritual things, are the same as the decrees of the1
holy OEcumenical Council of Constance, put forth in
its IV. and V. Sessions, which were approved by the
Holy Apostolic See, confirmed by the practice of all
the Church and of the Roman Pontiffs, and religiously
observed at all times by the Gallican Church; that
they abide in full force, and that the Gallican Church
does not uphold those who would impugn their
authority, or say that they were only adopted by the
Council at a time of schism.

SIGNATURE OF THE DECLARATION. 267

III.
That thus the use of the Apostolic power is to be
moderated according to the canons inspired of God's
Holy Spirit, and consecrated by the whole world's
reverence : so that the rules, uses, and institu
tions generally received in the kingdom and the
Gallican Church be maintained, and the boundaries
fixed by our fathers remain unaltered : inasmuch as it
pertains to the dignity of the Holy Apostolic See that
the laws and customs confirmed by the consent of
that See and of the Churches should be established
firmly. IV.
And that although the Pope has a chief voice in
matters of faith, and that his decrees concern all
Churches, nevertheless his judgment is not unalter
able, except with the consent of the Church.
We send these maxims received of our Fathers to
all the Churches of France, and to the Bishops who
preside over them, as commissioned by the Holy
Ghost, in order that we may all decree and say the
same thing, and hold the like doctrine in the like
sense. This Declaration was signed by the thirty-four
Archbishops and Bishops, and the thirty-four deputies;

268 BOSSUET IN THE ASSEMBLY.

who formed the Assembly, on March 19, 1681. On
the 20th the Commissioners, headed by the Arch
bishop of Rheims, presented it to the King at Saint-
Germain, and on the 23 rd it was formally registered by
the Parliament.
Four days later this Declaration was confirmed by
the King's edict. " The Declaration of the Assembly
of 1682 did not and could not receive any opposition
in France," Cardinal de Bausset writes. " It did but
confirm a doctrine which at all times had been pre
cious to the University and the Faculty of Theology
of Paris ; and by a singular coincidence, that particu
lar Religious Order which was supposed habitually to
look most favourably upon the Ultramontane preten
sions, was now eagerly engaged in maintaining the
rights of the Gallican Clergy." z
Bossuet expected a certain opposition from Rome ;
— yet he genuinely believed that the moderation scru
pulously observed in the tone of the Four Articles
put them beyond censure, and "that as it was impos
sible to condemn them, Rome would have the tact
not to appear offended." He even hoped "that Rome
would feel indebted to the Gallican Clergy for all the
consideration and courtesy they had shown her." '
1 Vie, vol. ii. p. 188.
2 Ibid. See also a letter from Bossuet to M. Dirois, July 13,
1682, CEuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 302.

LETTER TO DIROIS ON INFALLIBILITY. 269

But these hopes were soon overthrown. A letter to
M. Dirois puts Bossuet's view on the subject in a clear
light :— "Versailles, October 28, 1682.
" I have just returned from a long journey in Nor
mandy, and my first act, even before reaching Paris,
as I hope to do this evening, is to answer your last
letter. " It conveys a description of the existing state of
things in the Court of Rome which makes me tremble.
What, is Bellarmine to be substituted for everything
else, and to absorb in himself all tradition ! What
will happen to us if it comes to this, and if the Pope
is going to condemn whatever this author condemns ?
Hitherto no one has dared to do this ; — no one has
dared to make such an attack on the Council of Con
stance, or the Popes who approved it. What are we
to say to heretics who quote against us this Council
and its decrees, which were repeated at Bile with the
express approbation of Eugenius IV., and all the other
confirmation given by Rome ? If Eugenius IV. was
right in formally approving these decrees, how can
they be impugned ? and if he was wrong, what of his
pretended infallibility? . . . God forbid! Do not
stop your efforts to show what is involved, and what
is being brought upon us all. ... I have thought
much over what you say, that Rome, so far from being

270 BOSSUET IN THE ASSEMBLY.
softened by what we have granted her, takes it as an
acknowledgment of her rights, and makes use of it for
further advances. I have been quite alive to that, but
I can only say that when Bishops speak they must
think of future as well as of present times, and their
strength lies in speaking the truth as it honestly ap
pears to them.
"I cannot quite see how you can believe that the
4th Article of our Declaration can fall in with the
Ultramontane doctrine. We had no such intention,
although on the other hand we saw plainly that what
ever may be speculatively said, practically one must
always fall back on reserving all final and irrevocable
decision to the consent of the Universal Church, in
which alone we express our faith in the Creed. I can
not suppose that a Pope who is so zealous for the con
version of heretics, and the reunion of schismatics, will
desire to put an eternal obstacle in the way of both by
such a decision as that with which we are threatened.1
May God avert this blow; and if the Court of Rome
Arnauld says, speaking of some of the supporters of Ultra
montane principles : "II pretend que Jesus Christ ayant ete roi
de toute la terre, et le pape etant son vicaire, il a aussi une
souveraine puissance sur toute la terre, et par consequent sur
tous les souverains. Je plains le Saint Siege d'avoir de tels de-
fenseurs ; et c'est un terrible jugement de Dieu sur l'Eglise, si
Rome prend cette voie de se defendre contre les eve'ques de
France."— Quoted in Introduction by Abbe Guettee to If.
Uieu's Menwires, p. xcviii.

BOSSUET'S OWN VIEWS. 271
has the least prudence it will not expose itself to such a
difficulty. The infallibility of the Pope ends by being
practically only that of the Church."
"One would hardly credit, but for this letter," writes
Cardinal de Bausset, "that Rome could have been so
blind as to revive her old pretensions concerning the
sovereignty of kings, instead of letting them lie buried
in eternal oblivion. The mere fact of such an idea
arising suffices to justify the wisdom and necessity of
the Declaration." He alludes to the P.S. of Bossuet's
letter, —
" I was forgetting one of the chief Articles, that on
the independence of royal temporalities. To con
demn this Article is all that is wanted for complete
destruction ! What hope can there be of ever winning
back the Northern princes, or of converting infidel
kings, if they cannot become Catholic without giving
themselves a master who can dispossess them at his
will ? Nevertheless I see by your last letter, as well
as others, that this is the point on which Rome is
most excited. . . . Everything will be lost by such
arrogance ; — may God put a check on these excesses.
It is not by such means as these that the authority of
the Holy See will be established. No one wishes to see
it great and exalted more than myself, — it was never
so really great as under S. Leo, S.. Gregory, and others.

272 BOSSUET IN THE ASSEMBL Y.
who never dreamt of such domination. . . . Truth is
on our side. God is powerful, and we must hope
against hope, certain that He will not let it be extin
guished in His Church." x
Writing to de Ranee, October 30, 1682, Bossuet says :
" Church affairs are thriving badly : the Pope openly
threatens us with crushing condemnation, and, it is
said, with new formulas. Well meant ignorance is a
grievous calamity in high places ! Let us mourn and
pray." 2
Matters quieted down at Rome, and though Inno
cent XL testified his animus by the encouragement
and rewards given to many petty opponents of the
Gallican Church, there were no important steps of
offence taken, beyond the Pope's refusal of his bulls
to those ecclesiastics who had taken part in the
Assembly of 1682, and who had subsequently been
nominated to bishoprics by the King. This was in
direct contravention to the Concordat of Francis I.
and Leo X, and Louis XIV. retaliated by refusing to
allow those ecclesiastics to whom the Pope was willing
to concede his bulls to receive them ! This state of
things lasted through the pontificates of Innocent XL
and Alexander VIII., peace not being established
between France and the Court of Rome until Pope
Innocent XII.'s time, although all other matters, dis>
1 Vol. xxvi. p. 306. " Ibid. p. 313.

DEFENCE OF THE GALLICAN CHURCH. 273
pensatipns, etc., were asked and granted as usual;
but meanwhile fully one-third of the Gallican Bishops
were not canonically instituted. A fresh bone of con
tention, in the question of franchise, arose between
Louis XIV. and Innocent XI. in 1687-8,
Meanwhile Bossuet began to write his great work,
" Gallia Orthodoxa sive Vindiciae Scholae Parisiensis
totiusque Cleri Gallicani, adversus nonnullos." * The
first version was finished in 1685, but not published,
as Louis XIV. was anxious rather to conciliate than
irritate the Court of Rome. Fresh attacks upon the
Declaration poured forth, but were left unnoticed,
until one more than ordinarily virulent in abuse, and
excessive in Ultramontane tendency, published by the
Archbishop of Valentia, led Bossuet to address the
King on the necessity of a reply.2 Parliament forbade
the Archbishop's book to be sold, December 1695 ;
the Pope was requested to give satisfaction to the
wounded honour of France, for the offending book
was dedicated to him, and thereby publicly claimed
his sanction; but the most effectual step taken was
that Bossuet resumed his " Defence," re-writing great
part of it. He did not, however, finally complete it
until the year 1700; but it was not even then pub
lished. Bossuet allowed the Cardinal de Noailles and
the Abbe Fleury to have copies of his earliest manu-
1 CEuvres, vols. xxi. xxii. 2 Vol. xxii. p. 617.

274 BOSSUET IN THE ASSEMBLY.
script, and at the death of the latter (in 1723) his copy
was deposited in the King's Library by the Fleury who
was then preceptor to the King, Louis XV., and later
Prime Minister. It was Bossuet's nephew, the Bishop
of Troyes, who at length, in 1735, printed the great
Defense for the first time, from the last manuscript
which his uncle had revised and corrected so short
a time before his death. A French translation,
made by M. de Roi, an Oratorian, was published at
the same time. Cardinal de Bausset, after much
research, found the latest MS. in 181 2, which had
undergone various adventures during the Revolution.
It was bound with the Conde arms, and with it the
presentation letter of the Abbe Bossuet, who had sent
it to Louis XIV. It bears many annotations and cor
rections in Bossuet's own handwriting, and is undoubt
edly the genuine version of the book as he left it
NOTE TO CHAPTER VI.
Cleri Gallicani de Ecclesiastics Potestate Declaratio dU
Martii 1682.
Ecclesi.b Gallicanse decreta et libertates a majoribus nostris
tanto studio propugnatas, eanimque fundamenta sacris canonibuS
et Patrum traditione nixa multi diruere moliuntur ; nee desunt
qui earum obtentu primatum beati Petri, ejusque successorum
Romanorum Pontificum a Christo institutum, iisque debitam ab
omnibus christianis obedientiam, Sedisque apostolicse, in quae
fides prsedicatur, et unitas servatur Ecclesise, reverendam omni-

DECLARATIO. 275
bus gentibus majestatem imminuere non vereantur. Hasretici
quoque nihil praetermittunt, quo earn postestatem qua pax Eccle-
'siae continetur, invidiosam et gravem regibus et populis ostentent,
iisque fraudibus simplices animas ab Ecclesia? matris, Christique
adeo communione dissocient. Qua? ut incommoda propulsemus,
Nos Archiepiscopi et Episcopi Parish's mandato regio congre-
gati, Ecclesiam Gallicanam repraesentantes una cum caeteris eccle-
siasticis viris nobiscum deputatis, diligenti tractatu habito, ha?c
sancienda et declaranda esse duximus.

Primum : beato Petro ejusque successoribus Christi vicariis ipsi-
que Ecclesiae rerum spiritualium et ad aeternam salutem perti-
nentium, non autem, civilium ac temporalium a Deo traditam
potestatem, dicente Domino, " Regnum meum non est de hoc
mundo : " et iterum : ' ' Reddite ergo quae sunt Caesaris Csesari,
et qua? sunt Dei Deo : " ac proinde stare apostolicum illud :
"Omnis anima potestatibus sublimioribus subdita sit: non est
enim potestas nisi a Deo : quae autem sunt, a Deo ordinata? sunt.
Itaque qui postestati resistit, Dei ordinationi resistit." Reges
ergo et principes in temporalibus nulli ecclesiastica? potestati Dei
ordinatione subjici, neque auctoritate clavium Ecclesia?, directe
vel indirecte deponi, aut illorum subditos eximi a fide atque
obedientia, ac pra?stito fidelitatis Sacramento solvi posse, eamque
sententiam publicae tranquillitati necessariam, nee minus Eccle
sia? quam imperio utilem, ut verbo Dei, Patrum traditioni et
sanctorum exemplis consonam omnium retinendam.

Sic autem in esse apostolica? Sedi ac Petri successoribus
Christi vicariis rerum spiritualium plenam potestatem, ut simul
valeant atque immota consistant sancta? cecumenicae Synodi Con-
stantiensis a Sede apostolica comprobata, ipsoque Romanorum
Pontificum ac totius Ecclesia? usu confirmata, atque ab Ecclesia
Gallicana perpetua religione custodita decreta de auctoritate con-
ciliarum generalium, qua? sessione quarta et quinta continentur,

276 BOSSUET IN THE ASSEMBLY.

nee probari a Gallicana Ecclesia qui eorum decretorum, quasi
dubia? sint auctoritatis ac minus approbata, robur infringant, aut
ad solum schismatis tempus Concilii dicta detorqueant.
nr.
Hinc apostolicae potestatis usum moderandum per canones
Spiritu Dei conditos et totius mundi reverentia consecrates:
valere etiam regulas, mores et instituta a regno et Ecclesia Galli
cana recepta, Patrumque terminos manere inconcussos ; atque id
pertinere ad amplitudinem apostolicae Sedis, ut statuta et con-
suetudines tanta? Sedis et Ecclesiarum consensione firmatae, pro-
priam stabilitatem obtineant.

In fidei quoque quaestionibus pra?cipuas summi Pontificis esse
partes, . ejusque decreta ad omnes et singulas Ecclesias pertinere,
nee tamen irreformabile esse judicium, nisi Ecclesia? consensus
accesserit. Quaa accepta a Patribus ad omnes Ecclesiae Gallicanus atque
episcopos iis Spiritu Sancto auctore praesidentes, mittenda decre-
vimus ; ut idipsum dicamus omnes, simusque in eodem sensu et
in eadem sententia.
Then follow the signatures, among which comes Jacobus
Benignus, Episcopus Meldensis.

INSTALLATION A T MEA UX. 277

CHAPTER VII.
BOSSUET AT MEAUX.
Bossuet's Installation at Meaux — First Sermon in the
Cathedral — Retreat at la Trappe — Letter on the
Adoration of the Cross — The Palace at Meaux —
Bossuet's Household — Contrast of that of his Suc
cessor de Bissy — His Habit of Night Work — Diocesan
Work — Offices — Manner of performing Ceremonies —
Preparation for Preaching — Visitations — Missions —
Conferences — Synods — Catechisms — Hospitals, Re.
ligious Houses — Irregularities of the Abbey of
Jouarre Reformed — Letters to the Abbess — Bossuet's
Dislike of Party Spirit — His Literary Friends —
Fenelon — Calvinists — Interview with the Capets —
Traite de la Communion sous les deux especes, and
other Controversial Writings — Moderation in deal
ing with Protestants — Funeral Oration of the Queen
Marie Therese — Her Character — Funeral Oration
of the Princess Palatine — Of Chancellor Le Tellier
— Character of the Archbishop of Rheims — The
Great Conde — His Death — Funeral Oration.
ALTHOUGH titular Bishop of Meaux at the time
when he preached the opening sermon of the
Assembly, Bossuet was unable to go thither during
the busy and anxious session which ensued; — a
session in which his vigorous will and clear intellect
were too valuable to be spared even for the sake of

278 BOSSUET A T MEA UX.
his new Diocese, until during a suspended sitting in
the month of February 1682, he managed to go to
Meaux for a few days, accompanied by the Bishop of
Tournai, in order to be installed. Accordingly on
Quinquagesima, February 8, 1682, the ceremony of
installation took place, in the presence of the Arch
bishop of Rheims, and the Bishops of Tournai, la
Rochelle and Lugon. Bossuet then went to Ger
migny, the country house of the Bishops of Meaux, for
a couple of days' rest, returning to the town for the
services of Ash- Wednesday, when he officiated at the
solemn service of giving ashes, and preached for the
first time in his cathedral.1 This was all he could do.
His presence was absolutely required in the Assembly,
and he returned to Paris immediately. But as soon
as the Assembly dispersed, Bossuet determined that
nothing should come between him and the episcopal
duties of which he took so high a view, and before
giving himself up to them, he carried out the hitherto
postponed plan of a reteat at la Trappe. This was
only one of eight several visits which, during the
remainder of his life, Bossuet paid to that ascetic
1 The actual pulpit in the Cathedral of Meaux is composed of
the panels of that from which Bossuet preached on this occasion,
and so many subsequently. One panel bears the date 1621. It is
a very simple, unadorned pulpit, less roomy than one commonly
finds the pulpits of that period, and is placed against the first pillar
in the nave, at the angle of the south transept

VISITS TO LA TRAPPE. 279
community. He found the intercourse of his friend
de Ranee, and the rigid discipline of the house, very
bracing and helpful to him in his more distracted
unresting career, and used to say that he would rather
be there then anywhere else out of his own diocese.
When staying at la Trappe, Bossuet always assisted at
all the religious exercises of the Community, rising with
the earliest for Matins, and sharing their meals, or
rather their severe abstinence. It was not until his
last visit there, when he was seventy-nine, that he
consented to exceed the rule by drinking a little wine.
There was something in the silence and absolute still
ness of the place which soothed the busy man of
letters. Each day before Vespers he and the Abbot
used to walk together in the surrounding woods, and
talk of the matters nearest both their hearts, and
these seasons were the greatest happiness de Ranee
knew, " des veritable graces de la Providence." His
attachment to his early college friend only ended
with his life. In August 1699, the Abbot was thought
to be dying, and his one wish was for Bossuet. " I
should die content," he said to the Abbe de Saint
Andre, afterwards Grand- Vicaire of Meaux, " if I could
see him once more and receive his dear blessing." r
1 De Ranee1 died October 27, 1700, about three years and a
half before his friend. The Abbe1 Le Dieu records the reception
of the tidings by Bossuet : " De la nouvelle de la mort de M.

280 BOSSUET A T MEA UX.
Bossuet took a great interest in bringing out a work of
de Ranee's on the Monastic Life, himself correcting
proofs and taking all the necessary trouble. This
book led to a lively discussion between the Abbot of
la Trappe and the learned Benedictine Mabillon, who
thought that de Ranee cast a slight on the literary
pursuits of his own Order. It was during one of
Bossuet's visits to la Trappe that he was led to write
and publish a letter on the Adoration of the Cross, in
consequence of meeting there a Frenchman who had
been serving the Prince of Orange, and had been
misled into the errors of Calvinism. This man was
brought back to the Church by reading some of
Bossuet's works, and finding him at la Trappe, Frere
Armand, as he was called, desired to have the benefit
of his personal instructions. The result was this
letter, which Bossuet wrote after they had parted, in
Armand Jean Bouthiller de Ranee, ancien Abbe de la Trappe,
son compagnon de licence. Cet Abbe mourut dans son abbaye,
d'une fluxion de poitrine, et au bout de treize jours de maladie,
ayant recu les sacremens de l'Eglise avec une connaissance par-
faite, et une piete exemplaire, car quoiqu'il eut la voix fort
baissee il ne laissa pas alors d'exhorter ses religieux & conserver
l'union entre eux, leur donnant lui-m€me jusqu'au dernier
soupir tous les examples de paix, d'humilite, de charite" et de
confiance. M. de Meaux a temoigne une grande douleur de
cette mort, comme de la perte du meilleur ami qu'il eut au
monde. II est vrai que cet illustre Abbe l'aimoit tendrement, et
qu'il a conserve1 pour lui dans tous les etats de sa vie une estime
singuliere." — Le Dieu, vol. ii. p. 160.

VHE EPISCOPAL PALACE OF MEAUX. 281
order that Protestants generally might understand
what is really meant by the " adoration " of the Cross,
to which some of them objected as idolatry. In one
passage he refers to the various signs of respect given
to the Holy Scriptures by the Protestants themselves
— the "kissing the book," in taking a solemn oath,
which, as he says, is no reverence to the paper and
the ink, but to the eternal truth represented therein —
yet no one calls this idolatry ? " What is the Cross,
but the summary of the Gospel, the Gospel itself com
prised in a single symbol? and why not kiss it, or
bow before it as well as before a book? 'I know
nothing save Jesus Christ and Him crucified,' S. Paul
says, and the Cross sums up this lesson and sets it
before us as in a single word."1 He goes through
the various Scriptural uses of the word adoration or
worship, as distinct from that adoration which is due
to God Alone, bringing out in forcible language that
whatever is good or lovely or worthy of praise is so
only in as far as it is in Him, to Him, and by Him.
It was in June 1682 that Bossuet took up his real
residence at Meaux, and was at length able to shape
his manner of life according to what he considered
the claims of his office. The Episcopal Palace is
a massive irregular building, closely adjoining the
Cathedral, which stands on a little eminence in the
CEuvres, vol. xvii. p. 279.

282 BOSSUET A T MEA UX.
centre of the roughly paved town. An old cloistef
connects the two, entering the spacious Court of the
Ev£che. There is nothing however very remarkable
about the Palace, nor can it be decided now, with
any certainty, — so says Monsiegneur Allou, the pre
sent venerable Bishop of Meaux — which * apartments
were inhabited by his great predecessor. The garden
alone preserves traces of Bossuet. A little pavilion,
containing two small rooms panelled in oak, is called
his study, and he is supposed to have often retired
there to work, on which occasions — so the tradition of
the place says — he was to be considered as " not at
home," and denied to his numerous visitors. Behind
this there is an aliee of yew trees, planted by Mgr. de
Ligny, his predecessor, where Bossuet used to walk
and meditate. The garden is said to have been laid
out by Le Notre, but there is nothing very remarkable
about it. The details of Bossuet's household were
extremely simple ; — as we saw when living at Court
His table was too plain to suit his Parisian friends, and
at Meaux he lived frugally2 and with little variety.
1 Notice de la Cathidrale de Meaux, p. 77.
2 This manner of living was apparently not continued by
Bossuet's successor, de Bissy, judging by the Abbe Le Dieu's
frequent records of "bonne et belle chere," " tout ce qu'il y avoit
de plus delicat," "son bon vin Champagne," etc. He tells us
too that de Bissy was the exact reverse of his predecessor, in that
it was " his style to go himself into all minutiae of expenditure ;

LOUIS XIV.'S TABLE. 283

He paid but little attention himself to his menage,
— who can wonder, considering the weighty matters,
theological, intellectual and political, which were con
tinually occupying him, and it seems to have been
deficient in order and regularity. Bossuet gave up
the control of household expenses with an over-blind
his great talent is for the science of details ; and so he knows
exactly what is spent day by day in his house — down to the
number of glasses of wine, whether at table or in the offices." —
Vol. iv. p. 33. We ought to bear in mind that whatever may be
the faults of our present day in the way of self-indulgence, good
eating and drinking were unmistakeably the weakness of that
period. Louis XIV. ate enormously, though he was never im
moderate in drinking. We are told that four plates of various
soups, a whole pheasant, a partridge, a large plateful of salad,
mutton au jus et a fail, two large slices of ham, a plateful of
pastry, and then fruit and confitures, was an ordinary dinner for
him. In the medical journal of the King's health kept by his
physicians, we find a specimen of his food when being i'fatigui
et abattu " he was obliged to " manger gras" on a Friday. " He
was content only to have des croutes, a potage aux pigeons, and
three roasted chickens, and the next day the same, les croutes, a
potage with a fowl, and three roast chickens, of which, as on
Friday, he ate four wings, all the breasts and a leg. " — Journal
de la Sanii de Roi Louis XIV., par Vallot, d'Aquin et Fagon.
M. de Bissy furnished the palace at Meaux much better than
Bossuet had ever done. " Les meubles sont plus convenables et
plus propres que ceux de feu M. de Meaux, parceque les sieges
et les fauteuils y sont partout en grand nombre, sont tous a la mode,
ce qui fait un bel ornement dans les chambres avec des bureaux
et des commodes qu'on appelle, aussi partout, qui parent
beaucoup : il dit qu'il n'y en a que pour 24,000 francs." — Le
Dieu, vol. iii. p. 367.

284 BOSSUET A T MEA UX.
confidence to his house-steward,1 and the consequence
was his money was not well managed, and towards
the end of his life he was in some amount of difficulty,
and blamed himself for his negligence. It was not
until he found it troublesome to get money for his
charities from this steward, that Bossuet roused him
self to institute a reform in the state of things, which
had become very bad by that time. He was always
gentle, courteous and dignified among those who
surrounded him, and all his servants and dependants
were warmly attached to him. His perceptions were
quick, and his insight into character keen. He saw
through people's motives, but he was indulgent in
judging them, and used great tact in dealing with the
faults of others, and moreover he had a very royal gift
of remembering and acknowledging any kindness or
attention shown to himself. " You fancy that I think
of nothing but my books," he used to say, "but I
have my eyes open for everybody."
Some of his personal habits were peculiar. From the
time he left the Court, Bossuet made it a habit to get
up during the night for devotion and study. He always
kept a lamp burning in his room for this purpose, even
1 The Abbe1 Le Dieu describes the dismissal of a house-steward,
who had been a nuisance to Bossuet for sixteen years, and who
was at last only got rid of by the active interference of the
Bishop's nephew, the Abbe Bossuet. — Journal, i. p. 39.

PERSONAL HAB1 TS OF BOSSUET. 285
when travelling ; and after a few hours' sleep on first
going to bed, he used to get up, alike in summer and
winter, however sharp the cold might be. Two dress
ing gowns, and a sort of bag made of bearskin, intoj
which he used to get and draw round his waist, meta
this difficulty ; and thus armed, the Bishop of Meaux
used to say Matins and Lauds amid the stillness o\
night, and that done, he went to his literary work.
Everything was put ready over-night, and so he betook
himself to his books and papers for as long a time asi
his brain worked clearly and vigorously. When he
began to feel that exhausted, he used to lie down
again, and would fall asleep at once. This continued1
to be his daily custom until towards the close of his
life, Bossuet's physicians insisted on his giving upj
the work, and thenceforth he went back to bed after
he had finished his devotions. These active habits
account in some measure for the enormous quantity
of work he was able to get through; moreover, he
never lost a moment voluntarily, and he used to
excuse himself from all the ordinary visits and for
malities which so greatly hinder a busy man. Time
was not, however, retrenched from prayer. His
family was always gathered together for household
prayer, and he was diligent in saying Office, though
he did not make it a rule to attend all the Cathedral
offices, except on Saturdays, when he generally went

286 BOSSUET A T ME A UX.
to Vespers, and he was always there on Sundays, both
at High Mass, Vespers, and Sermon. The Abbe Le
Dieu, in the very minute Journal which he kept of the
latter years of Bossuet's Episcopate, has continued
entries, such as —
"Sat, Dec. 18, 1700. — A numerous Ordination.
The Bishop spent the afternoon at the Seminary
exhorting the Ordinands.
" 19th. — The Bishop said Mass in his Chapel, and
later assisted at the Sermon in Cathedral, and then
worked all day at the Politique.
"21st. — Assisted at Sermon in Cathedral, saying
Mass after it.
" 22nd and 23rd. — The same.
" 24th. — The Bishop worked all the morning, and
said Mass at 1 1 o'clock. After dinner assisted ponti-
fically at the first Vespers of Christmas. He did not
go to Matins, but sang the midnight Mass, and said
the Mass of daybreak, as also the Christmas High
Mass, assisting at the Sermon, and saying second
Vespers." "
Such is the continued record when Bossuet was an
old man, and sometimes hindered by cold or other
derangements. Nothing was of sufficient importance
to keep him away from Meaux at any of the great
festivals. His duties as Chaplain to the Dauphiness,
1 Vol. ii. p. 167, etc.

CONSTANT ATTENDANCE AT CATHEDRAL. 287
or whatever else claimed him — all was deputed to
some one else, while the Bishop himself duly ap
peared in his Cathedral and officiated pontifically.
Testimony to this faithfulness was given after Bos
suet's death in a somewhat unworthy manner by
the Chapter, who, going to law with his heir, the
Abbi Bossuet (certainly a most unsatisfactory and
grasping person, so it may not have been altogether
the Chapter that was to blame), concerning dilapida
tions, demanded 5000 francs on account of the best
vestments, which had received so much wear in con
sequence of the late Bishop's officiating so often
himself !
He was extremely particular about all trifling de
tails in ritual — as to their reverent performance and
correctness that is. The Abbe Le Dieu, his Chaplain,
says that nothing escaped him, and the Bishop would
call him to account for having forgotten some saint of
whom memorial ought to be made, or the like. But
he disliked anything like affectation or minute pe
dantry, and his own manner of officiating was flowing
and rapid. " Ceremonies should be performed with
dignity, but briskly," he used to say. " One must not
bore the people." *
On that Ash-Wednesday when Bossuet preached
for the first time to his people, he announced his in-
1 Me'vwires de l'Abbe" Le Dieu, vol. i. p. 29.

288 BOSSUE T AT ME A UX.
tention of always preaching himself at the great
festivals, and he fulfilled his promise up to the time
of his last illness. But comparatively few of his ser
mons after he became Bishop of Meaux were written
— a few notes sufficed; his real preparation was of
another kind. One day the Abbes Fleury and Le
Dieu went into his study just before the Bishop was
going to preach, and they found him on his knees,
bare-headed, and the Bible in his hand, absorbed in
meditation on the subject he was about to handle.1
He was also extremely particular about his Visita
tion duties, and, although probably one of the busiest
and most engaged of French Bishops, he was almost
1 Le Dieu gives the following account of Bossuet's habitual
mode of preparation for preaching: "He used to write down
anyhow his plan, his text, and his proofs, either in French or
Latin, without studying words, expressions, or figures. I have
heard him say a hundred times that otherwise his action would
be languid and his words feeble. Having prepared this rough
material, he used to make a profound meditation upon it in the
morning before preaching, generally writing nothing more, to
avoid distraction — for his imagination worked far more rapidly
than his hand. But his thoughts were in thorough control, and
he used to fix in his mind even the expressions he intended to
use. Then, in the afternoon, he would recollect himself, go over
his sermon in his head, reading it there as if it were on paper,
changing and altering as if he were using a pen. And then at
last, when in the pulpit, he used to follow the impression made
on his hearers, and often he would suddenly put aside the line
he had intended to take, and pursue the course of feeling which
he saw was aroused among them." — Vol. i. p. in.

DIOCESAN DUTIES. 289
unrivalled in this respect. He trusted to no one but,
himself such inquiries and investigations as belonged
by rights to him, and his great object was that the
whole diocese should look to him and feel him as a
real Father. He confirmed regularly, giving instruc
tions to the persons brought to him for confirmation,
and taking pains to fix the ceremony at times when
the people were most free to attend it — always care
fully arranging these in order that the young people]
confirmed might start homewards in good time.1 His
extreme recollection and devotion on such occasions
made a great impression on the bystanders. One of
the things he disliked most on a Visitation tour was
the duty of examining into building or other accounts,
but it was not the less carefully fulfilled.
Missions had been a strong point with him, as we
have seen, since the days when he was Archdeacon of
Metz, and he repeatedly took his full share of mission
work in various parts of the diocese. In Feb. 1684
the first was held in Meaux, the Bishop being assisted
in it by "un abbe nomme M. de la Mothe Fenelon,"
the Abbe Fleury, and some Oratorian Fathers.
Bossuet found a system of Conferences Ecclesias-
tiques (somewhat corresponding to our Ruri-decanal
meetings) established in the' Diocese, but they had
lost their spirit and become comparatively useless,
' Le DrEU, Mhuoires, vol. i. p. 186.

290 BOSSUET AT MEAUX.

until the Bishop revived them by frequently attending
them himself, making suggestions as to the subjects
and train of discussion, and bringing before the Clergy
assembled the various points concerning spiritual
guidance and general teaching which he thought
would help them most. He used to encourage men
to speak on these occasions, with a view to cultivating
readiness in extempore speaking, and would take pains
to show them by his own clear, simple words how best
to convey their meaning to minds less educated than
their own. When any difficult or important subject
was under discussion the Bishop would give his own
decision upon it, and one instance of his doing this
under somewhat peculiar circumstances was long re
membered in the Diocese. The conference was being
held at Ravoy, which belonged to the Oratorian
Fathers, and the question discussed was the plurality
of benefices. Of course the judgment pronounced
was against a plurality, Bossuet joining in the decision
and confirming it by his arguments; but perfectly
aware that his practice did not seem to agree with his
theory, holding, as he did, the Abbey of Saint-Lucien
and the Prieures of Plessis-Grimaux and Gassicourt,
he thought it better to speak openly of a fact which
he knew must be present to the minds of all there.
So, without blinking it in any way, the Bishop said
that, although his personal conduct seemed in contra-

DIOCESAN SYNOD. 291

diction to his principles, it was not really so, and he
would tell his Clergy why he thought himself justified
in being dispensed from the general rule ; whereupon
he explained how very small his actual revenues were,
and how large the claims upon them, especially those
of a large number of Protestant ministers, who, when
they forsook Calvinism, were left quite without resource
save from private charity. It was hardly necessary
for Bossuet to make this explanation — every one knew
that Germigny was the asylum of all who needed help,
and many a literary man and many a devout man
found a home there congenial both to his spiritual and
intellectual cravings.
During the twenty-two years of his Episcopate
Bossuet never omitted meeting his Clergy in Synod
any single year until 1703, when the mortal disease,
which ended his life not long after, had already pros
trated him in intense suffering; and even then he
yielded reluctantly to the pressure of pain before
giving up what he held to be so sacred a duly. He
looked upon this meeting of the Bishop and his Clergy
as one of the most important means for the right regu
lation of the Diocese. If any man had refused to
listen or follow his " godly monitions" given in private,
Bossuet used to administer his rebuke in Synod, rather
than take any active legal measures ; and so effective
was this method of dealing, that, during his long Epis-

292 BOSSUET A T ME A UX.
copate, he never but once took legal proceedings
against one of his Clergy, and that case (which
occurred shortly before his death) was one wherein the
offender had been already condemned by the Courts
both of Meaux and Paris. Yet even then the Abbe
Le Dieu says that Bossuet was with difficulty induced
to take active measures. His Statutes and " Ordon-
nances Synodales" will be found among his diocesan
works.1 Among these are strict rules to prevent the
Clergy from leaving their parishes for more than one
week without obtaining permission from the Bishop or
his Vicars-General; to enforce wearing the cassock,
" in order that their very garb may be a continual
reminder of the retenue becoming their office, and that
the people, being used to look at them with respect
as different from other men and specially set apart for
God's Service, may be the more apt to receive and
profit by their teaching;" and forbidding their presence
in theatres and at public games. Other ordonnances
forbid " mercers, bakers, or others" to keep their stalls
in the churchyard or porch on Sundays and holy days;
give instructions for facilitating confessions, while
regulating them according to jurisdiction ; and many
other points of discipline, to which the laxity of past
times made it needful to give heed.
It was in the Synod of October 1686 that Bossuet
' CEuvres, vol. v. p. 474.

CATECHISING. 293

put forth his " Catechism,"' with an address to
parents as well as to Clergy, which may be read now
with profit to all. He presses on the former that cate
chetical instruction is as much needed at home as in
church, and that especially in controversial days,
" when women and children handle controversy, and
quote Holy Scripture after their own fancy."
" Fathers and mothers," the Bishop says, " you are
your children's first catechists, inasmuch as, before
they come to church, it is yours to feed them with the
milk of the pure Word, which is given to you for them
by the Church. You are their first catechists, because
it is your part to teach them their catechism, and to
make them repeat it at home during the week, other
wise what they learn in the church on Sunday will soon
be forgotten. But how can you teach them, if you
are not taught yourself? To this end you ought to
take part in the public catechising with your children,
and carefully renew the instruction you received in
your own childhood. Every father and mother of a
family ought to read over their Catechism frequently
and attentively. It is of the very essence of the great
principles of our Christian religion contained therein,
that the more they are read, the more clearly their
truth comes forth. Many things which we teach our
children they do not thoroughly understand till they
CEuvres- vol. v. p. x.

294 BOSSUET AT MEAUX.

get older, — a proof that there is instruction for all ages
in the Catechism. And if parents would only study
it anew with the view of teaching their children and
servants, it would be quite a sufficient reason to make
them diligent in so doing." . . .
Bossuet goes on to say : " And you, my brethren of
the Priesthood, be diligent in promoting this most
necessary custom. Catechise diligently and affec
tionately — gravely but gently; so that your gravity
may inspire respect, and your gentleness may win the
affection of your little ones. Before the children say
their Catechism, give them a warm, earnest instruction
on the subject of the truths they are about to repeat.
Let this be short and familiar, attractive and hearty.
Always wind up with something striking, and briefly
gather together the substance of what you have said.
Make use of clear and lively illustrations, calculated to
give your children a love of goodness and a dread of
evil. Put the future life and the fearful consequences
of mortal sin frequently before them; gladden their
tender hearts with the thought of eternal rewards ;
strive to soften and touch their hearts, continually
leading them to the love of God and our Lord Jesus
Christ. ... Go on repeating and dwelling forcibly
upon the most difficult and important subjects; and
above all, do not grow weary of a labour which is as
necessary as it is often toilsome, remembering that you

THE MEAUX CATECHISMS. 295

win a crown of glory in devoting yourself to so useful
a work, and that it is the only way by which you will
be able to give a good account to God of the souls
He has trusted to your care. Remember what S. Paul
teaches you in the words : ' Give attendance to read
ing, to exhortation, to doctrine. . . . Meditate upon
these things, give thyself wholly to them, that thy pro
fiting may appear unto all. Take heed unto thyself,
and unto the doctrine, ... for in doing this thou
shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. Preach
the Word ; be instant in season, out of season, reprove,
rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine.
. . . Watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do
the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy
ministry.' "
This " Avertissement" was to be read from the pulpit
twice a year, i.e. on the first Sunday in Lent and on
the first Sunday in October.
There are three of these Catechisms of Bossuet's : the
first, " for beginners," which, as he says, the children
should learn as they begin to speak, with the sign of the
Cross ; a second, which is intended for those preparing
for their first Communion, in which " Christian doc
trine," the Decalogue and Sacraments, are explained ;
and a third, called the " Catechisme des Fetes," which
embraces many points of teaching suitable to " a good
parishioner," the observance of Sunday and the great

296 BOSSUET A T ME A UX.
festivals, and the special doctrines rising out of these
solemnities. These Catechisms were accompanied by
a book of " Prieres Ecciesiastiques," * the object of
which was to enable the people better to join in public
worship, giving translations of Psalms, antiphons, re
sponses, etc., explanations of the meaning of the
various acts of Divine service, and devotions for
Mass, special festivals, etc. Fleury had already pub
lished his " Catechisme Historique," which had been
written at Bossuet's suggestion, and was recommended
by him to his Clergy.2
Among the objects of his most constant, watchful
solicitude, stood prominently, as one would expect, the
Seminary of Meaux. Bossuet had seen the beginning
of this most valuable work, and no one could more
fully appreciate the effects of careful theological and
spiritual training among the Clergy; to which, like
S. Vincent de Paul and the other holy men whose
counsels he had shared, he looked as the great hope
of saving the Church, and, through her, his country
from the many perils overhanging France. He used
to visit his own Seminary diligently, encouraging both
students and Superiors with his sympathy and advice.
One of the points Bossuet used to press most on the
latter was the benefit of training their pupils very spe
cially in the habit of speaking readily, and leading
1 CEuvres, vol. v. 208. 2 Ibid. p. xv.

DIOCESAN SEMINARY. 297
them to consider the ministry of the Word as our Lord's
special gift to His Church for the evangelising the
world. He used to warn the students to avoid all affec
tation, and even an excessive anxiety to cultivate an
elegant or studied style, bidding them rather seek an
ardent spirit of love, the promptings of which come from
the Holy Ghost Himself. It is not man who speaks,
but God in him ; it is God Alone Whose All-powerful
Grace works through His servants. And while press
ing the importance, the absolute necessity of cultivat
ing the gift of preaching, it was always observed that
the Bishop prized a recollected manner, and a devout
habit of mind, more than any other gift among the
Clergy. Another diocesan work to which Bossuet gave a
large share of personal attention was that of Hospitals,
which as far as possible he always committed to the
Sisters of Charity. Not content with contributing
largely to the maintenance of the principal hospital in
Meaux, he used himself to go into all the minutest
details concerning the treatment and food of the
patients. On one occasion, when there had been a
scarcity, he gave so liberally to the Hospital that his
house-steward remonstrated and begged the Bishop to
diminish his supplies. " Nothing of the sort," Bossuet
answered, "I would sell all I have to meet these

298 BOSSUET A T MEA UX.
wants."1 Such entries as the following constantly
occur in the Abbe Le Dieu's Journal : —
" Monday, Jan. 3, 1701. — After dinner the Bishop
visited the Hospital and the Sisters of Charity.
" Oct. 19. — The Bishop said Mass for the Religieuses
de Colomniers, and communicated them all ; then he
presided at their election of Superieure Assistante, and
Conseillieres, which lasted till noon. Then he dined,
and at 2 p.m. returned to Germigny, after giving many
audiences." 2
The Journal is a string of like entries. Every day,
every hour seems to have been filled with such duties,
as well as the theological studies and important works
of all kinds for which the Bishop also found time.
The Religious Houses of the Diocese all met with
his most attentive care and interest. We shall return
to the subject of his spiritual direction and dealing
with individual souls, a work largely carried on through
his active life, chiefly with respect to Religious. But
on coming to the See of Meaux Bossuet found various
disputes in existence between the See and certain
Communities, which it required great tact as well as
firmness to quiet. Of these, Faremontier and Rebais
were soon reconciled to the See, but the Abbey of
Jouarre was a more troublesome matter. For cen
turies there had been a struggle between this Abbey
1 Le Dieu, M'emoires, vol. i. p. 188. 2 Vol. ii. p. 237.

RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES. 299
and the Bishops of Meaux, who had sometimes
yielded to the claims of its Abbess for absolute inde
pendence, sometimes appealed, and had their appeal
disallowed. But, like many other abuses, the exorbi
tant privileges claimed by the Princesse Henriette de
Lonaine (Abbess of Jouarre at the time of Bossuet's
appointment to Meaux) had reached a point at which
reaction was inevitable, and the King had interfered
in 1680. The Abbess used the revenues of her Abbey
precisely as though they were her own private fortune;
she rarely went to Jouarre, and when she did her life
of pomp and luxury was more consistent with her birth
as a daughter of the princely house of Lorraine than
as the spiritual head of a religious Community.
Bossuet was not the man to allow such irregularities
to go on in his diocese unchecked. He interfered
first of all with the Abbess's continual unauthorised
absences from her home, an interference which Hen
riette de Lorraine treated with scorn; whereupon
Bossuet took the case before the Parliament of Paris.
In a letter to De Ranee (Jan. 2, 1690), he says: "I
have engaged in, or rather I am undergoing, a proces
before Parliament, with a view to remove from the
Church, if possible, the scandal of the exemption
of Jouarre, which I have always thought to be
monstrous." ' * CEuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 452.

3oo BOSSUE T AT ME A UX.

An arrit in favour of the Bishop of Meaux was
pronounced by Parliament in Jan. 1690, and Bossuet
proceeded to establish his jurisdiction; but the Abbess
resisted him in every possible way, public and private.
At length, finding that his dignified firmness and
paternal charity were not to be defeated, Henriette de
Lorraine contrived to resign her post (retaining a large
pension) to her cousin, Anne Marguerite de Rohan
Soubise. This young Abbess began ner career in a
very obedient, dutiful spirit, but she was soon led
astray ; and when the1 Bishop of Meaux interfered, in
order to obtain the rightful election of nuns — instead
of which the Abbess simply admitted them at her own
will and pleasure — she rebelled, and being upheld by
her own family, especially by her mother, the Princesse
de Soubise, long an avowed favourite of Louis XIV.,
she reckoned on success. Among an immense mass
of letters written to the nuns of Jouarre, some of
whom were Bossuet's spiritual children, there is a long
one to the Abbess, Mme. de Soubise, on this vexed
question, singularly conciliatory and indulgent, con
sidering that it was written by an old Bishop to a
young woman who was setting his lawful authority at
defiance. But withal Bossuet speaks plainly.
" You must allow me to tell you, Madame, that it
is your part to obey. This is what your own heart
told you at first, and what it will always tell you so

ABBEY OF JOUARRE. 301

long as, placing yourself humbly before God, you
listen to it alone. . . . Let me urge you to return to
your better mind, and submit yourself to the Superior
God has given you. If you knew the grace you would
receive by such submission nothing would be able to
hinder you. I am not going to hurry matters, I would
rather wait patiently for your willing consent; I would
rather tha(\you came to a right decision of your own
accord than use the authority which the Holy Spirit
has given me. If you hearken only to God and your
own conscience you will hearken to me. Do not
imagine that you are lowered by humbling yourself
before him who is set over you in the Lord ; do not
fancy that it is dignified to resist him — all such ideas
belong to that world and its spirit of pride which you
have renounced,[and of which no vestige should remain
in you. And do not fancy that obedience lies in words
only, as though the recognising ecclesiastical authority
were a mere complimentary matter. Those who would
be really humble as true Religious must put their obe
dience in practice, and then God will give them His
true and pure light to guide them in their course."1
It is pleasant to find that the Bishop's gentleness
was not wasted, and that Therese de Soubise not only
submitted to him, but took the earliest opportunity of
testifying her genuine submission by receiving two
1 CEuvres, vol, xxviii. p. 338.

BOSSUET AT MEAUX.

of her kinswomen as novices of la Jouarre, only upon
their due and formal election by the Community.
Amid all these multifarious cares and responsi
bilities Bossuet seems to have been able always to keep
a calm, unruffled habit of mind, and to exercise a judg
ment singularly unbiassed by prejudice or personal
feeling. Probably this was one great secret of the
influence he exercised so largely. He had the greatest
possible dislike to party spirit or partisanship in any
form, although very clear and definite in his opinions
and in his support of them, and, until his unhappy
strife with Fenelon, no one was less bitter in contro
versy. One of his familiar companions — Winslow (a
scientific Dane, who, having brought introductions to
Bossuet, remained at Germigny, and was converted to
the Church) — used to tell how, one day, when walking
on the terrace at Germigny with the Bishop and Pfere
de Riberolles, Superior of the Meaux Seminaire, some
thing was said about certain Bishops who had professed
themselves strong partisans either of the Jesuits or the
Oratorians, between whom an urgent controversy was
waging: — "They lower themselves on both sides by
that," Bossuet remarked. "The Faith does not depend
upon individual Societies — it lies much rather with
the Episcopate. People may say that I have friends
among the Jesuits, and among the Fathers of the
Oratory too, but I hope no one will ever be able to

SOCIAL LIFE AT GERMIGNY. 303
say of me that I belong either to the Jesuit party or
the Oratorian party!"
His friends were numerous, and of every class and
grade, and all were heartily welcomed at Germigny.
That same terrace, Bossuet's only scene of social re
creation, must have seen many a gathering of the most
intellectual men in France at the time. De Corde-
moy the historian, de Vares, Royal Librarian ; de
Saint Luc, the King's Chaplain ; the Abbe Fleury, the
geometrician Sauveur, the Orientalists Renaudot,
d'Herbelot and Galland, Peiisson, already mentioned,
la Bruyere, Boileau, Racine, Santeuil, (whose mytho
logical license once brought severe rebuke upon him,
and who soon after published an amende honorable in
the shape of a Latin poem, headed by a vignette re
presenting Bossuet in full pontificals, with Santeuil
kneeling before him on the steps of the Cathedral of
Meaux, a halter round his neck, and throwing all his
profane rhymes into the fire !) and last, but not least,
Fenelon, — all these distinguished men, and many
more, gathered round Bossuet. "All agreed," says
Fontenelle, " in taking M. de Meaux as their leader.
They formed a special society, which was all the
stronger inasmuch as it was apart from the great
Parisian world, and did not in any degree feel bound
to acquiesce in its opinions and judgments." ' One
1 Eloge de Malazieu.

304 BOSSUET A T MEA UX.

loves to dwell on this period of intimate friendship
between Bossuet and Fenelon, — wishing it were pos
sible to erase the later days of difference and bitter
controversy between them. Extremely unlike in most
ways, they were specially unlike, socially. Fenelon
must have had much the greater attractiveness. Saint-
Simon says that " he never seemed conscious of any
superiority to those with whom he talked, placing
himself on the level of each without seeming to come
down to any one, — charming everybody by his perfect
ease, never disputing, always appearing to yield, while
really leading others after him, always original and
inventive, imitating no one, but inimitable himself,
combining a.je ne sais quoi of the sublime with perfect
simplicity, which gave a sort of prophetical character
to his manners."1 Bossuet does not seem to have had
the great gift of conversational powers for which Fene
lon was remarkable; — society was to him merely a
season of rest from his laborious studies, while to
Fenelon it was an occasion of pouring out the endless
treasures of his imagination and esprit. Grave and
sedate himself, Bossuet's conversation was of the like
nature, he despised frivolous and idle talk, and — per
haps naturally in consequence of having filled such
important confidential positions at Court — never in
dulged in anecdotes or topics of the day. Religious
2 Mimoires de Saint-Simon, edit. Delloye, vol. xxii. c. 380, etc.

BOURDALOUE. 3°5

or moral questions, philosophy, the more solid litera
ture of the period, were the chief subjects on which
he cared to talk, and though sometimes he could be
playful after a fashion, one has a lurking consciousness
that it must have been rather heavy— something of
solemnity in his fun ! He was a Bishop, and he never
forgot it, or wished to be anything else, and probably
if he had been told that all the most distinguished
strangers who came to the magnificent Court of Louis
XIV. thought their mission unfulfilled until they could
obtain an introduction to Germigny, and see the great
orator of France, he would have smiled the informa
tion aside, and discredited the fact In the same way
it became a habit for all the great preachers of the
time to offer to come and preach before Bossuet on the
anniversary festival of his Cathedral (S. Stephen's Day)
at Meaux ; and his approval was as much valued as
the more demonstrative praise of the Court. Thus
Bourdaloue, Massillon, and other great names were
brought to Meaux. Bossuet refers to the former in a
letter to one of his spiritual daughters, —
" Pere Bourdaloue has been preaching a sermon to
us which has enraptured our people and the whole
diocese." *
The Calvinist ministers, and other Protestants who
resorted to Germigny for instruction or shelter, have
1 CEuvres, vol. xxviii. p. 192.

306 B OSSUE T AT ME A UX.
already been alluded to, and we should not have any
just idea of Bossuet's work or position as Bishop of
Meaux were we to pass over his dealings with the
Protestant part of his flock. This was numerous.
Meaux was a stronghold of the Calvinists ; it was the
first French town which had seen a Calvinistic chapel
built within its walls ; and, at the time Bossuet was
appointed to the See, there were about three thousand
Calvinists in the place.
When the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685)
threw dismay upon the Protestants generally, Bossuet
did all that conciliation and charity could do to win men
to the true faith. He accepted and even applauded
the revocation of the Edict, but not the violence and
cruelty which followed upon it.1 His secretary tells an
1 "II est certain que la revocation de l'edit de Nantes et les
violences des princes protestants procedaient d'un etat social
commun a tous les royaumes, et qui etoit fort vicieux. Les
ennemis de Louis XIV. et de l'Eglise sont tombes en des
appreciations fausses et parfois ridicules en voulant juger ces faits
d'apres les idees plus on moins justes qu'ils ont adoptees, au lieu
de prendre pour base de leurs appreciations les opinions qui
regnaient universellement au xvii" siecle. En partant d'une idee
personelle fort juste, on peut apprecier philosophiquement un fait
en lui-meme et isoW ; mais on ne peut, sans tomber dans 1'erreur,
vouloir I'apprecier historiquement sans se transporter au siecle
oil il a eu lieu, sans s'identifier, pour ainsi dire, a l'esprit de ce
siecle. La revocation de l'edit de Nantes, jug^e d'apres les idees
de notre temps, fut un acte mauvais et digne d'etre fletri ; mais
en tenant comptedu systeme politique-religieux qui regnait alors,

THE CAPETS OF MEAUX. 307
amusing story of a large number of vinedressers,
called Capets, inhabitants of the suburb Saint-Nicolas
in Meaux, very ignorant men, who, having been im
pressed by what they heard, came to Bossuet to be
received into the Church, saying, " We doesn't doubt
any more, and is convinced us should be Catho
lics. But, Monseigneur, us can't obey the Pope ! " "
Bossuet gently replied, "What do you mean by
obeying the Pope ? the King obeys him, and I obey
him." This satisfied the poor fellows' theological
difficulties, and they made their submission.2 But a
on le comprend parfaitement, et l'on ne s'etonne plus que les
hommes les plus remarquables et les plus doux y aient applaudi."
— Introduction aux Mhnoires de l'Abbe" Le Dieu, par l'Abbe
Guettee, vol. i. p. cxxiii.
1 "Je ne doutons plus, et sommes convaincus qu'il faut etre
Catholiques, et nous convertir entre vos mains. Mais Mon
seigneur, je ne voulonspas obeir au Pope." — Vie, vol. ii. p. 286.
2 Bossuet's care extended to the humblest of his flock. We find
such entries in the Abbe^ Le Dieu's Journal as the following : —
"January 27, 1700. — M. de Meaux being informed that Jean
Maure, a shepherd of Montion, had had the misfortune to kill
another shepherd who had attacked and fired at him maliciously,
wrote that evening to the Chancellor to prevent the death of the
poor man, who was liable to be executed in three days at Meaux,
and he could not be at rest until he was reassured as to the life
of his dioclsain. Thursday 28. — M. Parere, first Secretary of the
Chancellor, came to announce the man's pardon. M. de Meaux
went at once to the Chancellor, to satisfy himself from his own
mouth, and wrote off directly to Meaux — saying that it was the
special duty of Bishops to use their influence with great people
on behalf ot the poor." — Vol. i. p. 14.

308 BOSSUET A T MEA UX.
more elaborate instruction than this was required in
the generality of cases, and Bossuet spared no pains
to teach the truth, either personally or by means of
others. Missions were carried on in different towns
of the diocese, schools established, conferences and
instructions given ; and at this period Bossuet wrote
and published several important writings, an "Ex
plication de quelques difficultes sur les prieres de la
Messe ;'" a pastoral on " Les Promesses de l'Eglise ; " *
and another on " La Communion Pascale." 3 About
this time, also, Bossuet wrote his " Traite sur la Com
munion sous les deux especes," * an elaborate and
learned examination of the whole subject, in which,
while acknowledging the absolute necessity of both
kinds present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, he
maintains the right of the Church to use such dis
cipline in ritual as she sees fit for the greater promo
tion of reverence, which he considers to be attained
by withholding the cup from the Laity. Of course
Bossuet goes at length into, and establishes the un
doubted fact of the Presence under either kind, and
(as appears when he took part later on in certain
projects of reunion) he was not opposed to the
restoration of the cup to the laity, only he upheld the
Church's power to decide such questions, and wished
1 CEuvres, vol. xvii. p. I. = Ibid. p. 83.
3 Ibid. p. 241. * Vol. xvi. p. 245.

COMMUNION IN BOTH KINDS. 309
to prove to the Protestants that the validity of the
Sacrament was no wise impaired by its being withheld.
Various replies to this work were brought out, and
Bossuet wrote a further answer, in the preface to
which he says : z " The point is to ascertain whether, in
order to a good Communion according to our Lord's
own institution, it suffices to receive either the one or
the other species, or if it is absolutely essential that
both be received. We do not affect to say that the
Communion in both kinds is other than good — God
forbid ! We do not deny that Jesus Christ instituted
both, or that He commanded His Apostles to receive
both; the question is whether His Divine command
obliges the faithful always to receive under both kinds."
This second and lengthy work — in which Bossuet goes
carefully through the questions of Infant Communion,
Reserved Communion conveyed to the Martyrs and
dying, etc., as proving that from primitive times the
Church admitted of Communion in one kind under
certain circumstances — was not published during his
life, in consequence apparently of the press of work
literary and episcopal which weighed upon him. The
first treatise appeared in 1681, but this second part
was not published until 1753, when it was given to
the world with some other posthumous writings of
Bossuet * CEuvres, vol. xvi. p. 368.

310 BOSSUET A T MEA UX.
In times of so much excitement, when public
opinion did not deprecate intolerance or religious
persecution as it does now, and when tender and
refined women could speak almost jestingly of scenes
which make us shudder as we read/ it implies a
great deal to hear that during Bossuet's Episcopate
there was never any military execution either in the
town or diocese of Meaux. In many parts of the
country there was almost civil war, caused by the
irrepressible indignation of the oppressed on the one
hand and the heavy hand of power putting them
down on the other ; but Bossuet studiously avoided
any military support, and used every effort to give the
Protestants as full liberty as was possible after the
revocation of the Edict of Nantes. On one occasion
an imeute was threatened at Lisy, a town where
1 Mme. de Sevigne not only relates the details of the trials for
poisoning of 1680, as amusing gossip to her daughter, Mme. de
Grignan, but she gives an account of the horrible execution of La
Voisin, who was burnt as an empoisonneuse; describes how she her
self, with Mme. de Sully, Mme. de Fiesque, and other fine ladies,
went to see the wretched woman pass to the Place de la Greve, and
describes the horrid scene facetiously ! After telling another
story of like nature, she calmly says, "Je sais encore mille
petits contes agreables comme celui la : mais le moyen de tout
dire ! " and goes on about balls and grands soupers I (Lettres, vol.
vi. p. 377). If horrors could be thus tolerated, and lightly
esteemed in polished society, there is less wonder at the tone of
persecution which prevailed in religious matters, and this whole
state of things ought to be borne in mind in viewing the subject.

GENTLE TREATMENT OF PROTESTANTS. 311
there were a good many Calvinists, and some seven
or eight hundred armed persons gathered together.
The attempt was quickly defeated, and the leaders
arrested, and condemned to death. Bossuet heard
the tidings, arrested the execution on his own
authority, and appealing at once to Paris, he obtained
their pardon. One only instance recorded in the
neighbourhood of anything like military oppression
among the Protestants is an apt witness to the spirit
in which Bossuet acted. A certain Protestant gentle
man named Seguier, living at his Chateau la Charmoix,
had made himself conspicuous, and his wife still more
so, by indiscreet and violent language concerning the
King, and at last the Intendant de Paris quartered
seven or eight dragoons upon the chiteau, as a punish
ment of their disloyalty. Bossuet was extremely
annoyed at this, and took the unexpected measure of
getting the Intendant to send M. and Mme. Seguier
to his palace at Meaux, making himself responsible
for their good behaviour. The lady began by making
herself extremely disagreeable to her host, but after a
while both husband and wife could not but be
softened by the gentleness and charity shown to them
by the Bishop; and the result was that they listened to
his instructions, and both became Catholics. Bossuet
knew almost every individual in the place, whether
convert or in opposition. One of the Canons of

312 BOSSUET A T MEA UX.

Meaux (Payen by name) has recorded how the Bishop
used to go about on foot, and when he knew of a
Protestant meeting, knock at the door, and go gently
in ; and then, if, as sometimes happened, he was met
with surprise and mistrust, he would say, " Children,
where the sheep are, there the shepherd ought to be.
My duty is to seek out my wandering sheep, and
bring them home to the fold. What is going on
to-day?" And then he would enter into their dis
cussions, and reason and teach them gently and like a
father among his little ones. Not unfrequently, if
a fine was to be paid, the Bishop would pay half, and
it was in vain that the Intendant grumbled con
tinually, assuring him that he was dreadfully imposed
upon. Probably this was true, but nevertheless it is a
pleasanter thing to think of in a servant of Him
Whose sun shines on the evil and the good, than if he
had been harsh and ready to punish his poor people
for their ignorance and enors — errors into which they
or their forefathers would probably never have fallen
had the Church always been ruled by such men
as Bossuet, and filled with his spirit of true religion
and unselfishness.
Although resolutely making Meaux his home and
the chief scene of his work and interests, Bossuet
could not escape being called to Paris from time to
time, when occasions arose which seemed to have a

DEATH OF QUEEN MARIE THERESE. 313
fitting claim on the great Orator. The first time we
find him yielding to such a claim was the occasion of
the Queen's death, when Louis XIV. requested him
to preach her Oraison Funebre. This was in 1683.
Marie Therfese d'Autriche had, as we know, drunk
deeply of the most cruel humiliations;1 but latterly
the wise influence of Mme. de Maintenon (more pro
bably than the other causes often alleged together
with that) had been the means of bringing the King
back to a more due treatment of her, and her amiable
efforts to do whatever he wished — accompanying him
on his journeys, inspecting fortifications, and striving
to do whatever was required of her — won some grate
ful regard from her unfaithful husband.2
During the summer of 1683 the Queen made one
of these journeys, which must have been a time of
very mixed satisfaction to her. Returning to Ver
sailles, the Queen began to suffer from a tumour
beneath her left arm, fever set in, and on the fourth
day there was evident danger. Her Confessor, wish
ing to bring the fact before the Queen's mind, quoted
S. Paul's words, " Whether we live, we live unto the
Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord;" upon
which Marie Therese looked up finnly, and asked,
"Then what matters it whether I live or die?"
1 Lettres de Sevigni, vol. iv. p. 44, v. 25.
2 Ibid. vol. vii. p. t&2.

3H BOSSUET A T MEA UX.
Her seemingly cold, imperturbable nature had been
greatly touched at the revival of some tenderness on
the part of her husband, and when he came to her
bedside bearing a torch, accompanying the Viaticum
which was brought to her, she looked imploringly at
him, and said, " I hardly know how to bear the signs
of affection from you, and I feel I ought to use the
few moments which now remain to me in making
ready for Eternity." That afternoon (July 30, 1683)
she died, at the age of forty-five. Historians may
have "wearied themselves," as Voltaire says,1 "in seek
ing something to say about her," but there was enough
to say concerning less worthy persons, and Louis XIV.
himself was constrained to own when she died that,
during the twenty years she had been his Queen,
Marie Therese had never given him any cause for
lamentation until that of her death.2
It was not till Sept. 1st that her funeral Oration
was delivered at Saint-Denis.3 It was simple and
quiet, as its subject had been : there was no flattery
in speaking of the white robes which the Queen had
kept so clean, for in the midst of that impure, volup
tuous Court no word of scandal had ever possibly
been raised against the sorely-injured Queen ; and the
listeners must have confessed the truth of that asser-
1 Siecle de Louis XIV., vol. ii. p. 255.
» Remarques Historiques, vol. xii. p. 511. 3 Vol. xii. 505.

ANNE, PRINCESS PALATINE. 315
tion, ^.s well as of the allusion to her "edatante
blancheur" of person — a delicacy of complexion for
which Marie Therfese was renowned from infancy.
Bossuet makes a touching allusion to the death of the
little Due d'Anjou some eleven years before, which it
had been his duty to announce to the King and
Queen ; and perhaps the best panegyric on her that
could be made was in his words that " she approached
her last hour without needing any more special pre
paration for that awful passage than her past life." '
Again, in 1685, Bossuet was summoned to pro
nounce the funeral Oration of Anne de Gonzague de
Clfeves, Princess Palatine, whose early life had been of
the wildest. About to be made a nun, without voca
tion — in order that the fortune of her elder sister,
Marie, married to the King of Poland, might be larger
— she ran away, and at one-and-twenty appeared as a
Court beauty, and falling into a love affair with Henri
de Guise, followed him to Flanders and called herself
Mme. de Guise; but, forced at last to see that he had
deluded her with false promises of marriage, she mar
ried, in 1645, Edward, son of the Duke of Bavaria.
This was altogether a remarkable career, but the
Princess became even more remarkable during the
Fronde, meddling in almost all that went on in these
civil wars, and pronounced by Cardinal de Retz as not
1 Remarques Historiques, vol. -:'i. p. 529.1

316 BOSSUET A T MEAUX.
inferior to Queen Elizabeth of England in statesman
ship. Her private life meanwhile was scandalous, and
she mocked at all religion. Bossuet draws a graphic
picture of the "deep abyss" in which her soul was
plunged,1 until at last " the Lord brought her back
from the depths of the earth," and the last twelve
years of her life were spent in a penitence which there
is every reason to believe genuine. Bossuet seems to
have shrunk from pronouncing this funeral Oration,
but he was ovenuled by the Grand Conde, whose
son, Henri Jules de Bourbon, had married one of the
Princess's daughters. They were present, together
with a large courtly assemblage, on Aug. 9, 1685,
when Bossuet delivered it at Val-de-Grace, where the
Princess was buried.
But a few months later he was called upon again to
make a funeral Oration — this time over his old friend
and constant admirer, the Chancellor Le Tellier.
Like most other active public characters, Le Tellier
had his friends and enemies; perhaps finding de Bussy
and Voltaire among the latter rather inclines one to
think favourably of him ! 2 It was under Cardinal
Mazarin that he first came into office, and during the
troubles of the Fronde he was all-important to the
1 CEuvres, vol. xii. p. 552.
* Lettres de Sevigne", vol. viii. p. 134. Siecle de Louis XIV.
vol. ii. p. 177.

CHANCELLOR LE TELLIER. 317
Royal party. On the first occasion of Mazarin's
retirement Le Tellier retired with him, but, later on,
when the Cardinal finally left the government, Le
Tellier remained as Anne of Austria's chief minister.
In 1666 he resigned his offices to his sonLouvois, and,
when seventy-four, Louis XIV. appointed him Chan
cellor and Garde des Sceaux ; on which occasion he
said, when acknowledging the honour, "Sire, your
purpose must be to do honour to my family, and to
crown my tomb." It was he who officially signed the
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes1 as Chancellor.
Bossuet had known Le Tellier intimately from the
time he went to Paris, and no one had been more
anxious than the statesman to see Bossuet filling the
important post of preceptor to the Dauphin. In this
funeral Oration he speaks of his venerable friend as
having often been " aux prises avec la mort," and each
time being more resigned to God's Will. "The
thought of death did not make his old age less
peaceful or happy. ... He used often to say that one
special misfortune of old age was the incapacity to
realise a man's own decadence, so as to plunge sud
denly into the abyss without having been prepared for
it by realising a previous steady decline ; and he was
wont to entreat his children by all their love and
1 The Edict of Nantes was granted by Henri IV., April 13,
1598, and revoked by Louis XIV., Oct. 22, 1685.

318 BOSSUET A T MEA UX.
gratitude for him (which was the blessing of his closing
life) to give him timely warning when they perceived
his memory or judgment failing, so that he might
exercise his last powers in saving the public and his
own conscience from the ills which his age and infir
mities might otherwise bring on them."1
Bossuet's account of the Chancellor's last end is
interesting. " For ten days he contemplated his com
ing death calmly. Always in a sitting posture (rendered
necessary by the nature of his malady), one might to
the last have supposed he was giving audience quietly,
or indulging in peaceful intercourse with cared-for
friends. Often he liked to be left alone to commune
with death — his memory, his judgment as clear as
ever ; and even when dying he could not feel death
cruel. Night and day it was present to him, for he
could not sleep — there was no rest for his eyes until
they should close in the cold slumber of death. . . .
But do not suppose that this strength rose up suddenly
when he was in the grasp of death; it was the result
of a life's preparation. . . . He received Extreme
Unction and the Viaticum devoutly — his soul was
poured forth in hymns of praise. No good man ever
trusted in God's Grace with a firmer confidence —
no sinner ever asked forgiveness more humbly.
Would that I had the pen Job craved for, that I
' CEuvres, vol. xii. p. 581,

ARCHBISHOP LE TELLIER. 319

might engrave his words uttered at the last, saying
that he had the comfort of remembering that during the
forty-two years he had served the King he had never
given any advice that was not conscientious, or yielded
to any act of injustice it was in his power to hinder."
Surrounded by his children, and not afraid of weakness
in enjoying their tenderness, the old man cried out
amid his bodily pains, " I do not crave deliverance
from suffering, but I crave for the Sight of God;" and
another time he exclaimed, " I thank God for allowing
my body to fail before my mind I"1 His last breath
was drawn as he began to utter the Psalm " Miseri-
cordias Domini in seternam cantabo."2 Bossuet
says that the public, " that rigid censor of fortunate
politicians," had nothing to accuse Le Tellier of
when he died, leaving so moderate a fortune to his
family as he did. Of Le Tellier's two sons, one was
the well-known minister Louvois, and the other that
Archbishop of Rheims already mentioned as assisting
at Bossuet's installation. He was a worldly, proud,
luxurious prelate, for whom one cannot feel much
respect. Although a zealous advocate for the liberty
of the Gallican Church, one can hardly give him credit
1 Le Tellier's thanksgiving reminds one of old Fuller's prayer,
" Let my clay cottage totter ere it falls."
2 " My song shall be alway of the loving-kindness of the
Lord." — Ps. lxxxix. I.

320 BOSSUET A T ME A UX.
for a very warm religious feeling in the question ; his
estimate of secular and spiritual gains may be gathered
from his famous saying in the anteroom of King James
II. of England, when an exile at Saint-Germain, —
" VoilS. un bonhomme qui a quitte trois royaumes pour
une messe !" Another recorded saying of the Arch
bishop of Rheims is that " no one can be an honest
man who has not ten thousand livres a year !"-~a
remark very consistent with Boileau's satirical obser
vation on the Archbishop, "Monseigneur m'estime
bien davantage depuis qu'il me croit riche ! " *
• Remarques Historiques, vol. xii. p. 569.
Mme. de Sevigne, with her usual rapid transition from one bit
of gossip to another, tells her daughter (Feb. 5, 1674) of a
wonderful sermon of Bourdaloue's, "qui transporta tout le
monde; il etoit d'une force a faire trembler les courtisans, et
jamais predicateur Evangelique n'a pre'che si hautement ni si
genereusement les verites chretiennes ; il etoit question de faire
voir que toute puissance doit e'tre soumise a la loi, a l'example
de notre Seigneur, qui fut presente au temple : enfin, ma fille,
cela fut porte au point de la plus haute perfection, et certains
endroits furent pousses comme les auroit pousses l'Ap6tre S.
Paul. " And then the Archbishop of Rheims appears on the scene
in a less admirable fashion: "II revenoit hier fort vite de Saint-
Germain, c'e'toit comme un tourbillon : il croit bien etre grand
seigneur, mais ses gens le croient encore plus que lui. Ils pas-
soient au travers de Nanterre, tra, tra, tra; ils rencontrent un
homme a cheval, gare, garel Ce pauvre homme veut se ranger;
son cheval ne veut pas ; et enfin le carosse et les six chevaux
renversent cul par-dessus tete le pauvre homme et le cheval, et
passent par-dessus, et si bien par-dessus que le carosse eu fut
versd et renvers^: En meme temps I'homme et le cheval, au lieu

THE GREAT CONDE. 321
This Archbishop could hardly have been a real
friend of Bossuet's, but he acceded to his request, and
paid the last tribute to the aged Chancellor, Jan. 25,
1686, in the Church of Saint Gervais.
But once more did Bossuet undertake this office —
and that was on an occasion where his own affections
were warmly concerned — on behalf of his old and
well-loved friend, the Great Conde. From the time
when, as we have seen,1 the young General was fas
cinated by Bossuet's earliest eloquence, a warm friend
ship had existed between them : they met frequently
and affectionately, and many letters remain testifying
to their close intimacy. Thus we find Bossuet, when
a famous Court preacher, sending Conde a sermon he
had asked for,2 as also his Conference avec Claude,
commending a relation, M. de Simon, to him;3 dis
cussing various literary matters, the death of friends,
specially that of M. de Cordemoy, recommending a
Cure, thanking Conde for sending one of his fontainiers
de s'amuser a etre roues et estropies, se relevent miraculeusement,
remontent l'un sur l'autre, et s'enfuient et courent encore, pendant
que les laquais de l'Archeveque et le cocher, et l'Archeveque
meme, se mettent a crier : 'Arrke, arrite ce coquin, qu'on lui
donne cent coups 1' L'Archeveque, en racontant ceci, disoit :
' Si j'avois tenu ce maraud Ik, je lui aurois rompu les bras et
coupe les oreilles ! ' " — Vol. iii. p. 336.
1 See page 18. 2 CEuvres, vol. xxvi. pp. 133, 312, 329.
3 Ibid. p. 311. X

322 BOSSUET A T ME A UX.
to put his waterworks at Germigny in order,1 and the
like. Conde delighted to gather the literary men of
his day around him at Chantilly, and to the last he
might be seen wandering about its lovely gardens and
shady groves with Racine, Boileau, la Bruyere, Bos
suet, and other celebrities.
Conde died December n, 1686, at Fontainebleau,
whither he had gone to visit the young Duchesse de
Bourbon, his grandson's wife. Bossuet gives the
details of his end with a strong expression of deep
personal interest. Conde, as the close of his life
approached, sought spiritual guidance, and made great
efforts to control his naturally excitable, initable tem
perament : he read the Bible diligently, and endea
voured to prepare for death. It was in such a mental
attitude as this that he was called to see, as was
feared, the death of the young Duchess; — Louis XIV.
(whose daughter she was by Madame de Monte
span) being also summoned. Perhaps his anxiety
for her (though she recovered favourably) hastened
1 Conde took great delight, after his retirement, in the beau
tiful grounds of his ancestral home at Chantilly, and apparently
he had ridiculed Bossuet's humbler decorations in the fountain
department, as the latter says, after asking pardon for having
detained the fontainier so long, " II a travaille avec beaucoup de
soin jusqu'a hier ; et pour moi, je me suis rendu si parfait dans
les hydrauliques, que dorenavant vous ne me reprocherez plus
mes aneries." — CEuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 334.

CONDE'S DEATH. 323

Conde's end. He became ill, and was told that death
was near. " My God, be it as Thou wilt," was his
reply : " I cast myself upon Thee, give me grace to
die well." '
Funeral orations are supposed to be sensational,
but that Bossuet had no great love for striking death
bed utterances may be gathered from what he says of
Conde's dying hours : " His last moments are worthy
of record, not because they were remarkable, but pre
cisely because they were not so, and because there wasi
nothing done or said for effect by a Prince so well
known to all the world. . . . He had no talent for
pompous sayings ; in death, as in life, truth was his
real greatness." Three times successively he asked for
the last prayers for the dying, and thanking his phy
sicians, he turned to the priests standing by and said,
" These are now my best doctors." His confessoi
said something of the need to ask God to mould His
people's hearts, suggesting the prayer, " Make me a
clean heart, O God." Conde remained awhile pon
dering deeply, and then turning to the priest he said,
" I never had any religious doubts, whatever people
may have said. . But now," he went on, " I believe
more than ever. All the great mysteries of the Faith
grow clearer and clearer to my mind. Yes indeed, we
shall see God as He is, Face to face :" and he repeated
1 CEuvres, vol. xii. p. 683.

324 BOSSUET A T ME A UX.
again and again, fondly dwelling on them, the Latin
words, " Sicuti est, facie ad faciem."
Louis XIV. desired that the last honours paid to
his noble kinsman should be as magnificent as pos
sible, and assuredly the heartfelt words spoken over
him were more effectual to this end than even the pomp
and splendour lavished externally on the ceremony.
Madame de Sevigne is at home in the description of it.
" Once more sadness and death, mon cher cousin"
she writes. " But how could I fail to tell you about
the most beautiful, most magnificent, and most trium
phant pompe funebre which has ever been seen since
there were mortal men to die ! I mean that which
has taken place to-day at Notre Dame for the late
Prince. All our beaux esprits have exhausted their
energies in setting forth all this great Prince was and
has done. His ancestors were represented in medals
as far back as Saint Louis, all his victories by basses-
tailles (or bas-reliefs), covered with a sort of open-
cornered tent, and borne by skeletons, whose attitudes
were admirable. The mausoleum, reaching nearly to
the dome, was covered with a pavilion-like dais higher
still, its four corners falling like tents. The whole
choir was decorated with these basses-tailles, with devices
below, embodying all his life's history. The period of
his liaison with Spain is described by a dark shield, on
which three Latin words say, ' Ce qui s 'est fait loin du

FUNERAL ORATION. 325

soleil doit etre cache' Everything was powdered with
fleur-de-lis of some dark tint, and beneath was a lamp
shedding abroad ten thousand little stars. I forget
half, but you shall have the book with all details. . . .
Everybody has been to see this pompous decoration.
It will cost the present Prince a hundred thousand
francs, but such an expenditure does him infinite
honour. M. de Meaux preached the funeral oration :
that we shall have in print. This, my dear cousin, is
a rough sketch of the play. If I could venture to
make you pay double postage, you should have more.
So much for our sadness. But to comfort you some
what, I will turn to the other extreme — that is to
say, from a death to a marriage." *
Bossuet's oration was delivered in Notre Dame,
March 10, 1687, " in the presence of all that was
mightiest in France," as he himself says. There was
something specially stirring to his large heart in this
duty, as he looked back to the days that were past;
and there was also a delicate manipulation required in
treating Conde's enatic course, taking arms, as he had
done, against the King and his country. But Bossuet
was equal to the emergency, and faced it without
flinching. The earlier part of his oration is more
historical than theological, and a great deal of atten
tion was attracted by the parallel he drew between
1 Lettres, vol. viii. p. 221.

326 BOSSUET A T ME A UX.
Conde and his other noble warrior friend, Turenne."
Bossuet was not — to his credit be it spoken — a fa
vourite among mere courtiers or such men as the Comte
de Bussy, who reports that " the funeral oration of M.
de Meaux did no credit to either orator or the dead. I
hear that the Comte de Gramont, on coming from Notre
Dame, told the King that he had been hearing M. de
Turenne's funeral oration."2 Madame de Sevigne,
writing an enthusiastic account of Bourdaloue's oration
over the same great man, or rather over his heart,
which was taken to the Jesuits' Church, refers to
Bossuet's, which she says is " very beautiful, and
written with a masterly hand. The parallel between
the Prince and M. de Turenne is rather startling, but
the preacher excuses himself by denying that it is a
parallel, saying that it is rather a grand spectacle which
he puts before us of two great men, whom God gave
to serve His Majesty," etc.3
There is something very touching in the way which
Bossuet's personal friendship breaks out at the close,
dwelling rather upon the man he loved, and the Chris
tian who had departed in peace, than upon the great
soldier or hero, — alluding to the first in " the voice
that was well known to him." There is also a per
sonal allusion, such as we rarely find in Bossuet's
1 CEuvres, vol. xii. p. 627. ' Lettres, vol. viii. p. 226.
3 Ibid. p. 238.

LAST WORDS IN PUBLIC. 327

public speaking, to himself. His hair was already
grey, and though, as it proved, many years of life and
labour were yet before him, he began to feel the vigour
and power of youth declining ; and the closing words
of this his last great effort in public are : " Well is
me if, reminded by my white hairs of the account I
must soon give of my stewardship, I devote the
remaining powers of a failing voice and expiring
energy to the flock which I am bound to feed with
the Bread of Life."
His energies were indeed not expiring yet, however
at that moment the shortness of life and its emptiness
might be pressing upon him ; and we have still to fol
low Bossuet through an arduous course of labour and
toil before really the failing voice and expiring ener
gies laid down their burden at their Master's Feet, and
Eternal Rest was granted to him who had used his
stewardship so long to his Master's Glory.

328 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.

CHAPTER VIII.
BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
Histoire des Variations — Letter to Dr. Bull on his
Book— Jurieu — Basnage — Dr. Dupin — Cardinal Sfond-
rati — Lord Perth— Conversion of the Duke of Rich
mond — Quietism — Fenelon— Early Life — Appointment
as Preceptor to the Due de Bourgogne — Contrast
between the Duke and his Father — Fenelon appointed
Archbishop of Cambray — Molinism— Quietude — Bos
suet's Writings on Quietism — Madame Guyon — Con
ferences of Issy — Cardinal de Noailles — Appeal to
the Pope — Intrigues at Rome — Madame de Maisonfort
— The Abbe Bossuet — Cabals and Jealousies — Condem
nation of Fenelon's Book — Bossuet's Vehemence.
BOSSUET'S Exposition de la doctrine Catholique
had been a powerful agent among the Protes
tants, and some among them had tried to lessen its
influence by accusing the author of varying in his
statements when the definitive edition was published,
— the fact being that at first only a few proofs were
struck, and Bossuet had discussed these with various
learned theologians, and had altered, most assuredly
not the doctrine, but in some cases the manner of ex
pression first employed. Probably Bossuet would
have let such accusations pass unnoticed, but while

HISTOIRE DES VARIATIONS. 329
studying an important Protestant book published at
Geneva — the "Syntagma Confessionum fidei" — he
was so struck with the contradictions, the confusions,
the incoherent chaos of the Protestant confessions of
faith — one controverting and repudiating another,
here affirming what there was denied — that he deter
mined to gather together in writing the substance of
his study, and to point out to his wandering brethren
the fatal errors to which their rule of private judgment
had led them. The result of this was the learned and
singularly clear and forcible book called " Histoire
des Variations des Eglises Protestantes." T
It was in 1682 that Bossuet projected this work;
but he did not find time just then, amid the innumer
able occupations and literary undertakings already
mentioned, to execute his intentions, and it was not
till 1689 that the book was published.
To give a complete analysis of it would be to go
through the history of the Reformation. But the
religious and political state of Europe should be borne
in mind by those who read it. Love of novelty,
private judgment, and contempt for authority had led
to deplorable results, of which the climax had been
the judicial murder of the King of England. That
the outbreak of Puritanism, which flooded England
with misery and sin, arose in a great measure from the
CEuvres, vol. xiv.

33° BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
pernicious heresies of Calvin, probably no one ques
tions, and, as it has been said, his disciples, in their
fanatical dread of superstition, put their fellow-men to
death and murdered their King for the sake of trivial
differences in rites and ceremonies ! Hitherto such
controversy as had been published was chiefly confined
to details of doctrine or practice. Bossuet himself, in
his earlier writings, had done little but answer doubts
and objections raised — generally in good faith — by
Protestants. He had studiously avoided whatever
savoured of attack or provocation. But meanwhile
prejudice grew and throve. The greater number of
Protestants were altogether ignorant of the real history
of their schisms. They looked upon their leaders as
wise men, far above earthly passions, who, holding
stedfastly by the pure faith of antiquity which others
had degraded, alone raised their heads above delusion
and change. But the "Variations" dispelled such
illusions. Therein is clearly set forth the endless dif
ferences of Protestant confessions of faith and their
utter self-contradiction.
Bossuet goes through the varying doctrinal phases
of the first reformers — Luther, Melancthon, Bucer, and
Calvin, etc. ; their self-contradictions concerning justifi
cation by faith; concerning the Real Presence — vigor
ously maintained by Luther, denied by Zwinglius, with
Melancthon adhering first to one and then to another:

CONTRADICTIONS. 331
he sums up the labours of Bucer, that " great archi
tect of theological subtleties," who was perpetually
drawing up confessions of faith capable of endless in
terpretations. Nor does he deal in vague assertion —
his affirmations are always quoted from the original
words. So too with the four different editions of the
Confession of Augsburg, all pronounced authentic, all
at variance — whether of which was actually presented
to Charles V. being still unknown. The bitterness
between Lutherans and Calvinists is brought out,
the contests between the Sacramentarians and both
Lutherans and Zwinglians ; and the Fifth Book — of
which Melancthon is the chief subject, for whom
Bossuet has a very evident tendresse — is specially
interesting. The Ninth Book contains a masterly
summary of Calvin's history. One fancies Bossuet
must have smiled over the apology made in reply for
the murder of Servetus by the minister Basnage, that
" it was the remnant of papistry left in Calvin !" So
too the account of Albigeois and Vaudois given in the
Eleventh Book is perhaps more instructive than any
work extant on the same subject. The books which
treat of the English Church and its share in the Re
formation, of course, take a very different standpoint
from those which face the Protestant question, but,
with Bishop Burnet for his chief authority, and with
the recent miseries of England, political and religious,

332 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
yet present to his memory, Bossuet sees some matters
in a form which it is not too venturesome to say he
would alter now; while he gives the Church of
England credit practically for holding true doctrine,
and brings her mistakes and errors mainly to a political
question.1 Robert Nelson sent Dr. Bull's Judicium Ecclesia
Catholicce to Bossuet, whom he describes in his life of
the Bishop of St. David's as "one of the politest
writers of the age, and very much esteemed in France
for his great learning, as well as his good sense ; and
less could not be expected from a person chosen for a
preceptor, to instruct the Dauphin of France at a time
when that nation abounded with great men. This
considerable prelate had, upon several occasions, ex
pressed a great value and esteem for Dr. Bull's learn
ing and judgment ; so that, from the commendations
the Bishop had bestowed upon our learned author's
former performances, I thought it not unlikely that
his lordship would give a favourable reception to this
production, which was so very acceptable to many
other learned men. And indeed I was not dis
appointed in my expectations ; for this small acknow
ledgment I made to his lordship for the many great
favours he was pleased to confer upon me when I was
1 Bossuet markedly speaks of Anglicans us priests, in opposi
tion to Protestant ministers.

DR. BULL'S JUDICIUM ECCLESIM. 333
last in France was received by him with a satisfaction
which could arise from nothing so much as from the
entertainment he met with in that excellent treatise.
It happened that when my letter and Dr. Bull's book •
were delivered to his lordship he was then at St.
Germain-en-Laye, with the rest of his brethren met
in a general assembly, which is composed of all the
Archbishops and Bishops of the kingdom of France.
. . . Upon this occasion the Bishop of Meaux not
only read Dr. Bull's book with great care and exactness
himself, but thought fit to communicate it to several
other Bishops of the greatest eminence for their learn
ing and skill in divinity^ and for those other talents
which are necessary to adorn that high station in the
Church. They also perused it with no less pleasure
than satisfaction, the result whereof was to make a
compliment to the author from that great and learned
body ; and I was desired by the Bishop of Meaux, in
a letter from his lordship, not only to return Dr. Bull
his humble thanks, but the unfeigned congratulations
of the whole Clergy of France, assembled then at St.
Germain's, for the great service he had done to the
Catholic Church in so well defending her determina
tion of the necessity of believing the Divinity of the
Son of God."1
Bossuet's letter is dated
1 Works of Bishop Bull, Oxford edit., vol. i. p. 327.

334 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
"A St. Germain-en-Laye, 24 Juill. 1700.
"J 'ay receu, Monsieur, depuis quinze jours une
lettre, dont vous m'honorez de Blackheath auprfcs
de Londres en m'envoyant un livre du Docteur
Bullus, entituie Judicium Ecclesia Catholicce. Je vous
dirai d'abord, Monsieur, que je ressentis beaucoup de
joie h la veue de vostre ecriture et de vostre nom, et
que je fus ravi de cette marque de vostre souvenir.
Quant a l'ouvrage du Docteur Bullus, j'ay voulu le lire
entier, avant de vous en accuser la reception ; afin de
vous en dire mon sentiment. II est admirable, et la
matiere qu'il traite ne pouvoit estre expliquee plus
savamnient et plus a fond. C'est ce que je vous sup-
plie de vouloir bien luy faire savoir, et en mesme
temps les sinceres congratulations de tout le Clerge
de France assemble en cette ville, pour le service qu'il
rend k l'Eglise Catholique, en defendant si bien le
jugement qu'elle a porte sur la necessite de croire la
divinite du Fils de Dieu." * Naturally Bossuet goes
on to express a wish that Dr. Bull were Roman as well
as Catholic.
Jurieu and Basnage both attacked the Bishop of
Meaux, and their attacks led to the publication of a
" Defense de I'Histoire des Variations," 2 as also to a
succession of six " Avertissements," answering different
points of attack.3 His answer to the accusation of
' CEuvres, vol. xv. p. 329. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. vols. xiv. and xv.

DEFENCE OF THE "VARIATIONS." 335
idolatry' is extremely interesting; Bossuet affirms in
the strongest language, "Our whole religion attests
that we ask nothing of the greatest saints, or of the
Blessed Virgin, but their prayers."2 And he refers
to England, saying, " All England pleads our cause,
celebrating even as we do the festivals of the Saints,
All Saints included."3 The various replies of the
ministers further led to Bossuet's writing again on
Communion in both kinds,4 by saying: "From the
earliest times it has been the custom of the Church
to communicate under one or both species, without
either being held to be deficient as regards a perfect
Communion." Bossuet then goes on to give his
proofs from the practice of the primitive Church;
while for those to whom Luther's authority carried
weight (as it did among some of the contesting
ministers, though not with the Calvinists) he quotes
the German Reformer's contemptuous assertion that
it is a " worthless matter," and that if a Council were
to order Communion in both kinds, he would only
take one, in order to mark his contempt for the
authority of Councils.3 There are some exceedingly
1 Vol. xv. p. 331.
3 P- 337-
3 p. 362. Bossuet mentions "l'Eglise de Saint Paul a Londres "
in confirmation of the English Church holding the same doctrine
concerning the Saints as the rest of the Western Church.
4 CEuvres, vol. xvi. p. 245. 5 P- 433-

336 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
interesting pages concerning Infant Communion in one,
kind in the primitive Church1 and in the Greek Church.2
In a letter to Dom Mabillon, the Benedictine, Bos
suet, after speaking satisfactorily of the English Apos
tolical succession, goes on to say, alluding to his hopes
of reunion : " Speaking of this, it seems to me that
there is one thing which would greatly promote re
union with England and Germany — i.e. the restoration
of the Cup. It was restored in Austria and Bavaria
by Pius IV., but the remedy had no great effect.
Men's minds were still too excited. But the same
thing conceded at a more propitious time, like the
present, would be more successful."3 Mabillon
answers that the King of England had better
"demander la chose."
The Chapters on the Presanctified both among
Greeks and Latins are also most valuable,4 and will
well repay a careful study ; here they can but be men
tioned. Before leaving the subject of these controversial
writings, attention should be drawn to the prophetical
" p. 561.
2 Who that has ever witnessed the most touching Communion
of infants in the Greek Church but must most earnestly desire
that we retained that beautiful and gracious custom, and that our
little ones were likewise made partakers in the life-giving Body
of Christ by Holy Communion ?
3 Vol. xvi., Lettre CXLVIIL, p. 350. * p. 609.

BOSSUET'S DEFINITION OF THE CHURCH. 337
spirit in which Bossuet foresaw that Socinianism was
a necessary result of Calvinism, and must inevitably
invade those quarters where it prevailed.1 Probably
Bossuet's summary of the reasons why the Church is
so unloved by Protestants holds good now as much as
then ; we have daily cause to remember it " It is,"
he says, " far more than any other of her dogmas, her
holy and inflexible incompatibility, if one may use
such a word ; it is that she is the Bride, and as such
must stand alone, that title cannot be shared; it is
because she cannot allow a doubt to be thrown over
any of her dogmas, because she believes in the pro
mises and in the perpetual aid of the Holy Spirit. . . .
It is this inflexible firmness which, while it makes the
Church to be abhorred of schismatics, also makes her
so dear and so venerable to her children, since thereby
she confirms them in a faith which cannot change, and
enables them to say everywhere and at all times, ' I
believe in the Catholic Church ;' a profession of faith
which does not merely mean, ' I believe that there is
a Catholic Church, which is a Society wherein the
children of God are bound together,' but, ' I believe
that there is a Catholic Church, a one only, universal,
indivisible society, wherein the truth of Jesus Christ,
Who is the Life and Food of Christians, is unchange
ably taught ;' which does not merely mean, ' I believe
¦ VI. Avertissement, vol. xvi. p. 116.

338 BOSSUE T IN CONTRO VERSY.
iii the Church's existence,' but ' I believe her doctrine,
without which she would not exist, and must lose the
name of Catholic." l
The pretended prophetical publications of Jurieu
drew forth another publication from Bossuet's prolific
pen in 1689, an "Explication de 1' Apocalypse," '
which he calls the " Gospel of the Risen Saviour, the
Conqueror of death, speaking and moving in all the
brightness of His Glory." 3 Following S. Augustine
in his general commentary on the grand and myste
rious Revelations granted to S. John, Bossuet does
not hesitate to say that we must bow reverently before
much therein as wholly beyond human interpretation.
" The future," he says, " almost always turns out
differently from what we expect, and those very things
which God has revealed to us concerning it, happen
quite otherwise than we look for ; therefore I am alto
gether silent as to the future." The Protestants
themselves could not swallow Jurieu's audacious pre
tensions as a prophet, and several of their synods
censured his book.
Among the many theological questions into which
Bossuet's recognised position as almost — probably
1 Vol. xvi. p. 234. That Bossuet was not prepared for the
assertion of new dogmas, is strongly set forth in the ensuing
pages. 2 CEuvres, vol. ii. p. 300. 3 Ibid. p. 303.

DR. LOUIS DUPIN. 339

quite — the leading mind in the Gallican Church,
obliged him to enter, one arose in ^91-92 through
the young Sorbonne Doctor, Louis Dupin, whose
manner of treating the Fathers of the Church and
certain Councils seemed to the Bishop of Meaux not
only wanting in due reverence, but verging on false
doctrine. His opinion to this effect, strongly expressed,
led to a Commission on the Abbe Dupin's works,
named by the Faculte de Theologie. Dupin's defence
did not satisfy Bossuet, and he published a Memoire
on the subject, which is in fact an elaborate history
and critique on the Councils of Ephesus and Chal-
cedon.1 A letter from Fenelon (March 3, 1692)
alludes to this work :
" I am delighted," he says, " to see the vigour of
the old Doctor and ancient Bishop. As I read, I
fancy I see you gripping hold of Dupin as an eagle
grips a sparrow-hawk !" The poet Racine was a rela
tive of the Abbe Dupin, and he persuaded Fenelon to
plead with the great Eagle to spare the sparrow-hawk ;
and always kind to offenders, however severe to the
offence, Bossuet allowed Racine to bring Dupin to
call upon him, accepted his apologies and expla
nations, and encouraged the young author to devote
his talents and passionate love of study to God's
service. 1 CEuvres, vol. xx. p. 544.

340 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
In 1697 Bossuet attacked a work of the late Car
dinal Sfondrati on Predestination, and refuted its
errors in a letter * to Pope Innocent XII. signed by
four other Bishops. In addition to all these various
theological questions — (and one of the most weighty
we have not yet approached), Bossuet carried on a
a learned correspondence with Cardinals, Prelates,
Doctors, Abbots and Clergy innumerable, in a series
of letters,2 of which those that remain may give one
some idea of what the whole of his correspondence
must have been. Of his spiritual letters we have
more to say. One while he is recommending a Cure
to Henri de Bourbon, son and successor of the Great
Conde, — and taking possession meanwhile of his
nephew's letters, in order to prevent the required
letter from Poitiers following the Abbe Bossuet to
Lyons; playfully promising "fidelity as to his other
letters. En passant, Monseigneur, I would have you
remark that I am a good uncle.'' 3
Then there is an interesting series of letters between
the Bishop of Meaux and Lord Perth, one of James
II.'s ministers, who, being a man of natural piety, found
himself cast upon strangely troubled waters in the
unhappy days through which England was passing;
and having the claims of the Church of Rome strongly
1 CEuvres, vol. xxvi. p. 519. 2 Ibid. vol. xxvi. etc.
3 Vol. xxvi. p. 338.

LORD PERTH. 341

pressed upon him by those he loved, while his own
Church slumbered and slept and made no claim, as
he thought, on his allegiance, — he surrendered to the
eloquent reasoning of Bossuet's writings, and instead
of learning Catholicism only from them, and abiding
in his own branch of the Catholic Church, as perhaps
at a happier time he might have done, Lord Perth
formally joined the Roman Church. His admiration
for Bossuet was intense, and while apologising for a
comparison which he felt would wound the Bishop's
humility, he could not refrain from repeatedly likening
him to Saint Charles Borromeo, and Saint Francis de
Sales — his two favourite saints. Lord Perth is anxious
that Bossuet should not suppose him to be seeking
his counsel merely because of his great name : " It is
to the saint that I appeal for help, not to the great
man out of mere vanity." * And in another letter, he
says, "I declare sincerely that if I were my own
master, and were not tied to residence here (Windsor)
by the office in which God's Providence has placed
me, I would joyfully purchase the privilege of three
hours' talk with you by travelling barefoot to Meaux,
and begging my bread by the way. Of all the
instruction I have received, nothing has put things in
so clear a light, or confirmed and convinced me so
much, or dispelled the mists of my ignorance like to
1 Lettre CLVIL, vol. xxvi. p. 365.

342 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
your writings. Each letter I receive from you is as a
jewel to me; I derive both profit and pleasure from
them ; — they kindle my good resolutions, and not
only do they promote my intellectual growth, but
they strengthen my will for the service of God, and
His Holy Church." T
In the winter of r688, when William of Orange
drove his father-in-law from his kingdom, Lord
Perth shared in his master's troubles. He was seized
and imprisoned for more than two years in Stirling
Castle, and in spite of his age and infirmities it was
with difficulty that at length he obtained leave to
follow the King to France. Lord Perth remained in
attendance upon James II. until, his death, which
occuned at Saint-Germain in 1716. While imprisoned
he writes to Bossuet :
" Stirling Castle, January 21, 1689.
"... The hitherto unaltered fidelity of my house
has brought me here, abiding faithful to the King my
master, who has been so cruelly outraged ; — and I am
under deep obligation to you, who through the Grace,
Mercy, and Goodness of God, have been the means
of, so to say, sanctifying my sufferings, which have
become not merely endurable, but really welcome to
me. I am suffering now both for my king and also
1 Lettre CLXIII., p. 380.

LORD PERTH'S LETTERS. 343
for my God ; and if there is a noble greatness in
suffering for the love of one's sovereign, how much
more for one's religion and one's conscience ? As for
me, I am one of the weakest men possible; there
is nothing in me of my own, capable of upholding
me. Nevertheless I thank God for His Mercy to me,
which is more than abundant, so that at times I even
have scruples, because I am not more disturbed at all
that has happened. . . . Doubtless you often see
my dear Royal Master. There is no one whose
eloquence and piety are more capable of comforting
him. ... I am very strictly watched, and this letter
is written and sent secretly; and as most likely I
may never have another opportunity of writing to you,
I here ask your blessing and your prayers. I trust
that our Lord, Who made use of you as the instru
ment of bringing me to the Faith, and who has
granted me, all-unworthy, the privilege of suffering for
it, will grant those prayers, and give me the blessing
of a happy death and a joyful eternity.
" Just as these troubles began, I wrote to thank you
for your admirable book.1 Happily that escaped the
hands of the mob, when they pillaged my house, but
they burnt a crucifix, the king's portrait, yours and
mine, all together at the market cross of Edinburgh.
You see they kept me in good company !
1 The "Variations."

344 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.

" I have one very humble intreaty to make, namely,
that should it be God's Will that I die during these
troubles, as seems very likely, and that my wife
resolves on going to France, you would help her with
your counsel and authority, and that you would fill a
father's place to my son, and be a friend to my brother.
I feel that I am very presumptuous in making such
requests, but my special circumstances are an excuse
which I am certain you will accept I pray you, give
me your blessing, which I crave on my knees."'
Bossuet's reply must have been very comforting to
the prisoner of Stirling Castle. He wrote from
Meaux, on March 14 following, and after encouraging
Lord Perth in his loyalty and endurance, he tells him
that he often saw the King, and speaks of his com
posure and patience under his troubles in high terms.
" I know not how it is," he goes on to say, " but as I
write, I forget that you are suffering and in captivity.
God knows that I felt keenly for you when I heard of
your woes ;— but now I almost seem to forget them in
the lively joy I feel at the courage with which God
has inspired you, and the abundant consolations with
which He gladdens you. I share in them most
heartily, — I glory- with you in your shame, and I
could not refrain from tears of joy as I read of your
persecutors having burnt my portrait with that of youi
1 Lettre CLXXXVIII., vol. xxvi. p. 446.

BOSSUET'S REPLIES. 345

master and your own, and all three with the Crucifix !
Would to God that instead of my portrait only I could
in person be with you to encourage you in your
sufferings, and to take part in the glory of your con
fession. . . .
" You must have gathered from all my letters how
warm a love I bear to England and Scotland, for the
sake of the many Saints who have flourished there,
and the faith which has borne so much fruit. Hun
dreds of times I have longed for the opportunity of
labouring for the re-union of the noble Island, for
which re-union my prayers rise up to Heaven per
petually. My longing does not slacken, or my hopes
grow cold.
" Be at peace, you servant of God. . . . He will
deliver you when He sees fit; it may be that His
Angel is even now gone forth for your deliverance.
But come what may, you are God's, and you will be a
sweet savour to Him in life or in death. Your wife,
whom you commend to me, shall be as my sister;
your son shall be mine own in the bowels of Jesus
Christ ; your brother, whose worth I have already
experienced, shall be as a brother and heart's friend.
And as to you yourself, you live for ever in my heart ;
night and day I will offer you to God, especially when
I offer up the Holy Victim Who hath taken away the
sins of the world. Fight on as a good soldier of Jesus

346 BOSSUET IN CONTRO VERSY.
Christ ; let your sufferings be the means of mortifying
all that is yet of this world in you ; let your conver
sation be in Heaven. If you are deprived of priestly
help, be sure that you have the Great High Priest,
the Bishop of our souls, the Apostle and Sovereign
Priest, even Jesus, with you ; your desire will win for
you the grace of the Sacraments, and in His Name I
give you the blessing for which you ask. Remember
us in your prayers ; I trust that God will grant you to
ours, and deliver you from the hand of the enemy. In
His holy love I am," etc. etc'
But few letters to Lord Perth of a later date have
been saved. In one addressed to him at Rome, Octo
ber 9, 1695, Bossuet says, " You are at a Court where,
while there is a great deal of religion in some, there is
a great deal of politique, which will amaze you, in
others. But amid the working of human thought.
God's work is fulfilled."2
In 1685, Bossuet had been summoned to receive
another noble Englishman into the Roman branch of
the Church Catholic, — the Duke of Richmond, natural
son of Charles II. and the Duchess of Portsmouth.
Bossuet does not appear to have had anything to do
with the spiritual side of the matter, but as Louis XIV.
wished to make the act one of political importance,
' Lettre CLXXXIX., vol. xxvi. p. 448.
2 Lettre CCXXVIIL, p. 505.

FENELON. 347
he took pains to give it all the publicity and import
ance available, and for this reason he summoned the
Bishop of Meaux to Fontainebleau to display his elo
quence before all the Court.
But what we cannot help looking upon as by far the
most interesting of all the controversies in which
Bossuet was concerned during his long and busy life,
is that which unhappily embittered his friendship with
one of the best, most saintly, most attractive and love-
able of men, either of that period or any other in the
Church's history, — Fenelon. Before entering upon the
less happy days of controversy, let us linger a few
moments over the bright skies of Germigny and
Meaux, while the two friends as yet knew no division
of thought and aspiration.
Francois de Salignac de Lamothe Fenelon was the
child of a second marriage between the old Comte de
Lamothe Fenelon and Louise de Saint-Abre, — both
ancient families of Perigord. He was born at the
Chateau de Fenelon, August 6, 1651, so that he was
twenty-four years younger than his distinguished friend
and contemporary, Bossuet. Educated first at the
University of Cahors, he went thence to Paris, where
his uncle, the Marquis de Fenelon, sent him to the
College du Plessis. This uncle was himself a remark
able man : his early days had won no small distinction

348 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
as a soldier — indeed, the Great Conde said of him
that he shone alike in society, war, or politics ; but
without waiting to be forsaken by the world, he turned
his best thoughts to a holy life, and put himself under
the direction of the Founder of Saint-Sulpice, M. Olier.
He was the first to co-operate in that good man's
vigorous efforts to put down duelling, then so extra
vagantly general, and became head of the association
formed by M. Olier for that purpose. No one of less
acknowledged courage and reputation could have
dared to take such a step, and the Great Conde' could
not refrain from telling the Marquis that it needed
his thorough knowledge of what he was not to make
him tremble at such a step !¦
Losing his only son, who was killed at the siege of
Candia, the Marquis adopted his nephew, of whom he
had already taken charge, and the interest of his
life was centred in him and an only daughter, who
subsequently manied the Marquis de Montmorenci-
Laval. Fenelon's early talents resembled those of Bossuet.
Like him, we hear of sermons preached at fifteen, and
of an overwhelming popularity, which seemed to his
uncle, who knew the world's dangers so well, a peri-
1 " II faut gtre aussi sur que je le suis de votre fait sur la valeur,
pour n'etre pas effraye' de vous avoir vu rompre le premier une
telle glace. "

ED UCA TION A T SAINT-SULPICE. 349
lous snare for his adopted child ; and, not dazzled by
its charms, he placed the young man at Saint-Sulpice,
then under the direction of the venerable Tronson.
At this time the Jansenist controversy had already
waxed high, and the Jesuits and Port-Royalists were
in vehement opposition. Fenelon (of whom a bio
grapher says that he was "the Jesuits' friend without
ever becoming their slave, and opposed to the Port-
Royalists without ever being their enemy"1) might
have become a much more active partisan but for the
sober, uncontroversial spirit of his wise director,
Tronson, for whom he speedily contracted an almost
passionate affection, and to whom he confided every
thought of his eager, loving heart. The Saint-Sulpi-
ciens avoided all party as much as possible : their one
object was to train priests for God's service, and their
system and regime is altogether different from that of
the Jesuits.2 While yet a student, the younger Fenelon
seems to have desired to throw in his lot with the
Canadian Missions, the Saint-Sulpiciens having at that
time a large establishment at Montreal. He informed
another uncle, the Bishop of Sarlat, of his intentions,
1 Cardinal de Bausset, Histoire, Vie de Flnelon, vol. i. p. II.
2 Cardinal de Bausset, enlarging upon this, and upon their dis
interestedness, says that during the hundred and fifty years which
had elapsed when he wrote since the foundation of the Seminary
of Saint-Sulpice, her members had never once appeared in any
law court whatsoever. — Ibid. p. 21.

350 , BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.

but they were not acceptable. Fenelon's youth and
his delicate health were good grounds on which to dis
courage the plan, and he submitted to his uncle's will,
and remained at Saint-Sulpice until, being ordained,
he joined the Community of priests who served the
parish- It was an admirable school for priestly train
ing (M. Languet, the Cure, while upwards of a million
francs passed yearly through his hands in alms, had
only a serge coverlid and two straw chairs as the
furniture of his own room), and while working there,
Fenelon learnt to be familiar with the many sorrows,
sins, and sufferings which beset humanity in every
class and position of life, and acquired the power of
tender compassion and sympathy for those sufferings
which was one of his chief characteristics. Here too
he began first to exercise his office as a preacher, and
the Church of Saint-Sulpice, among the many precious
memories with which it greets one, numbers that of
having been the scene of Fenelon's first sermons. For
three years he worked at Saint-Sulpice, and then, 1674,
his uncle the Bishop summoned him to Sarlat, where
his missionary ardour rose up again, and he was on
the point of going out to the Missions of the Levant ;
but again this intention was forestalled, and Fenelon
had to content himself with home work. The Arch
bishop of Paris, de Harlay, appointed him Superior of
a Community called des Nouvelles Catholiques, and he

ARCHBISHOP DE HARLAY. 351
took up his abode with his uncle, the Marquis de
Fenelon, who lived in the Abbey of Saint-Germain
des Pres. This was apparently the time when he first
knew Bossuet, whose friendship with the elder Fenelon
has been already mentioned, as also with the Due de
Beauvilliers, both friends of Tronson, and both ready
to be favourably disposed towards one of whom he
thought so highly. Bossuet from the first appreciated
the young priest, and their intimacy became close and
affectionate. The Archbishop is supposed to have
been jealous of this; he was disposed to look upon
Bossuet as a rival at Court and in ecclesiastical affairs,
and he was annoyed at seeing a rising man like
Fenelon attached to what he was pleased to consider
the Bishop of Meaux' party rather than to his own.1
On one occasion, when Fenelon appeared at the
Archiepiscopal Palace (where he rarely went save
1 De Harlay was evidently an ambitious, worldly man, and
while always on the best and friendliest terms with him, Bossuet,
himself so free from worldliness, felt it keenly. The Abbe Le
Dieu says in his Journal, "When the late M. de Harlay, Arch
bishop of Paris, died suddenly, August 6, 1695, M. de Meaux
was so much moved to think that though he had for so many
years enjoyed such large revenues, he had done nothing for his
Church, nor had he thought of praying to God for his soul, that
he (Bossuet) determined at once to make some foundation in
his own case without waiting for his end. The opportunity was
found in a sale of wood the following autumn. He set apart
4000 francs from the price of some wood," etc. — Vol. ii. p. 6.

352 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
when needful), the Archbishop met him with the
cutting remark : " M. l'Abbe, it seems you wish to be
forgotten, and you shall be " ' The threat, however,
had no influence in diminishing the close friendship
between Fenelon and Bossuet, and the death of the
old Marquis, in 1683, served to draw them still more
closely together. Bossuet's profound learning and
experience were always ready to be used on his friend's
behalf; he advised and directed the young Abbe's
studies, and evidently was in the habit of reading and
criticising his writings, some of Fenelon's manuscripts
— he began early to be an author — having corrections
and marginal notes in Bossuet's handwriting. Often
he used to go with the Bishop to Germigny, where,
with a few chosen friends, especially Fleury and Lan
geron, Bossuet delighted to take a breathing-time from
his public toils, and refresh himself with spiritual and
intellectual study and conversation.
De Harlay might intend Fenelon to be forgotten by
the world, but God had work for him to do which did
not admit of such forgetfulness. He was known by
reputation to Louis XIV., who first sent him to con
duct the Missions to the Protestants of Poitou and
Saintonge, — an undertaking accepted by Fenelon only
on condition that the King would withdraw his troops,
and suffer the ministry of peace and reconciliation to
' "Vous voulez etre oublie, vous le serez."

MISSION OF POITOU. 353
have full scope, free from the strong hand of the law.
At his request Langeron and Fleury, as well as one
or two other intimate friends, were given him as
fellow-labourers. Fenelon was greatly troubled by
the mistrust and purely secular considerations which
prevailed amongst the people, and which made it so
difficult to feel that there was any real religious con
viction attained among them. " If one wanted to
make them abjure Christianity and accept the Koran"
(he wrote sadly to Bossuet), " one could easily do it
by showing them a company of dragoons." * In the
same letter Fenelon complains of the length of time
he has been kept away from Bossuet, adding, with the
playfulness which creeps into all he writes, " If they
keep us much longer away from you, we will suppress
the Ave, or perhaps tumble into some monstrous
heresy, in order to incur a lucky disgrace that may
take us back to Germigny !"
At length Fenelon obtained leave to quit Poitou
and return to Paris, where, so slender was his ambi
tion, he immediately resumed his quiet routine of
work, and for two years never went near the Court.
For a time de Harlay was successful in suppressing
the rising man he feared. Fenelon was nominated by
the King to the Bishopric of Poitiers, but de Harlay
induced him to revoke the appointment, of which
' Vie, vol. i. p. 79.

354 BOSSUE T IN CON TRO VERS Y.
rumour only informed Fenelon; — and shortly after
the Bishop of la Rochelle came to Paris to ask for
the same able man as his coadjutor, when again the
promotion was frustrated by Fenelon's persevering
enemy. But God only permitted such hindrances to
prevail until the time He had chosen to bring
His servant into more active external service for
the Church. We have seen Louis XIV. selecting
governors and preceptors for his son the Dauphin,
and now the time had come when a like selection was
to be made for that son's son, the little Due de Bour
gogne, born in 1682, of the Bavarian mother whose
Court life has been already spoken of.
The King was now an older and a wiser, certainly
a sadder man than in the days of Montausier and
Bossuet, whose influence had been so fruitlessly
exerted against that of Madame de Montespan and
her friends. To her lawless attractions and power
the sober, earnest, and religious influence of Madame
de Maintenon had succeeded. Francoise d'Aubigne
had gone through many trials in her early years,
and a desolate orphan, unkindly treated by the aunt
with whom she found an inhospitable home, she had
gladly married Paul Scarron, for the sake of his name
and protection. Left at twenty-five a beautiful and
poor widow, she received a small pension from the King,
who selected her as governess to the little Due de

MADAME DE MAINTENON. 355
Maine, his child by Mme. de Montespan.1 It was
through her correspondence with Louis XIV. on this
subject that he gradually learnt to like her for her
talents, clear judgment, and general intellectual
superiority; and weary of women whose mental defects
and violent tempers could not always be forgotten for
their beauty, he found rest and repose in one of so
different a calibre. Madame de Maintenon's society
became essential to the King, but she would not
afford it him on the terms he had been accustomed to
bestow his favours, and accordingly, under the advice
of his confessor Pere la Chaise, Louis XIV. manied
her privately (January 1686), in a small private chapel
at Versailles, Archbishop de Harlay performing the
ceremony, at which Pfere la Chaise and two attached
servants only were present.2 Louis XIV. was then
foity-eight and his bride fifty-two. Her influence,
which continued powerful with the King during the
remainder of his life, was generally used in a right
direction, and now, when the question of his grand
son's education arose, it made itself felt.
1 " Elle fut nominee a cet emploi par le Roi, et non point par
Mme. de Montespan, comme on l'a dit. Elle ecrivoit au roi
directement ; ses lettres plurent beaucoup. Voila l'origine de sa
fortune : son merite fit tout le reste. Le roi, qui ne pouvoit
d'abord s'accoutumer a elle, passa de l'aversion a la confiance,
et de la confiance al'amour."— Siecle de Louis XIV , vol. ii. p. 9.
2 Ibid. p. 5.

356 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
The Due de Beauvilliers had been her intimate
friend for some time past : — he was one of the few
courtiers who never would make up to Mme. de
Montespan, and the King was quite capable of re
specting such independence of character; so that in
1685, when the death of Marshal Villeroi left the honour
able post of Chef du Conseil royal des finances open,
Louis XIV., unasked, gave it to M. de Beauvilliers,
then thirty-seven years of age. Probably therefore
the King needed but little prompting on Mme. de
Maintenon's part, when he decided on appointing
de Beauvilliers Governor to the Due de Bourgogne,
which occurred August 16, 1689 ; and the very next
day, at his request, the King appointed Fenelon
preceptor. His voluntary absence from the Court
prevented gossip from reaching him readily, and the
news of the two appointments reached Fenelon
simultaneously. Bossuet heard of them as soon as Fenelon him
self, and the letter which he wrote to congratulate
Mme. de Laval (the cousin who had been brought
up as a sister with Fenelon) proves his opinion on the
matter : — " A Germigny, ce 19 Ao&t 10S9.
"Yesterday, Madame, I was absorbed in the good
fortune of the Church and State, to-day I have had
leisure to dwell more immediately upon your joy, which
gives me the liveliest satisfaction. My admirable and

FENELON PRECEPTOR. 357
beloved friend your father has been very forcibly brought
to my mind. I have been picturing to myself how he
would feel on this occasion, and on the shining forth of
merit which has hitherto so carefully concealed itself.
Enfin, Madame, we shall not lose the Abbe Fenelon,
you will be able to enjoy him, and provincial as I am,
I shall escape from time to time to go and embrace
him. Accept, I intreat you, the expression of my
rejoicing and the assurance of the respect with which
I remain, Madame, your very humble and very
obedient servant, J. Benigne,
Eve"que de Meaux." '
Amid the universal approval and congratulations
which flowed in upon both the new appointments,
Fenelon's revered director Tronson alone addressed
him in words rather of warning than of felicitation.
His letter is so admirable, that we cannot refrain from
giving it at length : —
" You will perhaps be surprised not to have found
me already amid the crowd of those who are con
gratulating you on the honour his Majesty has recently
conferred on you. But I beseech you humbly not to
judge hardly of my brief delay : on an occasion which
interests me so deeply, I felt I could not do better
than begin by thanking God for His designs concern-
1 Vie, vol. i. p. 89.

358 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
ing you, and asking. Him to continue to bless and
guide you. I have tried to do both with as little im
perfection as I am able, — and having said this I may
assure you that I was really delighted to hear that you
were chosen.
" The King has given an evidence of his piety and a
satisfactory proof of his discernment by this appoint
ment, which in itself is very comforting. The educa
tion committed to you by his Majesty is so closely
bound up with the welfare of the State and the good
of the Church, that every good Frenchman must
rejoice to see it in such hands ; but I must tell you
honestly that my rejoicing is mixed with fear when I
consider the perils to which you are exposed, inas
much as it cannot be denied that, in the ordinary
course of things, all promotion makes a man's salva
tion more or less a work of increased difficulty. It
opens the door to earthly greatness, but you must fear
lest it should close that of the real greatness of
Heaven. It is quite true that you may do very
great good in the position you fill, but you may also
incur very great evil. There is nothing indifferent
in such an office ; your actions for good or evil must
almost inevitably have infinite results. You are now
inhabiting a country1 where the Gospel of Jesus Christ
is but little known, and where even those who know
1 Tronson obviously means the Court by this.

TRONSON'S WARNINGS. 359

it chiefly use their knowledge in order to win to them
selves honour of men. You will live among people
whose language is altogether heathenish, and whose
example almost universally tends towards perilous
things. You will find yourself surrounded by a
multitude of objects which flatter the senses and are
specially calculated to rouse the most dormant pas
sions, and you will need a great grace and a prodigious
fidelity to withstand impressions at once so powerful
and so forcible. The horrid mists which prevail at
Court are enough to obscure the clearest and plainest
truths. It does not take a long familiarity with its
tone to make a man look upon precepts which he
once appreciated, and believed to be unquestionable
while meditating them at the foot of the Cross, as
exaggerated and extravagant. Duties which once
seemed absolute invariably begin to appear doubtful or
impracticable. A thousand occasions arise when you
will fancy that prudence and charity itself constrains
you to deal gently with the world ; yet nevertheless it
is surely a strange position for a Christian, still more
so for a Priest, to find himself forced to compound
with the enemy of his salvation ! In truth, dear
friend, your part is a dangerous one; — confess
honestly that it is very difficult not to lose ground
in it, and that you need a very confirmed grace in
order to stand therein. If ever study and meditation

360 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
of Holy Scripture were necessary to you, now indeed
they become overwhelmingly indispensable. Hitherto
perhaps you have needed them chiefly to fill your
mind with good thoughts, and to nourish it with truth,
but henceforth you will need them as a shield from evil
impressions and falsehood. Above all it is of the
utmost importance that you never lose sight of the
eventful hour of death, when all this world's glory will
melt away from around you as a dream, and every
earthly stay on which you may have leant must fail.
" Unquestionably your friends will comfort you with
assurances that you did not seek the post, and that
certainly is a matter of satisfaction and a great mercy
of God to you, but you must not tmst overmuch to it.
One often has a larger share in one's own promotion
than one fancies ; — it is very rarely that a man fore
sees it and sincerely avoids it : — one does not come
across many who have attained such a height of self-
abnegation. A man does not always eagerly seek
commonplace means of advancing himself, but
nevertheless he does not fail to put aside obstacles
cleverly ; he does not earnestly solicit those who can
advance him, but he is not sorry to let them casually
see his best side ; — and it is just to these little human
displays that the first steps of his promotion are to be
attributed ; — so that no one can quite confidently say
that he has had no part in his own elevation. The

FENELON'S COLLEAGUES. 361
display of one's own talents, which one often makes,
almost without thinking about it, is really a very great
peril, and it is well always to strive to efface such by
the aspirations of a humble and contrite heart.
" I am afraid you will think this letter too long, and
too unreserved, — in fact more like an ill-timed sennon
than an acceptable congratulation. I should assuredly
have been briefer and less open if I cared less for
your soul — and you must attribute it to my heart's
love, which cannot be other than warmly alive to your
true interest. Believe, I intreat you, that I shall
never cease to pray that God would fill you with the
unchanging spirit of His Love, so that no temptation
may alter or weaken the holy mind with which that
will inspire you. It is the Churcli's prayer for her
children. — I am," etc. '
Langeron and Fleury, Fenelon's two intimate friends
and former colleagues, were again associated with him
in his new task, the former as reader, the latter as
sous-prkepteur ; — the last office being also shared by the
Abbe de Beaumont, a nephew of Fenelon's — of whom
in passing let it be said, lest Tronson's pupil should
be suspected of nepotism, that he continued to fill the
post for ten years without ever receiving any token
whatever of Court favour, and finally shared his uncle's
1 De Bausset, Hist, de Fen., vol. i. p. 91.

362 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.

disgrace, "having nothing to desire or to regret." It
was not till after Fenelon's death, that in 17 16 he was
appointed Bishop of Saintes.
At this time Fenelon was thirty-eight years old, and it
is evident that he was personally one of the most attrac
tive, captivating men ever known. All contemporary
evidence speaks of the " extraordinary charm of his
manner." It does not appear that he was strikingly
handsome, though his personal appearance must have
been very agreeable and taking. Saint-Simon says
that he was a " tall, thin, well-made man, with a large
nose, eyes whence fire and wit streamed forth as in a
torrent, and a countenance which none I have ever
seen resembled, and which one could not forget if
once one had seen it — it was such a combination of
different things, and yet the opposite characteristics
were all so blended : — it was grave and cheerful,
serious and lively, it was alike in keeping with the
theologian, the Bishop, and the grand seigneur. In
every expression, as in every action, finesse, wit, grace
fulness, decorum, and above all a noble bearing, pre
vailed. One did not know how to leave off looking
at him : — his pictures are all like, but without having
caught the perfect harmony of the original, or the
singular delicacy of his countenance. His manners
were exactly conesponding to his face, full of an ease
which imparted itself to others, and of that grace and

FEN El. ON'S FOR TRAIT. 363
good taste which only comes from familiarity with
the world and its best society, a grace with which
all his conversation was intuitively marked."' The
Chancellor d'Aguesseau says of Fenelon, that "he
was one of those rare men who are destined to stamp
their age, and who do as much honour to human
nature by their goodness as to learning by their
superior talents." He goes on to describe the Arch
bishop of Cambrai as brilliant, ready, graceful, taking
an involuntary lead without ever making it felt — win
ning more by attractiveness than by vehemence,
supreme by his fascination as much as by his talent ;
condescending to every capacity, and appearing to
yield to others while actually he carried them all
before him. " There was a certain noble singularity
about him, a something sublime in his simplicity,
... he was always original, always creative — imitat
ing no one, he was himself inimitable." 2
We have already spoken of the very different
influence obtained over their respective pupils by
Bossuet and Fenelon ; perhaps the singular charms of
the latter's personality may have its full share in
accounting for the difference, for Bossuet, good and
high-minded and wise as he was, certainly had not
this altogether peculiar fascination. But the royal
' Mimoires, vol. xxii. p. 135.
2 D'Aguesseau, CEuvres, edit. Pardessus, vol. viii. p. 195

364 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
father and son were also essentially unlike, and while
it seems possible that Fenelon's attractive, loving ways
might have modified the timid, stupid character of the
Dauphin, it likewise occurs to one that Bossuet's con
scientious but drier treatment might scarcely have
developed the real good of the Due de Bourgogne's
fiery temperament, but on the other hand would very
probably have driven him to desperation.
" // naquit terrible /" Saint-Simon says,1 " and in his
childhood one trembled."
"Harsh, passionate to the point of being utterly
earned away in his fury towards inanimate things,
desperately impetuous, unable to endure the slightest
resistance even from the elements or time, without
flying into rages which made those present fear lest his
wholeframe should burst asunder; excessively obstinate,
passionately fond of all pleasure, and good living, furi
ously fond of hunting, ravished by music or gaming,
though he could not stand being beaten, in which case
it was an extreme danger to play with him — in short, a
prey to every passion ; often sullen, naturally cruel, sav
age in raillery, seizing the ridiculous points of others with
an intolerable accuracy, from the heights of his own
greatness he looked upon other men as mere specks
in creation, with whom he had simply no resemblance
whatever. He barely looked upon his brothers as a
1 Mtmoires, vol. xv. p. 79,

THE DUC DE BOURGOGNE. 365
sort of intermediate degree between himself and the
human race in general, although there was always a
pretence of bringing them up in perfect equality.
There was talent and penetration in all he did ; even
in his outbreaks his repartees were astounding, and
his answers had somewhat of depth and accuracy
even when he was in a rage; he enjoyed learning, his
intellectual grasp and vigour were great, so as to
make him incapable of attending to any one thing
wholly." '
Such was the child who while still almost a baby —
he was barely seven years old — was put into the hands
of a man unaccustomed, so far as we know, to deal
ing with children, and whose tastes and habits must
have made much of his duties wearisome and almost
intolerable. Fortunately for the little prince, his
preceptor started with the wise theory of having no
theory — save indeed that of watching his charge from
hour to hour, and adapting his treatment to the ever
varying moods and needs of the " enfant tenible."
Many a time he had to grapple with the desperate fits
of rage and finy of which Saint-Simon speaks, and
they were dealt with by gentleness, but with absolute
firmness. All his attendants treated the passionate little
prince on these occasions as an unfortunate being
¦ De Bausset, Hist., vol. i. p. 103.

366 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.

who degraded himself so that he could only be pitied,
and to whom charity might minister, but much as it
would do to an idiot or lunatic. His books and
maps were taken away, as being useless to one in
such a state, and he was left to himself and his own
convictions, which generally had the effect of bringing
him in a fit of almost equally vehement penitence, to
throw himself at Fenelon's feet, with the frankest con
fession of his faults, kissing his hands with many
tears, and abounding in good resolutions, which, often
broken, gradually grew stronger, and ultimately won
the day.
Two childish documents still preserved, voluntarily
drawn up and signed by the little prince before he
was nine years old, are characteristic of his royal
notions of honour : —
" Je promets, foi de prince, a M. l'Abbe de Fene
lon, de faire sur-le-champ ce qu'il m'ordonnera, et de
lui obeir dans le moment qu'il me defendra quelque
chose ; et si j'y manque je me soumets k toutes sortes
de punitions et de de'shonneur. Fait a Versailles, le
29 Nov. 1689. Signe, Louis.
And : — " Louis, qui promets de nouveau de mieux
tenir ma promesse, ce 20 Septembre. Je prie M. de
Fenelon de le garder encore."
In despite of these promises, foi de prince, the little

DIFFICULTIES 367
Duke's submission was not always absolute ; and on
one occasion, his preceptor being forced to rebuke
him sharply for some serious misdemeanour, he was
met with the insolent answer, " Non, non, Monsieur,
je sais qui je suis, et qui vous Stes."
This could not be tolerated, but Fenelon made no
reply at the time, only treating the prince with a
serious silence during the rest of the day, which was
calculated to impress him with awe. The next
morning, as soon as the boy was awake, his preceptor
appeared in his room, and speaking with a grave
dignity very unlike his usual bright friendliness, he
reminded Louis of his ill-conditioned speech, going on
to say that it was his duty to teach the Prince that he
did not know what either really was. " You, Mon
seigneur, suppose yourself to be greater than me — ¦
some of the servants it may be have told you so — but
since you oblige me to do so, I must tell you queje
tuis plus que vous. You can understand that it is not
a. question of birth, which adds nothing to your
personal merit, and you cannot doubt but that I am
above you in knowledge and understanding. You
know nothing but what I have taught you, which is as
nothing compared with what you have to learn. As
to authority, you have none over rne, whereas on the
contrary I have the most full authority over you.
Possibly you think that I consider myself very for-

368 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
tunate in holding the office I fill towards you — if so,
undeceive yourself. I undertook it to obey the King
and Monseigneur, not at all for the irksome advantage
of being your preceptor; and to prove it, I am now
going to take you to His Majesty, and ask him to
appoint another, whose care of you may I hope be
more successful than mine."
The little Duke was exceedingly fond of Fenelon,
and a night's quiet had brought compunction for his
misconduct, as well as a keen sense of the injury to
his name in public opinion (to which the small crea
ture was already sufficiently alive !) arising from the
resignation of such a preceptor for such a cause. So
many tears and sobs and entreaties were spent in
striving to win a promise that Fenelon would forgive
him once more. It was not for a whole day, however,
or till Madame de Maintenon had interposed her me
diation, that Louis succeeded in getting the longed-for
promise that Fenelon would not leave him ; and this
lesson was never forgotten. But we shall see that to
the last, long after his pupillage was ended, the Duke
received and welcomed the rebukes and counsels of
the well-loved preceptor, to whom he used to say,
" Je laisse derriere la porte le Due de Bourgogne, et
je ne suis plus que le petit Louis avec vous." Unlike
his father, who could never be induced really to care
for study, even by all Bossuet's painstaking endea-

EDUCATION. 369

vours, this boy delighted in learning, and according to
Fleury's account (and he was not a boaster), the Duke
must really have been somewhat of a prodigy. Papers
are still existing in Fenelon's handwriting, ordering the
exact course of his studies from day to day ; and one is
disposed to think that they were made pleasanter and
less dry than his father's had been, although, in 1696,
we find him reading parts of the Fathers — Saints
Augustine, Jerome, and others, and the Histoire des
Variations by his father's great preceptor. The His
toire Universelle was used too, but obviously Fenelon's
mode of teaching was less a matter of routine and rule
than that of Bossuet. His religious instruction was at
least successful in the most substantial sense; for
during the remainder of his short life, the Due de
Bourgogne was steady in frequenting the Sacraments,
and found comfort and strength in so doing. Saint-
Simon says that he " communicated fortnightly with a
recollection and humility which struck all who saw
him ;" and what was even a more certain proof of the
value of his religious training, he learnt through it to
control the vehement, passionate nature which pro
mised so much danger in the beginning.
There was another point of resemblance between
the Court lives of Bossuet and Fenelon, — the same
entire disinterestedness in money matters. We have
seen the former hardly able to maintain a due exterior ;
2 A.

370 BOSSUET IN CONTRO VERS Y.
and for five years of his preceptorship Fenelon was so
limited in means, that unless his cousin, Madame de
Laval, had lent him plate and other necessary articles,
he could not have got on at all. A word to Madame
de Maintenon or the Due de Beauvilliers would doubt
less have altered this, but Fenelon's extreme delicacy
and freedom from the love of money prevented him
from ever speaking that word. The small Priory of
Carennac, which his uncle, the Bishop of Sarlat, had
given him, was all his revenue — about 4000 livres.
In January 1693, writing to the Marquise de Laval,
he refers to the delays of his salary and the exceeding
dearness of prices, adding, " I am about to dismiss all
my servants, unless something come in shortly. . . .
Let all that can be sent to me from Carennac, after
the necessary alms have been supplied, for in very
truth I would rather live on dry bread than let any of
the poor in my benefice suffer." '
It seems strange that with Madame de Maintenon's
extreme liking for Fenelon, she, who was so practical
and understanding a person, should not have provided
against such difficulties ; but her own character was
markedly disinterested as the King's wife, and she
admired and understood Fenelon sufficiently to believe
him equally free from self-seeking. She persuaded
him to take part in the religious education of her Con-
1 Vie, vol. i. p. 154.

FENELON'S MEANS. 371
vent at Saint-Cyr, and that her own personal inter
course with him was of an essentially confidential
character is proved by her asking him to tell her in
writing of her faults, a paper in reply being found
among her documents.1 At this time, indeed, Madame
de Maintenon contemplated replacing her old director,
the Abbe Gobelin, by either Fenelon or the Jesuit
Father, Bourdaloue. The latter declined the post on
the ground that he had not time to see the lady more
than once in six months, somewhat to her surprise ;
for, as she naively remarks, " la direction de ma con
science n 'etoit point a dedaigner :" and then she hesitated
between Fenelon and the Abbe Godet des Marais, who
also refused, but yielded to the authority of Tronson,
to whom, like most men of piety of that day, he de
ferred implicitly. " I have often wondered why I did
not take the Abbe Fenelon, whose every characteristic
pleased me, and whose goodness and talents had so
won me, whereas everything on the other side repulsed
me," Madame de Maintenon wrote at a later date.
About this time, after five years' preceptorship, the King
gave Fenelon the Abbey of Saint Vallery, which re
lieved the pressure he had experienced. On the very
day of his nomination to the See of Cambrai, he
resigned this preferment. The King refused to accept
1 This and other papers will be published in a forthcoming
Life of Fenelon.

372 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
his resignation, but Fenelon insisted, pointing out to
Louis XIV. that, according to the Canons, the revenues
of Cambrai excluded him from holding a plurality.
Le Tellier, Archbishop of Rheims, with whom disin
terestedness and unsecularity were not a strong point,
remarked, on hearing of this, that " M. de Fenelon,
thinking as he did, had chosen the better part ; but
for himself, thinking as he did, he should hold fast
what he had got !"
The death of Peiisson in 1693 brought Fenelon
into the Academie Francaise, and about this time,
when his fame and popularity were at their height,
there seem to have been evil-disposed persons at
work endeavouring to make mischief between Bossuet
and Fenelon, and by implication to lead the former
to jealousy of the younger man. Estrangement un
happily was hereafter to arise between the friends,
but both were too large-minded, and too noble, for it
to be introduced in such a shape. Bossuet endorsed
by his own observation and practical opinion all that
could be said in praise of Fenelon's education of the
Due de Bourgogne, and that channel of mischief-
making was closed. But another and more fatal issue
was to be opened with the unfortunate history of
Quietism ; a history in which of a truth Bossuet comes
out to less advantage, and with less power to command
respect or admiration than the Archbishop of Cambrai.

QUIETISM: 373
The mystic system which created so tremendous a
disturbance in the Church of France came from Spain,
where Molinos had systematized Quietism towards the
end of the seventeenth century. His doctrine taught :
I. That "perfect contemplation" is a condition in
which the soul neither reasons nor reflects, whether
upon God or itself, but passively receives the Divine
Light without making any effort of love, adoration, or
other act of Christian religion. This condition of
passivity Molinos calls Quietude.
II. In this state of "perfect contemplation" the
soul desires absolutely nothing, — not even its own
salvation ; it fears nothing, not even hell ; the one
only feeling of which it is conscious is utter abandon
ment to God's Good Will and pleasure.
III. The soul which has attained this state of
"perfect contemplation" is dispensed from any need
of Sacraments or good works, — all of which become
indifferent to it. All outward things, even the worst,
may touch the sensitive part of the soul without pol
luting it, because they do not reach its superior side
wherein the will and the intelligence dwell.
It is scarcely to be wondered at that these doctrines
'were formally condemned by Pope Innocent XI. in a
bull dated 1687. Nor perhaps, looking at them from
one side only, and freed from the more dangerous
elements — leaving only that of love so intense that it

374 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
can hope and fear nothing save an utter abandonment
to the Will of God — is it to be wondered at that pure,
loving, exalted souls should be found ready to take
them up warmly, as befell in France.
In 1695 Bossuet published a learned Traite sur les
Etats d'Oraison,7 in which he examined closely into
the characteristics and enors of Quietism : —
" The summary of its errors," he says,2 "lies in seek
ing sublimity and perfection in things which do not
exist, or at all events do not exist in this life, thereby
involving their suppression in certain conditions ; — as
also the suppression of many acts which are com
manded by God and essential to piety, in other con
ditions, and in those called perfect contemplatives; for
instance the explicit acts of faith contained in the
Apostles' Creed ; all petitions, including even those
of the Lord's Prayer, all reflection, acts of thanks
giving, and similar acts which are ordered and prac
tised throughout Holy Scripture and the writings of
the Saints. Such opinions for the most part arise from
the pride inherent in the human mind, which always
aims at self-distinction, and which consequently without
watchfulness is always prone to mingle an arrogant
singularity3 with its religion, even with its very prayer."
Bossuet goes on to explain the leading doctrine of
1 CEuvres, vol. xviii. p. 367. ' p. 393.
3 "De superbes singularites. "

MADAME GUYON. 375

Quietism, i.e. that perfection consists, even in this life,
in a continual, invariable act of contemplation and
love, and that the soul which has once thus given
itself to God need never repeat or renew its act, — a
theory which, he goes on to prove, does away with the
need of recollection in prayer, or of any continued
effort to keep up the most necessary acts of religion.
It was a woman who was the means of opening this
much-vexed controversy in France. The celebrated
Madame Guyon — Jeanne Marie de la Mothe — was
born at Montargis, April 13, 1648. Left a widow at
twenty-eight, her natural ardour and religious tempera
ment first found a guide in the Bishop of Geneva,
Mgr. d' Arenthon, who sent her to help a Community
at Gex, where she renewed a former friendship with a
Barnabite Monk, Pere la Combe, who indoctrinated
her with the principles of Quietism, and who seems to
have encouraged, if not originated, a mania on her
part' for becoming the foundress of a mystic associa
tion within the Church. The Bishop of Geneva dis
approving of Madame Guyon's proceedings, she left
Gex, and for a time followed Pere la Combe about to
Thonon, Grenoble, and Vercelli, respectively; — mak
ing proselytes to the new doctrines. At last the Bishop
of Grenoble, Cardinal le Camus, civilly requested her
* Lettres sur le Quiilisme, Mme. Guyon to P. la Combe,
CEuvres, vol. xxviii. p. 573.

376 BOSSUE T IN CONTRO VERSY.
to leave his diocese, and in 1687 she took up her
abode in Paris. Unfortunately Madame Guyon's
friends had printed two books of her writing, — one
called " Moyen Court de l'Oraison," (which is dealt
with in Bossuet's above-named treatise,) the other
" l'Explication Mystique du Cantique des cantiques."
These books, and the exertions made by Madame
Guyon and the Barnabite Father to spread their doc
trines, caused a multitude of letters and accusations
to follow them to Paris, and Archbishop de Harlay
was obliged to take the matter up. Pere la Combe
was anested in October 1687, and as he held ob
stinately to what were considered his errors, he was
kept in confinement, first in the He d'Oieron, and
then at Lourdes in the Pyrenees. In January 1688
Madame Guyon was also arrested, and placed in the
Convent of Sainte Marie de la Rue Saint Antoine.
Accused of all manner of delinquencies, theological
and moral (for her self-imputed prophetic office had
led her into sundry unconventional, indiscreet proceed
ings), she nevertheless disarmed all who came in contact
with her by her simplicity and evident perfect honesty
of'intention. Madame de Miramion knew the nuns
in whose charge she was, and excited by their rap
turous admiration of their prisoner's holiness and
unction, she made Madame Guyon's acquaintance ;
and, fascinated like the nuns, carried a touching tale

INTRODUCTION TO FENELON. 377
of injured innocence and plaintive charms to Madame
de Maintenon, who — hearing the same story from her
favourite, Madame de Maisonfort, (then at Saint-Cyr,
and a relation of Madame Guyon,) as also from hei
most intimate and zealous friend the Duchesse de
Bethune — was altogether earned by storm, and, not
without some hesitation at interfering in an ecclesias
tical question of the sort, she took measures to promote
the release of the prisoner. Archbishop de Harlav
acquitted Madame Guyon of any faults in morality,
and as she was willing to renounce all her errors, and
offered to burn her writings, she was set at liberty after
eight months' abode with the nuns of Sainte Marie.
Up to this time neither Bossuet nor Fenelon had
ever seen the lady who was destined to sever their
friendship. Fenelon was prejudiced against her : — he
disapproved of the way in which she had forsaken her
young children to go on a self-appointed mission afar
off, and of her peculiar modes of proceeding ; and the
enthusiastic praises lavished on her by Mme. de
Bethune made him still further mistrust her. How
ever, passing through Montargis, he made some
inquiries about this much-discussed person, and was
touched by the unanimous tribute to her piety and
goodness which met him in her old home ; so that
when, after her liberation, he met her in Madame de
Maintenon's salon (where the Duchesse de Bethune

378 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
hastened to introduce her), he was prepared to look
upon her more favourably, and in a short time Madame
Guyon obtained a strong influence with Fenelon as
with the de Beauvilliers, the Due de Chevreuse, and
Madame de Maintenon herself. The latter was not
quick in taking likings, but she soon became fascinated
by the manners and conversation of the charming
Quietiste, and grew positively eager to introduce her
at Saint-Cyr, where the Superior, Madame de Brinon,
was prepared to welcome her, and Fenelon made no
opposition. So Madame Guyon became an estab
lished visitor there, and she read her most exciting
papers and taught her peculiar opinions freely ; fully
persuaded that a great apostolic work rested upon her
shoulders. Louis XIV. seems to have taken a prac
tical view of the matter. Madame de Maintenon
mentions in a letter to Mme. de Saint-Geran that she
had been reading some of the " Moyen Court" to the
King, " who said it was nothing but dreaming ;" —
adding, " He has not made sufficient progress in piety
to enter into this perfection."
The Abbe Godet, who eventually had a large share
in the history of Quietism, was more suspicious of
this " nouvelle spiritualite," as he called it. He was
a grave, learned man, most devout and most single-
minded. Although Director to Madame de Maintenon,
he rarely visited the Court ; but she saw him continually

BISHOP GODET. 379

at Saint-Cyr, of which he was sole Director, all the
more easily, as it was in the diocese of Chartres, of
which he reluctantly became Bishop. As before
Tronson had to insist on his becoming Madame de
Maintenon's Director, so again he had to insist on his
accepting the episcopal burden, which Godet wanted
to refuse. His whole life was in keeping with this re
ticence. He absolutely rejected the office of Conseiller
diktat, and the Cardinal's hat, both of which Louis XIV.
pressed on him; and when, in 1693, he resolved to sell
his plate on behalf of the poor famine-struck of that
period, there was only one fork and one spoon forth
coming, which he sold ! The Bishop of Chartres ob
jected to a woman mixing herself with theological mat
ters, and setting up as a teacher of spiritual things; but
he was very charitable in his judgment, and thought
there must be good in what charmed so many good
people — so he only warned Madame de Maintenon to
be cautious, and not to encourage too great familiarity
between the new teacher and her Saint-Cyr religious.
Evidently she was more disposed to push the intimacy
than either of her spiritual guides. "Yield heartily to
the Abbe de Fenelon and M. de Chartres," she writes
to Madame de Maisonfort. "I myself shall always be
submissive to the opinion of those two Saints. . . .
My want of experience in these things set me against
the Abbe Fenelon, when he did not wish to show

380 BOSSUE T IN CONTROVERSY.
these (Mme. Guyon's) writings. But he was right.
It is not everybody that has a sound and straight
forward judgment."
After a time, however, the Bishop of Chartres, hav
ing duly watched the progress of Madame Guyon's
teaching, became convinced that it was dangerous,
and must be withstood. He loved Fenelon dearly,
and was most unwilling to go against him : neverthe
less he felt bound to tell Madame de Maintenon that
he considered this new system to abound iii error;
and, divided between her duty to her director and her
affection for Fenelon, she appealed to Bossuet, who
now for the first time appears in the drama. The
Bishop of Meaux entirely agreed with his brother of
Chartres. Then she had recourse to M. de Noailles (at
that time Bishop of CMlons), and he expressed himself
still more strongly. Still Madame de Maintenon could
not bring herself to think Fenelon mistaken, and she
secretly consulted Joly, the Superior of the Lazarists,
Tiberge and Brisacier, heads of the Missions Etrangeres,
Bourdaloue, and Fenelon's own dearest friend and
director, .Tronson. All replied gently and charitably,
but decisively, as against Madame Guyon's doctrines.
Meanwhile Fenelon was vaguely conscious of a1
storm thickening round him, but he scarcely heeded
it.. He sincerely believed that Madame Guyon's
opinions were like his own, as to a pure, sublime love

MADAME GUYON CONSULTS BOSSUET. 381
of God ; he looked upon her as a calumniated, mis
understood woman ; but he was as ready as any one
to counsel that her intimacy at Saint-Cyr should be
checked, and that her books should not be read there.
So far was he from prejudice, that it appears Fenelon
himself suggested that Madame Guyon should refer to
Bossuet, put all that she had written into his hands,
and submit herself to his decision.' Nothing could
be kinder than the Bishop of Meaux was when she
did so, and to all appearance her intentions were
perfectly straightforward. She gave him all her
papers without any reserve, — even a manuscript auto
biography, which she had not shown to Fenelon.
Bossuet took these documents with him to Meaux ;
and six months later, after a most careful examination
of them, he pronounced, as his opinion, that the lady's
"genre d'oraison" was akin to Quietism, and that
the excessive and extravagant self-conceit which she
displayed was a great risk to her, unless she was dis
abused of her illusions and received wiser guidance.
But, he says, " the Bishop saw plainly that he was
not believed, and that the Abbe Fenelon revered
Dame Guyon as a very extraordinary woman. As-
' So Bossuet himself says, Relation sur la Refutation de la
Quiitisme, CEuvres, vol. xx. p. 90, and vol. xxviii. p. 563 :
" C'etoit l'Abbe de Fenelon quiportoit a toutes ces demarches.
Le prelat excite par les sentiments qu'il avoit pour un ami tres
intime, apportait d'autant plus de soin a cette discussion."

382 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
tonished at this strange blindness, and deploring the
mistake of so great a mind, he sought day and night
for some means of quietly undeceiving his friend."'
At the same time, Bossuet met Madame Guyon at
the Convent du Saint-Sacrement in the Rue Cassette,
and, after a long interview, gave her the Holy Com
munion at his own Mass, which naturally led to the
inference that he was satisfied with her.
Fenelon did not see so much error in Madame
Guyon's statements as Bossuet wished ; he persisted
in dwelling chiefly on the true doctrine of pure love,
and thought a woman's theological inaccuracies of
little import. Bossuet began to feel very vexed, the
more that, while promising the most absolute sub
mission (her letters are full of such expressions as
"I promise neither to write or speak any more of
these subjects;" "I honestly affirm that I wish my
' CEuvres, vol. xxviii. p. 563. Bossuet mentions instances of
Mme. Guyon's wild ideas of her own grace and illumination suffi
cient to shock any sober-minded person. He cites a conversation
in which he asked her, " Do you really deny that you can ask any
thing of God?" "I do," she replied. "You cannot offer
that petition of the Lord's Prayer, ' Forgive us our trespasses'?"
She assented. "Then," said I, "I, to whom you have sub
mitted yourself and all that concerns you, in the right of my
power, I bid you, and the Lord through me bids you, ask that
grace of Him." What was her reply? " I can say the words
by heart, but as to conveying any meaning to my heart, the
state of oraison pu?-e and gratuitous love to which I am raised
does not admit of it. " — Ibid.

EXTRA VAGANCES. 383

fate to rest in your hands ; " "I have no wish save to
obey you implicitly"), Madame Guyon was acting
very much otherwise. He wrote very plainly to her,
but very kindly.
" One thing I must tell you," he wrote (March 4,
1694), " that first of all you need to get rid of the
great ideas you have of yourself. I do not deny that
one may tell things that are advantageous to one's self
as well as to another, under certain circumstances, when
there is need, and especially in obedience. But these
I have pointed out to you are things unexampled, and
outre beyond all measure. . . . Put away such thoughts,
and carry out the resolution with which God inspires
you, to retire, to write no more, not to exercise your
self in these communications of grace," (here he quotes
some great extravagances,) " such as I have never
heard of from any one save you. . . . I include among
these all predictions, visions, miracles, and, in a word,
everything extraordinary. . . .
" I could say much about your writings, which I
must tell you are full of insupportable and untenable
things, either in fact or in form. But I will not dwell
upon these, as you consent to burn them ; and as to
those which are in print and cannot be destroyed, I am
glad to find you submissive to whatever censure, conec-
tion and explanation may be required, ' preferring to die
a thousand times or suffer all possible shame rather

384 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
than give scandal to one of the Church's little ones, or
in any way impugn her holy doctrine;' — you have but
to persist in such sentiments, and submit to what God
teaches His Bishops and Doctors." And, after a long,
most patient discussion, he adds : " I write this as in
God's Sight, word for word as I believe He speaks to
me through the voice of Holy Scripture and tradition,
and with the fullest confidence that I am speaking
the truth. Nevertheless, I give you perfect leave to
explain yourself further — there may be somewhat you
have not clearly unravelled, and I shall always be
ready to hear it. For my own part I have purposely
explained myself at length, not sparing trouble, in
order to satisfy your wish to be taught And I com
mend your docility, I sympathise with your crosses,
and I hope God will reveal all you need to you." I
All the letters on this subject are interesting, but it
would take volumes to quote them, and we must pass on.
Bossuet was evidently growing sore with his friend
Fenelon himself, and he says that Archbishop de Har
lay, " so far from judging the Abbe favourably, showed
that if. any opportunity of damaging him arose, he
would eagerly seize upon it." '
Suddenly Madame Guyon changed her course, and
through Madame de Maintenon appealed to the King
' Lettre XII. vol. xxviii. p. 592.
' Rifut. voL xxviii. p. 565.

COMMISSION ON MME. GUYON. 385
for a commission, half lay, half ecclesiastic. This was
granted; only as every one concerned repudiated any
idea of accusing her of moral delinquency — a point in
which she persisted as the reason for giving her lay
judges — the King assigned her the three clerical Com
missioners for whom she asked, namely, the Bishop of
Chartres, the Superior of Saint-Sulpice and the Bishop
of Meaux, to investigate her doctrine thoroughly.
Madame de Maintenon writes : —
" Another letter from Madame Guyon. This woman
is really bien importune; but then indeed she is also very
unfortunate ! Now she begs to have M. de Chartres
and the Superior of Saint-Sulpice added to M. de
Meaux, to judge definitively as to the points on which
her faith is accused, and she promises to obey me
blindly.1 I do not know if the King will inflict this
further mortification on M. de Paris. After all, this
heresy has arisen in his diocese, and it is his business
to decide it before others, — and you may be sure he
will not waive his rights. M. l'Abbe de Fenelon is
too holy not to believe that one can love God for
Himself, and too clever to believe that one can
love Him amidst the most shameful vices. He has
assured me that he only takes part in this matter
to prevent the opinions of true devots being condemned
1 Madame Guyon seems to have had a habit of offering such
promises.

386 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
inadvertently. He is not Madame Guyon's advocate,
though he is her friend. He is the defender of piety
and of Christian perfection ; — I trust to his word,
because I have known very few men as honest as he
is, and you may say that I said so."
When this Commission was determined, Madame
Guyon asked Bossuet to allow her to retire meanwhile
to the Convent of the Visitation at Meaux, volunteer
ing to live in absolute retreat, to accept any confessor
he might assign her, and to hold no external corres
pondence. Bossuet was touched by her submission,
and she went to Meaux early in January 1695. The
Commissioners looked beyond the immediate justifica
tion or condemnation of this individual lady — they
desired to put forth a clear statement as to the Church's
teaching concerning these mystical doctrines which
were absorbing so much attention in the religious
world. Accordingly they fixed to meet at Issy, at the
country-house belonging to the Seminary of Saint-
Sulpice, partly as a convenience to the venerable
Superior, whose health was failing, and partly to keep
their proceedings secret from the Archbishop of Paris,
of whose strong prejudice against Madame Guyon
they were conscious. The Conferences lasted six
months, Bossuet's inevitable absences at Meaux, and
those of de Noailles at Chalons, causing long intervals
between their meetings. But meanwhile the Commis-

CONFERENCES OF ISSY. 387
sioners were diligently studying the subject in hand,
and reading all the mystic writers who could throw
light on the subject. Fenelon was warmly interested in
the proceedings. He wrote at length on the subject,
sending his manuscripts by instalments to Bossuet,
and his letters are most cordial and affectionate,
expressing the utmost desire to agree with his elder
friend, and to mould his own opinions to those of the
Bishop. In one (dated Versailles, December 16, 1694),
he says in reply to some observations of Bossuet's :
"Whenever you please, I will tell you as to my
confessor the whole of my interior life as in a general
confession. ... I desire nothing save what I trust
always to desire, — that is, to know the truth. I am a
priest, I owe all to the Church, and nothing to myself or
to my personal reputation. I repeat, Monseigneur,
I would not remain a single moment in error through
my own fault. I do not hold to my office, and I am
ready to quit it, if I have become unworthy of it
through my errors. I call upon you in God's Name,
and by your love of truth, to tell me the truth in all
its rigour. If mistaken, I will go and hide myself for
the rest of my days, after abjuring and publicly retract
ing the false doctrine which has led me astray; but if
my doctrine be innocent, do not keep me in suspense
through human respect." *
* Lettres sur le Quietisme, vol. xxviii. p. 627.

388 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
Bossuet's language later on, when he wrote his
" Relation sur le Quietisme,"1 becomes bitter. He
seems to forget the confidence with which Fenelon
treated him, and says, " M. l'Abbe de Fenelon began
to write in the' greatest secresy on the subject : the
papers he sent us multiplied daily.2 . . . The lady did
not let us lose sight of herself, and during the seven or
eight months we spent over their serious discussion, she
sent us fifteen or sixteen great cahiers, which I still
possess, to prove the resemblance between her books
and those of the Fathers, theologians, and spiritual
authors; all accompanied with expressions of abso
lute submission."
The Conferences began with prayer, and the study
(" accompanied by many a groan," Bossuet says) of the
lengthy documents which kept pouring in upon the
Commissioners. " We looked upon it as the greatest
misfortune that Madame Guyon had the Abbe Fenelon
as her defender." In truth, one is tempted to say
the same now, and to wish that the noble, saintly,
pure-minded Fenelon's cause had not been mingled
so largely with that of a woman, who, however well-
meaning and inwardly devout, certainly canied her
extravagant Molinist expressions to a pitch that cannot
¦ CEuvres, vol. xx. p. 85.
2 The two statements in consecutive lines sound rather dis
crepant !

MME. GUYON'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 389
approve itself to any sober mind.1 One almost feels
like Bossuet at Issy, — overwhelmed by the profusion
of documents, letters, statements, relations, counter-

' In her Autobiography, not to cite worse things, Madame
Guyon said, ' ' Que Dieu lui donnoit une abondance de graces
dont elle crevoit au pied de la lettre : il la falloit delacer : elle
n'oublie pas" (Bossuet adds, with an irresistible touch of sar
casm), ' ' qu'une duchesse avoit une fois fait cet office. En cet
etat on la mettoit souvent sur son lit ; on se contentoit de de-
meurer assis aupres d'elle, on venait recevoir la grace dont elle
etait pleine, et c'etoit la le seul moyen de la soulager. " — Relation
sur le Qutttisme, CEuvres, vol. xx. p. 91.
She narrated her miracles, saying, " Pour les choses miracu-
leuses je les ai mises dans la meme simplicite que le reste — la
voila prophetesse et grande faiseuse de miracles" {ibid. p. 93) ; and
she stated that " Dieu m'a choisie en ce siecle pour detruire la
raison humaine, pour etablir la sagesse de Dieu par la destruc
tion de la sagesse du monde ; il etablira les cordes de son empire
en moi et les nations reconnoitront sa puissance ; son esprit sera
r^pandu en toute chair. On chantera le Cantique de l'Agneau
comme vierge, et ceux qui le chanteront seront ceux qui seront
parfaitement desappropries: Ce que jelierai sera Iii, ce queje de"lierai
sera dllii ; je suis cette pierre fichee par la croix sainte, rejetee
par les architectes." — Ibid. p. 97.
Bossuet tries to make it appear that Fenelon accepted all this
blasphemous rhodomontade. But this is not true. He judged
her extravagances with a much more favourable eye than Bossuet
did, made excuses for her, and said he believed she meant well ;
but he spoke of her "zele indiscret ;" said that she was " forte
ignorante ;" that she exaggerated greatly ; that he " did not wish
to justify her books, but only not to condemn them so utterly as
M. de Meaux condemned them ;" and " that she was mad or
impious if she spoke thus of herself seriously." — Reponse a la
Relation, vol. xx. pp. 191, 194, 217-224, etc.

390 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
relations, refutations, answers, contradictions, appeals,
and what not, upon this mystical subject, which was
so all-absorbing to the world, intellectual and social
as well as religious, of Paris at this season. It is
almost hopeless to steer through the mass, and keep a
clear guiding-line as we go on.
Fenelon was not at first present at the Conferences
of Issy, and the letters that he wrote to Bossuet were
purely as a friend. Bossuet himself says, " We acted
simply as among friends, all the more that, although
we were accepted as judges, we had no authority
over the Abbe de Fenelon save what he himself
gave us." '
It was during these Conferences that Fenelon was
appointed to the See of Cambrai. Madame de Main
tenon greatly desired this appointment, but although
Bossuet says that he " applauded it like everybody
else," the bitterness of his words henceforth give one
an uncomfortable feeling that he did not really rejoice
in it, and that there may now have been some foun
dation for the imputation of jealousy which he so
vehemently repudiates.
When Louis XIV. told Fenelon of the intended
appointment, the latter declined it, as not wishing to
give up his preceptorship. The King answered that
he specially desired his grandsons to remain still
¦ RSponse a la Relation, vol. xx. p. 107.

FENELON APPOINTED TO CAMBRAI. 391
under the new Archbishop's care. To this Fenelon
replied that it was contrary to ecclesiastical law.
" No, no," the King exclaimed, " the Canons only
require nine months' residence : you need only stay
three months with my grandchildren, and during the
rest of the year you can overlook their education from
Cambrai as well as if you were at Versailles !"
The Bishop of Chartres and Madame de Maintenon
now proposed that Fenelon should join the Commis
sion at Issy, which he accordingly did ; but the other
Commissioners had drawn up thirty-four Articles con
cerning Quietism and the " states of prayer," and
merely offered them to Fenelon to sign. He stated
his objections to some of the Articles, but signed
them "out of deference, against his persuasion;"
adding that, " subject to certain alterations, he was
ready to sign them with his blood." That his personal
feeling for Bossuet was quite unchanged is evident
from the tone of his letters, as easy and affectionate as
usual. Thus he writes from Versailles, March 27, 1695 :
"There is nothing new here, save that you are
missing, and that the 'philosophers" feel the change.
I fancy that after the festival (Easter), if fine weather
comes, you will go to Germigny to enjoy the charms
of spring. Tell it, I pray you, that I can never forget
it, and that I hope to find myself once more within its
* Bossuet's literary circle was so styled.

392 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
shrubberies before I go to my Belgians, who are extremi
hominum." '
The Bishops of Chartres and Meaux published these
Thirty-four Articles, together with an " Ordonnance "
and Pastoral Instruction, in their respective Dioceses
without loss of time. Bossuet, in his Ordonnance,2
gives a brief history of the controversy, summing up
the condemnable doctrines of the " faux mystiques."
Those who wish to study the question of Quietism
should read these Articles.3 No one who is familiar
with Fenelon's writings can for a moment doubt the
sincerity with which he subscribed the more im
portant, e.g. :
"V. Every Christian, in every condition, though
not actually at every moment, is bound to will, desire,
and ask his eternal salvation explicitly, as a thing
which God wills, and would have us will for His Glory.
" VI. God wills every Christian to ask expressly
for the remission of his sins, grace to sin no more,
perseverance in good, the increase of virtue, and all
else that is necessary to eternal salvation.
" VII. The Christian has to contend against con
cupiscence in every condition, (though not always
equally,) which obliges him to ask strength to with
stand temptation.
1 Lettres, vol. xxviii. p. 634. ' Vol. xviii. p. 351.
3 Ibid. p. 357.

THE THIRI Y-FOUR ARTICLES. 393

" IX. It is not allowable for a Christian' to be indif
ferent to his own salvation, or to the things pertaining
thereto : holy Christian indifference refers to the con
cerns of this life (sin always excepted), and the dis
pensation of spiritual consolations or dryness.
" XVIII. Mortifications are suitable to all Chris
tian states, and are often necessary, and to turn the
faithful from them under pretext of perfection is
openly to condemn S. Paul's teaching.
" XIX. Perpetual prayer does not consist in one
single perpetual act uninterruptedly carried on, and
which is never to be repeated, but in an habitual and
perpetual disposition and preparation to do nothing
which is displeasing to God, and to do everything with
a view to pleasing Him.
" XXII. It is possible to become a veiy great saint,
and to attain to Christian perfection without these
extraordinary gifts of prayer."
After publishing these documents at Meaux, Bossuet
returned to Paris for Fenelon's consecration. It was
natural, considering their friendship and the exceeding
love and veneration the younger man had for the elder,
that he should desire to be consecrated by his hands,
and Bossuet obviously desired it no less. This is
evident from Madame de Maintenon's letters, in which
it appears that a difficulty of precedence arose. The
ceremony was to take place at Saint-Cyr, which is in

394 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
the Diocese of Chartres, and neither the Bishops of
Chartres and CMlons or the King himself were will
ing to allow the Bishop of Meaux, although a senior
prelate, to take the leading part in it, as consecrator.
Bossuet pressed the matter, and Fenelon seconded
him. Afterwards, when Bossuet had worked himself
up to the extremest point of controversial bitterness,
even going so far as to throw out the unworthiest sus
picions of a character which he must have known and
felt to be utterly above all such, and calling Fenelon
" the fanatic admirer of a woman who calls herself
more perfect than the Holy Virgin — the Montanus of
this new Priscilla ; " ' Fenelon naturally asked how, if
he had, as he said, such opinions, he could have wished
to consecrate him to an important office in the Church?
Bossuet himself writes : " The new Archbishop chose
me to consecrate him, and two days before the cere
mony, kneeling down and kissing the hand which was
to perform this act, he took it to witness that he would
never hold any other doctrine than mine. I may
venture to say that I, in my heart, was more at his
knees than he at mine. But I received this submission,
as all the other like acknowledgments in his letters, as
a tribute to my age, my seniority, the simplicity of
my views, and the office I was about to fulfil."2
' De la Reponse a la Relation, etc., vol xx. p. 205.
2 Ibid. vol. xx. p. 110.

FENELON'S CONSECRATION. 395
Whatever may have been his mind afterwards, cer
tain it is that on June 10, 1695, Fenelon was duly
consecrated Archbishop of Cambrai by Bossuet, the
Bishop of Chalons and the Bishop of Amiens (taking
the place of M. de Chartres) assisting,— Madame de
Maintenon and the new Prelate's royal pupils being
present at the solemn ceremony.
Immediately after this Bossuet returned to Meaux,
where Madame Guyon was still at the Visitation Con
vent, the nuns of which were unanimous in her praises.
She there signed her submission to his Ordonnance,
which, as has been said, included the Thirty-four
Articles of Issy, and also a declaration to the effect that
she had never had any intention to put forward anything
contrary to the Church's teaching; and below the
express condemnation of her books by their respective
titles, Bossuet made her write, that she had not
intended to put forth any of the errors explained in
the Pastoral, but had always meant to write from a
Catholic point of view.1
Fenelon naturally refened to these words as prov
ing that, like himself, the Bishop of Meaux had
acquitted Madame Guyon of evil intentions. Bossuet
1 " Je n'ai eu aucune des erreurs expliquees dans la dite lettre
pastorale, ayant toujours eu intention d'ecrire dans un sens tres-
catholique, ne comprenant pas alors qu'on en put donner un
autre."

396 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
consented to the lady's leaving Meaux, (where she
had placed herself in a sort of voluntary imprisonment,
or perhaps rather retreat,) only requiring her to pro
mise not to remain in Paris, or renew her intercourse
with Court personages and others over whom she had
assumed an unseemly direction, but that she would go
at once, as she professed to wish, to the Eaux de
Bourbon. Thereupon Madame Guyon made so
sudden a departure as to bear strong resemblance to a
flight, and instead of keeping her promises, she con
cealed herself in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, whence
she made so great capital of the certificate Bossuet had
given her of her submission, that Tronson and others
wrote to him to express their astonishment at his facility.
And now the bitterness and personal feeling waxed
daily stronger. Just while Bossuet was sorest at
Madame Guyon's treachery, as he considered it,
de Harlay, the Archbishop of Paris, died (August
5, 1695). There were many speculations as to his
successor. Some thought that Bossuet should be the
new Archbishop — others wished for Fenelon — some
passed over both in favour of de Noailles, Bishop of
Chalons. Madame de Maintenon, with whom prac
tically the appointment rested, would no doubt of the
three have preferred Fenelon, if her mind had not
been prejudiced as to his rapport with Madame Guyon.
She consulted Hebert, the Cure of Versailles, after-

DE NOAILLES ARCHBISHOP. 397
wards Bishop of Agen — asking him what would be
the line of public opinion as to the appointment?
" Many think," was the reply, " that if M. de Fenelon
had not been so recently placed at Cambrai, that he
would have been selected, and indeed it is so much
wished that the choice might fall on him, that men
say the King's first favour was only the avant-goM of
this greater one."
Madame de Maintenon interrupted him hastily,
" But you know what hinders our proposing him :
then come M. de Meaux and M. de Chalons — which
of them would you choose ? "
" The one who would refuse it," Hebert answered,
— "and certainly M. de Chalons would not accept."
Upon this Madame de Maintenon wrote to the
latter, saying, " If the vacant see is offered to you,
will you refuse it, without taking good advice ? Will
you not find those who will tell you that it is well to
put up with existing evils in which you have had no
share, in the hope of changing them for the future ?
and was there ever a stronger reason for a translation
than the welfare of the Church and the King's benefit ?
Is it lawful to prefer rest to labour, and to refuse a
place which Providence offers you without any seek
ing on your part ? "
M. de Noailles hesitated still: on August 18th
Madame de Maintenon wrote again, " I partly under-

398 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
stand the importance and weight of the yoke we want
to lay on you, but we must all toil — you are young
and strong ; it does not become me to exhort you to
sacrifice your youth and health to the glory of God,
the good of the Church and the King's welfare : " —
and without waiting for any further consent on his
part, the Bishop of Chalons was nominated Arch
bishop of Paris on the following day.
Bossuet's friends were unquestionably disappointed :
he himself may probably have thought of the appoint
ment, but he betrayed no sign of disappointment.
Some of his friends would have liked the Archbishopric
to have been offered to him, and refused ! On this
wish he comments as follows in a letter to one of his
spiritual children, Madame d' Albert : —
" There is every prospect, I may say absolute cer
tainty, that God, in His Mercy as much as His Justice,
will leave me where I am. When you wish that pre
ferment may be offered that I may refuse it you
are merely fostering vanity. It is better to foster
humility." ' And a week later he wrote to the same
from Paris, May 22, 1695: —
" You will have heard, my daughter, that the great
public excitement as to the Archbishopric of this city
is happily quieted by the nomination of M. de Chalons,
at which I am heartily glad, not only because he is my
* CEuvres, vol. xxviii. p. 252.

FENELON'S DISINTERESTEDNESS. 399
intimate friend, but still more because of the great
gain to the flock of such a pastor. So all your appre
hensions are at an end. For my own part I can
assure you that I never thought for a moment it would
be otherwise, and that all my wishes are abundantly
fulfilled. There is no longer any reason to doubt
but that, as I have ever wished, I shall be buried at
the feet of my saintly predecessors, while still work
ing for the souls of the flock here committed to
me."1 Fenelon was still on most friendly terms with
Madame de Maintenon. She sent one of his letters
to the Sisters of Saint-Cyr, saying, " It is not enough
to preach to our daughters, we must also give them
examples of perfection. So here is one from some
body who is neither suspicious or unwelcome to them.''
At this moment pecuniary affairs were pressing, and
Louis XIV. was raising a capitation tax for the first
time. With the same utter disregard for money which
he always showed, Fenelon, when paying this, asked
the Controller of Finance, de Pont-Chastrain, to
request the King to accept in addition the whole of
his salary as preceptor to the princes; and this, be it
remembered, having already resigned the Abbey of
Saint Valery. His opinions about Madame de Guyon
did not weigh so heavily at this time with the great
1 Ibid, p 255.

400 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
lady as afterwards : she writes to the new Archbishop of
Paris : — " I saw the Archbishop of Cambrai yesterday,
who told me how much he desires to stand well with
you. We talked about Madame Guyon — his mind
does not change concerning her ; indeed I believe he
would suffer martyrdom rather than admit that he is
wrong." So far well; but the cloud was gathering and shortly
to break. Fenelon was at Cambrai when the search
for Madame Guyon, which Bossuet continued to press,
having resulted in her discovery at a house in the
Faubourg Saint Antoine, she was arrested, Dec.
24, 1695, and taken to Vincennes. Madame de
Maintenon announces the fact to the Archbishop of
Paris in the following note : —
"The King desires me, Monseigneur, to tell you
that Madame Guyon is arrested. What will you have
done with this woman, her friends, and her papers ?
The King will be here all this morning ; write direct
to him."
If the unfortunate lady whose high-flown mystic
notions had caused so much dissension had been
quietly housed in some religious Community, without
oppression or malice, the whole matter might have
died out quietly; but others were aimed at as well as
her, and it was hoped that her rigid examination
would inculpate greater people. The Archbishop of

ARREST OF MME. GUYON. 401

Paris and Madame de Maintenon would have put
a speedy and quiet end to the whole business, but
Bossuet had by this time reached an exceeding point
of irritation, not only with Madame Guyon, who had
behaved very badly to him, but with Fenelon, who had
not done so. He wrote (Jan. 1696) on the spur of
the moment to Madame de Maintenon that he was
"ravi" to hear of her anest, and that it would heal
many wounds of the Church. Madame Guyon's pas
sion for influence and her self-conceit now threw off
the restraint they had assumed before. She defended
her intercourse with Pfere la Combe,1 boasted of Bos
suet's approbation, and put no bounds to her self-
assumption and assertions that she and all her doc
trines were irreproachable. Before her arrest the
Bishop of Chalons had published an Ordonnance, con
demning her books and those of la Combe, and of this
Fenelon expressed his approbation to Tronson. From
the time of her arrest he was most careful to avoid
any step which might appear like that of a partisan,
but the cabal against him was too powerful to let the
matter die out, as it might have done, and he was
pressed to express a personal condemnation of her.
1 His letters to her of that previous autumn — Oct. 1695 — are
most objectionable, and fully justify Bossuet's orders that she
should hold no communication with him. They will be found
in the 28th vol. of Bossuet's works, p. 658.
2 C

402 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
The Due de Beauvilliers wrote to Tronson, Feb. 29,
1696: —
" I must tell you in all sincerity that it is quite clear
to me that a very strong and eager cabal exists against
the Archbishop of Cambrai. M. de Chartres is too
good a man to be of it, but he is prejudiced and is
worked upon in an underhand way. As to Madame
de Maintenon, she is wholly led by what she is told,
and believes that she is doing God honour by being
prepared to go to the last extremity against M. de
Cambrai. I foresee that he is on the verge of being
removed from about the princes, as being likely to hurt
them by false doctrine. If this is attempted and suc
ceeds, my turn may very likely come; but — be it said
without scandal — I must tell you honestly that, sup
posing M. de Cambrai's disgrace to happen, I should
be easily consoled; and if you thought I should do
well not to wait to be dismissed, but- that I had better
resign voluntarily, I should be in no wise reluctant
to do so. . . .
" To return to M. de Cambrai, I should not advise
him, if he would, to give a formal condemnation of
Madame de Guyon's books. It would give a fine
opening to the Court libertines, and tend to confirm
all that is said to the prejudice of piety. What, while
M. de la Reynie (lieutenant de police) has been ques
tioning Madame Guyon about us all, while she is kept

DE BEAUVILLIERS OPINIONS. 403

in prison, and her answers carefully concealed, is M.
de Cambrai to condemn books unknown in his
diocese a year after MM. de Paris and de Meaux
have done the like ? Would it not give a handle to
say that he is the accomplice of all that is imputed to
the poor woman, and that out of policy and the fear
of dismissal he is abjuring in haste !
"You know, Monsieur, all that I have told you
as to my own conduct with respect to Madame Guyon.
I have borne with everything, and still I maintain
absolute silence, because I am convinced such a course
to be according to God's Will. But as to M. de Cambrai
I feel obliged to speak openly in his justification, and if
he should be dismissed from the charge of the princes,
I shall do so only the more loudly. ... I proposed to
the Bishop of Chartres that M. de Cambrai should
speak out clearly on the worst propositions, and explain
those which are doubtful ; but he does not think that
enough, and he has been over-persuaded that the
good of the Church demands a formal condemnation
of Madame Guyon's books."
The venerable Superior of Saint-Sulpice was able
in a measure to modify the Bishop's opinions ; but the
stone was set rolling, and could not easily be stopped.
Bossuet preached a set of public conferences at
Saint-Cyr on " true and false spirituality," while the
Archbishop de Noailles, Tronson, and Fenelon drew

404 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
up terms of submission for Madame Guyon to sign.
When she did sign, she was allowed to go to Vaugi-
rard, and was placed under the direction of the Cure
of Saint-Sulpice. Madame de Maintenon says that
Bossuet grudged the prisoner this indulgence, but that
she herself wished as far as possible to abstain from
harsh measures. Meanwhile her mind had been quite
set against Fenelon, who has given a most open and
complete statement of the difficulties of his own posi
tion in a letter to his beloved old director Tronson.
In this he says, as to the condemnation of Madame
Guyon's writings which he is asked to make, that if
the Church puts forth a formula, he will be the first
to sign it with his blood ; but that as things now are,
he cannot condemn her on the alleged grounds.
" Supposing her books to be still more pernicious
than they are said to be, have they not been sufficiently
condemned by various ordonnances which nobody has
contradicted, and to which all her friends have sub
mitted quietly ? What more is wanted ? I am not
obliged to censure all the bad books which appear,
especially such as are totally unknown in my diocese.
Does it beseem me to go and overwhelm a poor
woman, already severely handled by so many, one too
whose friend I have been? As to M. de Meaux, I
should be charmed to approve his book, as he desires,
but I cannot honestly in all conscience do so, if he

LETTER TO TRONSON. 405
attacks a person whom I believe to be innocent, or
writings which I am bound to leave to the condemna
tion of others, without uselessly adding my censure.
As to M. de Chartres, he is a holy prelate, a tender
and firm friend, but out of excessive zeal for the
Church and friendship for me, he wishes to lead me
too far. I believe much the same of Madame de
Maintenon : — he only can quiet her, and you only
can convince him of my reasons, if they convince you
yourself. There is a design to carry me on step by
step, of which M. de Meaux is the acting spirit : M.
de Chartres is kindled by zeal and real friendship ;
Madame de Maintenon is vexed and initated against
us by each fresh impression given to her; and a
thousand malicious people about Court insidiously
poison her against us, seeing her to be disposed that
way. She and M. de Chartres are persuaded that all is
lost unless I condemn both the writer and the writings.
Why, the Inquisition itself would not require that ! and
it is what I will never do unless it were in obedience
to the Church. What does it matter if I do not
believe Madame Guyon either bad or mad, so long as
I keep total silence towards her, and leave her to die
in prison without meddling directly or indirectly in
her affairs ? The whole thing comes to this, that I
will not speak against my conscience, or idly insult a
person whom I have been led to revere as a saint, by

406 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
all I have myself seen of her. Can any one question my
honesty ? have I acted out of policy or dissimulation ?
Should I be situated as I am, if I had been influenced
by human respect ? . . . Pray read all this attentively,
and if you will let M. de Chartres read it. Further
than this I have only to leave the issue to Providence."
The Bishop of Chartres and Tronson assented to
this, and decided that Fenelon's position did not
require him to condemn Madame Guyon or censure
her books, or endorse Bossuet's forthcoming work.
They only expressed a wish that, when occasion
offered, Fenelon would express it as his opinion that
they deserved censure. This he promised, and kept
his promise.
Madame de Maintenon, however prejudiced from
without against Fenelon, still was genuinely fond of
him. She wrote to him about what she called his
" aveuglement" for Madame Guyon, and he replied at
length, in the same tone as in his letter to Tronson.
" I have never felt any natural inclination to her or
her writings,'' he says; " I never found anything extra
ordinary in her to prejudice me in her favour. Most
freely and naturally she has explained her feelings and
experiences to me. I do not enter into the question
of terms, which I should not defend, and which matter
little in a woman, so long as their sense is Catholic.
She seemed to me prone to exaggeration and wanting

FENELON'S OPINION OF MME. GUYON. 407
in caution. ... I think nothing of her pretended pro
phecies or revelations, and I should think little of her
if she prized them as worth anything. . . . There is a
great difference between a woman who teaches inde
pendently of the Church, and one who helps other
souls by giving them advice, founded on her own
experience and subject to the pastors of the Church.
All Superiors of Communities ought to teach in this
fashion, . . . referring all questions of doctrine to the
ministers of the Church. If Madame Guyon over
stepped this rule, she was inexcusable; — if she did
so only through indiscreet zeal, she deserves to be
charitably corrected, and it need not hinder one from
thinking well of her; — if she did so obstinately and per
versely, such conduct is incompatible with piety. . . .
Women ought not to teach or decide authoritatively, but
they may edify and advise in authorised matters. . ..."
He goes on freely and simply to tell Madame de
Maintenon how he thinks she has been prejudiced
against himself, adding, " Why should you close
your heart to me, Madame, as if I were of another
religion to your own? why fear to speak of God
with me, as though you dreaded to be misled ? . . .
I go away with the hope that God, Who sees our
hearts, will reunite them, though with a deep grief at
being a cross to you. ... Do not fear that I shall
contradict M. de Meaux. I shall ever speak of him

40& BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
as my master, as a very rule of faith. I am quite
willing that he should be victorious and supposed to
have recalled me from all manner of errors."
The forthcoming book to which Archbishop Fene
lon repeatedly alludes was a work on which Bossuet
had begun immediately after the Conferences of Issy.
He had laboured indefatigably at it, and the result
was called an " Instruction sur les Etais d'Oraison" in
which the errors of modern false mystics were exposed.
It is very learned and very elaborate, and the writer
says, " exposes the excesses of those who misuse
prayer in order, under pretext of perfection, to throw
souls into mental attitudes and practices opposed to
the Gospel, and to hinder the performance of various
acts essential to piety and expressly commanded by
God."' He had told Fenelon what he was doing, and
invited him to examine the MS.
" Whenever you will," the answer was, " I will come
to Meaux or Germigny, and spend a few days with
you, in order to take whatever share in your work you
choose to give me. I shall be delighted, not to give
additional weight to its authority, but to bear public
witness to my respect for your doctrine."
Then came Madame Guyon's arrest, and Fenelon
began to find out that the approbation asked of him
was practically a retractation. Accordingly he thought
' CEuvres, vol. xviii. p. 367.

"MAXIMES DES SAINTS." 409
it well to explain himself thoroughly, to which end he
drew up an exact exposition of his views concerning
the Articles of Issy, which was submitted to and
approved of by two of the Commissioners who drew
them up, the Bishop of Chartres and Tronson.
These two men, together with the Archbishop of
Paris, and the Dukes of Beauvilliers and Chevreuse,
met at Issy on August 2, 1696, and Fe'nelon read his
memoire to them. It is still extant, endorsed in the
author's handwriting, as " Memoire que je fis pour
montrer que je ne devois pas approuver le livre de
M. de Meaux, et que M. de Paris fit approuver par
Madame de Maintenon." All these friends seemed
agreed, and Bossuet returned Fenelon's MS. through
the Due de Chevreuse, with an explanatory letter.
The same friends exacted of Fenelon that he should
write and publish a full expression of his own mind,
and accordingly he wrote the much-discussed book
entitled " Maximes des Saints sur la Vie Interieure."
It is difficult now to realize the storm which arose
around this book, written by one of the noblest
minded, most deeply religious Prelates who ever graced
the Gallican Church, and examined and approved
by eminent men on one side as it was, condemned
so bitterly, so unrelentingly by others, until at length
its supporters were almost swept away by the torrent
of opinion. Bossuet, indeed, did not scruple to say

410 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
" that it compromised all religion." ' But no impartial
mind can follow the saddening maze of the con
troversy, or read the numerous writings it called forth,
without being regretfully forced to admit that the
great Bishop became a bitter partisan, and lost the
power of judging fairly of one whom he learnt to
detest as heartily as he once had loved him. Le
Dieu even says (Oct 29, 1701) that Bossuet re
presented Fenelon as seeking the Preceptorship to
the Due de Bourgogne eagerly, and fearing himself as
a rival. " De \k on est entre sur M. l'Abbe de Fenelon,
que M. de Meaux a tranche avoir ete toute sa vie
un parfait hypocrite, n'agissant avec lui-meme des
ces premiers temps, qu'avec finesse, dissimulation et
cachoterie pour aller a ses desseins." '
What a lesson of the lengths to which prejudice and
party spirit — his exemption from which used to be Bos
suet's boast ! — can lead a large, noble mind ! It is im
possible not to feel that there is a great amount of feel
ing, by no means religious, in the whole strife concerning
Quietism — and that endless strings of interest — politi
cal, court, personal and selfish, etc. — are perpetually
being pulled. All contemporary memoirs bring this for
cibly before one. For instance, when the Chancellor
d'Aguesseau gives vent to some uncharitable and incor-
1 " Qu'il y alloit de toute la religion."
Journal, vol. ii. p. 242.

PARTIES IN THE CHURCH. 411
rect judgments, we are quite naturally told that they
are " entirely dictated by filial piety ; " ' — the meaning
of which is that M. d'Aguesseau pere fancied that the
Due de Beauvilliers had hindered his becoming
Chancellor, and so it was natural and all right that
his son should malign the friends of the Duke, and
take up a violent anti-Quietist cry against Fenelon !
Cardinal de Bausset observes that "the unhappy divi
sions in religious matters, which were always mixed up
with government affairs at that period, pretty well
divided men into two classes, the disciples of Port-
Royal and of the Jesuits ; " 2 and the prejudices more
or less directly arising from these classes influenced
everybody and everything.
At the risk of being tedious, we must follow the
immediate history of the " Maximes des Saints."
The Archbishop of Cambrai had agreed with
Madame de Maintenon that it should not be published
without having been previously submitted to the in
spection of the Archbishop of Paris and M. Tronson.
1 " Ce fut uniquement la piete filiale qui les dicta. "
2 Hist, de Finelon, vol. ii. p. 20. The Cardinal says, "Iln'y
eut pas jusqu'au celebre La Bruyere qui ne se criit oblige d'ecrire
sur une question de theologie ; — il avoit compose des Dialogues
sur le Quietisme. ... La Bruyere devoit a Bossuet sa place
chez le Prince de Conde, et une juste admiration nunie a la ;e-
connoissance, ne lui permettoit pas d'hisiter entre Bossuet et Fine
lon I " So much, alas, for the intrinsic worth of history and
contemporaneous memoirs !

*I2 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
This was done. De Noailles thought it too long.
The author cut it down, and brought back the
abridged MS. to the Archbishop, who, with the Abbe de
Beaufort, Grand vicaire en chef of the diocese, read it
carefully. Fenelon left it with them, and in a letter
he said, "There is no hurry, Monseigneur, about
publishing it. You, better than any one, know why it
was written. In absolute good faith I give it up to
you, to suppress, cut short, correct, add whatever you
think necessary. I wish neither to hurry nor to
delay — it rests with you. As to the choice of some
-one to help you in the work, you know that I have
given you full power over me and my book."
The Archbishop kept the manuscript for three
weeks, and when returning it pointed out the pencil
marks he had made at certain places, and in his pre
sence Fenelon made whatever alterations de Noailles
suggested. Further, when he proposed that some
technical theologian should examine the work, Fenelon
eagerly assented, and himself suggested M. Pirot, a
Sorbonne doctor, who was habitually an examiner of
books and theses, and who had been employed by de
Harlay to examine Madame Guyon, — who, moreover,
was known to be devoted to Bossuet This examina
tion concluded by Pirot's affirmation that the book
1 Fenelon published all these facts, which were never con>
tradicted in any way by Cardinal de Noailles.

OPINIONS CONCERNING THE "MAXIMES." 413
was "worth its weight in gold" (" etait tout d'or"),
and the Archbishop shortly after wrote to Fenelon
and to Tronson that M. Pirot was " delighted at the
examination." Tronson's own criticism was that the
book was " correct and useful." After all this who
could wonder that Fenelon published the work in
question fearlessly? But it was not to prosper.
Bossuet unhesitatingly condemned it before he saw
it, in a letter to the Abbe de Maulevrier ; and after
reading it, he wrote to the Bishop of Chartres in the
bitter language of personal antagonism : — " The book
makes a great noise, but I have not heard of a single
person who approves of it. Some say it is badly
written, others that it is much too bold — others that it
is untenable — others that it is written with the greatest
caution and reserve, but is rotten at the foundation —
others that at a time when false mysticism is so growing
an evil, nothing should be written save to condemn it,
and lead the false mystic to God — others that there is
so little truth in it, so much that is false and dangerous,
that it cannot be too strongly opposed. I wish with
ill my heart that God may work it all round to His
own Glory. A great deal is made of M. Tronson's
opinion, but I am not sure but that what you call his
wisdom is not over-great menagement."
Truth must be told, but it is with sorrow and a sense
of shame that one has to record how Bossuet went to

4H BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
Louis XIV., with whom he always had such weight,
and knowing that the King had no personal liking for
Fenelon, warmed and irritated what might have been
a negative feeling into an active dislike, by begging his
pardon for not having sooner revealed to his Majesty
the fanaticism of his brother Bishop. The King was
given to meddle in religious matters : he had already
published abroad his aversion for Quietism, and now —
perhaps in his heart not sorry to go against the Prelate
whose simple-hearted, pure nature could never have
been easily understood by such an one as the Grand
Monarque — he appeared in a new character, not
altogether in keeping with his antecedents, and the
young ladies and nuns of Saint-Cyr were edified by
hearing the King, whose name we associate with those
of less pious women, dismiss three ladies from the
Community because they were contaminated with the
Archbishop of Cambrai's doctrines, and indignantly
declare that they should never put foot inside the
place again 1 One of these three was Madame de
Maisonfort, a particular friend and pet of Madame de
Maintenon. She asked to be allowed to retire to
Meaux, under Bossuet's guidance — a request which
seems to infer that her Court education had not been
wholly forgotten ! Some very long letters from Bos
suet to this lady remain, answering a series of questions
from her on spiritual matters. Madame de Maisonfort

MADAME DE MAISONFORT. 415
continued under Bossuet's direction as long as he lived,
and after his death Fenelon asked her to let him see
her correspondence with his old friend. Accordingly
she put it all into his hands, and when, at his death,
his papers went to Saint-Sulpice, these letters were
among them. It was not till 1828 that a member of
that Community published them.' They are very
earnest, holy, and practical, and one cannot help feel
ing that in such matters of practical religion the two
great Bishops did not really differ, as the hard world
of human strifes and jealousies made them appear
to do.
Madame de Maisonfort wrote her questions, and
Bossuet added his answers, which are generally briefei
than the queries. She describes herself in the outset as
having " a timid conscience, a tendency to scruples,
and a self-love which always seeks complacency in what
it does, and in a certainty of effecting somewhat."
Bossuet unhesitatingly replies that "passive prayer"
is very useful to such characters, and illustrates his
assertion by Ste. Chantal.2
Again the lady casts doubt upon the nature of her
prayer, because of the little progress she makes in
holiness, and Bossuet answers, — " The great and only
proof of true prayer is a change of life. The object of
prayer is not to make us spend a few hours sweetly
1 CEuvres, vol. xxvii. p. 318. * Ibid. p. 321.

4i6 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
with God, but that our whole life may feel the effect
and become better." '
To return to the " Maximes des Saints." It was not
Bossuet alone who condemned the book, or those who
were wholly led by him. M. Brisacier, an old and
faithful friend of the author, writes in the strongest
terms of the pain it gives him, not as himself blam
ing the doctrine — for of that he says not a word — but
" foreseeing the dangerous consequences in which it
will involve you, independently of criticism on its doc
trine." He goes on to say that " prelates who cannot
be suspected of prejudice, sensible ecclesiastics,
zealous cures, skilful doctors, Superiors of Communi
ties, worthy and intelligent laymen, unite in saying
that you have but few partisans, and that very few
people dare uphold you. Your best friends are
grieved to see you embarked in such a career, whence
you can scarcely come out acceptably, and into which
you were not obliged to enter for the sake of God's
Glory." It is touching just at this moment, and amid the
endless harass and annoyance which would have tried
and irritated many men almost beyond endurance, to
find Fenelon encountering, and bearing with the sweet
patience which is so pre-eminently his characteristic,
a serious disaster of another kind. A fire broke out
' CEuvres, vol. xxvii. p. 326.

FIRE AT CAMBRAI. 417

in the Episcopal palace at Cambrai, and not only all
his furniture, but, far worse, his books and papers
were burnt His friend the Abbe Langeron hastened
to Versailles, meaning to break the bad news to
Fenelon, and finding him talking quietly, as if nothing
had happened, with some friends, the Abbe naturally
supposed that the tidings had not anived. But when
he began to make them known the Archbishop
calmly stopped him, saying, " I know all about it,
dear Abbe; it is much better that my house should
be burnt than that of some poor labourer;" and he
went on with the interrupted conversation as quietly
as before.'
It was about a month after the Maximes that Bos
suet's " Instruction sur les Etats d'Oraison" 2 appeared,
and though not actually by name, the Archbishop of
Cambrai was vehemently condemned in it. Fenelon
met the Archbishop of Paris, the Due de Chevreuse,
and Madame de Maintenon at Saint-Cyr, to discuss
this attack. De Noailles, who had really reviewed and
1 See also a letter from M. de Chanterac to Mme. de Ponthac.
— CEuvres de Bossuet, vol. xxix. p. 140. In the same letter the
Abbe says : " It is not possible for an unprejudiced person to
say that this book (the "Maximes") favours the Quietists. I
assure you it condemns them even more severely than Rome
in the Sixty-four Propositions."
" CEuvres, vol. xviii. p. 367.
2 D

418 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
sanctioned the "Maximes," was now weakly troubled
about it, seeing that public opinion was so strong
against it; and Fenelon, who from first to last showed
such a singularly pure, disinterested spirit of love, de
siring no selfish ends, and seeking merely whatever
was true and to God's Glory, decided of his own
accord, under all these circumstances, to submit his
book to the Pope's judgment, which accordingly he
did, April 27, 1697, having obtained the approval of
the King of the step he was taking. Surely now one
would think Bossuet might have stayed his hand, but
he continued to push his controversy, and inviting his
two former colleagues again to discuss — this time,
indeed, the " Maximes " — he pressed Fenelon to be
present, practically endeavouring to force him to a
retractation. To refuse was utterly damaging his cause
at Court, as Fenelon very well knew; but, at the same
time, having submitted his book to the Pope, it was
contrary to all rule to accept an altogether individual
judgment at the hands of his brother Bishops. He
would probably have done well simply to take his
stand on this ground, instead of trying to conciliate
his friends, of whom the Bishop of Chartres tried him
almost more by his uncertainty than Bossuet by his
certain vehemence. The former wrote to him saying,
— " Your book, contrary to your intention, will give
strength to the Quietists, which frightens and afflicts

BOSSUET IN OPPOSITION. 419

me more than I can say. They will go further in
spite of your qualifications and formal exceptions :
they will draw the strangest consequences from your
words, such as your piety rejects with honor." Every
time he talked with Fenelon this good Bishop was
won by his holiness and the truthfulness of his ex
planations, and then, returning to Bossuet, he was
convinced on the other side by him.' It was much
the same with de Noailles.2 They were both over
whelmed by Bossuet's paper on the "Maximes,"3 which,
after being promised to Fenelon confidentially, was in
everybody else's hands before he ever saw it. It is
very aggressive in its tone, calling the "Maximes"
" a book which has scandalised the whole Church." 4
The bitter tone of these writings was not made more
acceptable to Fenelon by occasional sentences such
as "we feel it hard to speak thus to the dear author,"3
and the like; while, at the same time, he was accused
of insincerity and time-serving, as well as of false doc-
1 Bossuet was always working up De Noailles. Thus, in a
letter dated July 1, 1697, we find him saying : " Si vous saviez
ce qu'on dit au nom de M. de Cambrai et comme on vous met
en jeu, vous verriez qu'il y va de tout pour vous, pour les
eveques qui ont travaille avec vous et pour l'Eglise." — Vol.
xxix. p. 102.
2 Bossuet accused the Archbishop of Paris of jealousy of him
self. — Vol. xxx. p. 3.
3 Premier Ecrit, etc., CEuzres, vol. xix. p. 351.
4 Ibid. pp. 353 and 367. 5 md. p. 363.

420 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
trine and deliberate misquotation of S. Francis de
Sales and others !
At last Fenelon entirely refused to enter into any
conference with Bossuet, " who has solemnly said that
he does not doubt the falsity of my doctrine, and
holds it to be deliberately evil and untenable." He
refused to take part in the conferences held by MM.
de Paris and Chartres, if Bossuet was of them, on the
ground that the latter had already so entirely pre
judged the question, and he brought forward historical
precedent to show that he was right, to which the less
excited prelates would have yielded but for Bossuet's
vehemence. " Do as you please," he exclaimed, " but
I protest that I will raise my voice to Heaven against
errors which you cannot affect to ignore. I will carry
my complaint to Rome, and through the whole world,
and it shall never be said that God's cause has been
forsaken in so cowardly a fashion. If I am left single-
handed, I will set to work."1 Even then, after all this
aggravation, Fenelon consented to confer with Bossuet,
subject to three conditions, i.e. that there should be
sundry Bishops and theologians present; that the
assessors should speak in turn, and notes be made of
1 The Abbe Phelippeaux, who was a violent partisan of
Bossuet and foe to Fenelon, quotes these words of the Bishop of
Meaux in his Relation du Quiitisme, published in 1732. See
POces Justificatives, Vie, vol. ii. p. 238.

FENELON TO MME. DE MAINTENON. 421
what was said ; and lastly, that Bossuet should not arro
gate to himself the office of examiner of the "Maximes "
in consequence of these conferences, but that the
Archbishop of Paris, Tronson, and Pirot should be
the examiners, as already settled. On these conditions
Bossuet refused to confer, and the whole transaction
fell through !
Fenelon next asked leave of Louis XIV. to go in
person to Rome and defend his own book, but the
King refused, and, August 1, 1697, he received a
harsh order to go to Cambrai at once, and not linger
in Paris longer than was necessary to anarige his
affairs. That same day he wrote to Madame de
Maintenon : " Versailles, August 1st.
" To-morrow, Madame, I leave this in obedience to
the King. I would not even pass through Paris, were
I not in a difficulty as to finding some one able and
willing to go to Rome for me. I return to Cambrai
full of submission, zeal, gratitude, and boundless
attachment to the King. My great regret is to have
troubled and displeased him. No day of my life shall I
omit to pray that God will fill him with His Grace. I
consent to be crushed more and more : — the only
thing I ask of His Majesty is that the innocent
diocese of Cambrai may not suffer for the faults
imputed to me. I ask but protection for my Church,

422 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
and that only so far as not to be hindered in the few
good works appertaining to my office of which my
present position renders me capable.
" It only remains, Madame, for me to ask your for
giveness for all the trouble I have caused you. God
knows how deeply I feel it. I shall not cease to pray
that He Alone may fill your heart. All my life I shall
remember your former kindness as if it had not ceased,
and my respectful attachment, Madame, will never be
lessened." Madame de Maintenon, prejudiced as she was, felt
this letter keenly, and in her heart she was forced to-
do justice to the noble-minded Bishop, who, she
well knew, was voluntarily sacrificing his worldly
interests to his conscience. She relates herself that
her health suffered from her distress, and that she told
the King the reason of her indisposition. His reply
was, " Well, Madame, are we to see you die because
of this business?"1
With the appeal to Rome the worst part of Bossuet's
conduct in the matter begins. On July 16, 1697,
Louis XIV. wrote a letter to the Pope, dictated by
Bossuet,* in which he strove to prejudice the cause by
1 "Eh bien, Madame, il faudra done que nous vous voyions
mourir pour cette affaire la?"
2 Vol. xxix. p. 117.

INTRIGUES AGAINST FENELON. 423

denouncing Fenelon's books as " very evil and very
pernicious, already reprobated by many Bishops,
doctors, and learned men :" and he induced the Arch
bishop of Paris and Bishop of Chartres to sign a decla
ration together with himself, which he presented to the
Nuncio Delfini, in which a proposition was held up
which had only originated through a printer's enor, and
which had been utterly disallowed by Fenelon. But the
worst, and that part of the business which one's rever
ence for the great Bishop of Meaux makes it the most
grievous to follow, was all the intriguing that went on
at Rome in order to damage and blacken Fenelon's
character in every available manner, and to prejudice
his judges against him coute qui coute. Bossuet's
nephew (that Abbe Bossuet whom de Maistre has
characterised as " the petty nephew of a great uncle"),
and the Abbe Phelippeaux' were on the point -of
1 Phelippeaux, who was tresorier of the Cathedral of Meaux,
and who took an active part in these intrigues at Rome, and
wrote a history of Quietism which was treated as all-authoritative
while it was convenient to do so, fell into utter disgrace after
wards. He complained bitterly of Bossuet's own coldness to
and neglect of him ; — he quarrelled violently with the Abbe
Bossuet, and abused him in the most unmeasured terms, accusing
him of the very worst conduct during their Roman sejour.
Cardinal de Noailles, whom he had flattered and pandered to in
the Cambrai business, asked de Bissy if he had "found out
Phelippeaux and his mauvais cceur" (Le Dieu, vol. iv. p. 17) ;
and one can hardly look upon him as worth more than his col
league, Jacques Bossuet.

424 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
leaving Rome, where they had been on other business
during the last year, when the appeal was made, and
Bossuet at once ordered them to remain and overlook
•the proceeding. It was a step more damaging to the
reputation of the Bishop of Meaux than that of the
Archbishop of Cambrai. Bossuet's conespondence
with his nephew is published' — it were better far for
him had it not been.2
The Cardinal de Bouillon was at that time named
French Ambassador at Rome. He, like the Chan
cellor d'Aguesseau, looked upon the whole affair as
"pas moins une intrigue de Cour qu'une querelle de
religion;" and he regretted that Fenelon should throw
away his fortunes for such a cause. The Cardinal all
along warned him that his book would be condemned
at Rome, and he did whatever he could to lighten the
blow to one whom he both loved and respected. Out
of regard for his position as Ambassador, Fenelon
would not hold any personal communication with the
Cardinal, or take any measures that could even seem
' CEuvres, vol. xxix.
2 " Vous devez commencer a parler d'une maniere plus
douteuse de M. de Cambrai, dont je vous ecrirai plus precise-
ment quand j 'aurai eu le loisir de voir les dispositions de la
Cour." — Ibid. p. 121.
" J'ai parle de vous faire demeurer a Rome . . . le roi l'a fort
approuve. . . . Vous tournerez votre lettre de maniere que je la
puisse faire voir a Sa Majeste ; vous saurez bien tourner le
sejour de Rome, et me dire ce qu'il faudra a part." — p. 126.

CARDINAL BOUILLON. 42$
to influence him,' and yet, when at length the examina
tion began — there were sixty-four sittings of six or
seven hours each, and out of the ten examiners five
invariably gave a favourable vote — the Abbe Bossuet
did not hesitate in his wrath to declare that they were
misled by the intrigues of the Archbishop of Cambrai
conducted through Cardinal Bouillon.2
Under his uncle's directions the Abbe Bossuet tried
to hurry on the judgment; — Bossuet had made tht
1 This was not like Bossuet's instruction to his nephew, Aug.
26, 1697 : — " Vous serez plus embarrasse avec le Cardinal de
Bouillon : vous pouvez lui faire confidence de certaines choses,
et surtout de celles qui doivent nicessairement venir a sa con-
noissance !" — p. 139.
2 Cardinal Bouillon's own moderate impartial words might
have spared him such accusations. (Cf. Lettres, vol. xxix.
p. 69.) The Abbe Bossuet lost no opportunity of making mis
chief for de Bouillon or any one whom he spited. In a letter to
his uncle of Sept. 16, 1698, this amiable person says: "J'ai
6ti a Civita Vecchia visiter M. le Bailli de Noailles, qui n'a pas
ete fache de me voir et de m'entretenir. Je n'ai point epargne
le Cardinal de Bouillon ; je sais combien ces deux maisons se
haissent. Je l'ai comme determine a aller informer le nouvel
ambassadeur (de Monaco) des dispositions du Cardinal a son egard.
. . . Encore une fois ne negligez pas de me faire recommander
a M. l'Ambas6adeur par des personnes de poids. II est de la
derniere consequence pour la cause et pour votre honneur, que
1' Ambassadeur me temoigne quelque consideration " (ibid. p.
6). Again : "J'ai vu le Cardinal Carpegna et j'ai eu une longue
conference avec lui. ... II comprend bien que son interet
s'accorde en cette occasion avec sa conscience" (ibid. p. 14).
" II est necessaire que j'instruise les Cardinaux" (p. 17).

426 BOSSUE T IN CONTRO VERSY.
King say in his letter to the Pope, " In order to bring
to an end an affair which may have very serious results
if it be not stopped in the beginning, I humbly request
your Holiness to pronounce as speedily as possible
upon this book and its doctrine :"' — and he continued
to urge haste. But Innocent XII. replied with dignity,
that inasmuch as the three French prelates had become
denunciators of the Archbishop of Cambrai, and had
given the greatest possible publicity to their denuncia
tions, it was due to justice to hear no less fully the
answer of the accused.
Fenelon found a good man to send as his envoy
to Rome, the Abbe de Chanterac, and the contrast
between his correspondence and that of the Abbe
Bossuet may be exemplified by a sentence from the
tatter's letter to his uncle of Sept. 3, 1697 : — " So soon
as he (M. de Chanterac) arrives, he shall have a spy,
and we shall gain information."2 Fenelon wrote
to de Chanterac on the same day, " Think of no
thing but God in the matter, dear Abbe ; I often say
to Him, Lord, Thou knowest all; Thou knowest
that what I have done has not been from pride
or self-seeking. If He is satisfied, we ought to be so
too, whatsoever humiliation we may receive through
Him." The Abbe Bossuet kept his word, and de Chanterac
1 Lettres, vol. xxix. p. 117. "p. 147.

DE CHANTERAC IN ROME. 427
was well espionne' — not as to any intrigues on his
part, for even his spiteful watcher could find none,
but as to every movement made on Fenelon's behalf.
He did not wish to publish answers to the attacks
made by his accusers, especially to the declaration of
the three Bishops. Writing to de Chanterac, November
2 1 st, he says : "I wish — call it as you will policy or
simply religion — to respect my confreres to the end,
both because of their office, and because of the King's
confidence in them. . . . The chief thing is to main
tain our patience, simplicity, and candour, and to ex
plain ourselves precisely and without reserve on each
article." And again, "I did not wish to print my
answer because of the scandal and dishonour it might
cause to my brethren. I would fain spare them, and
that not out of policy as regards the Court, for I
would a thousand times rather finally offend there,
than remain unjustified." At length the Examiners
made de Chanterac show Fenelon that it was necessary
for him to bring forth his own writings, and thereupon
he printed the Latin translation of the Maximes, of
his Pastoral Instruction and of his answer to the
Declaration. Meanwhile Bossuet's pen had been busy.
The Summa Doctrina,2 the Declaration De Nova
1 How would the Abbe Bossuet have fared, if a secretary of
the Le Dieu genus had kept a faithful record of all his sayings
and doings ? 2 CEuvres, vol. xix. p. 453. 3 Ibid. p. 495.

428 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
Quasstione,' and the Qusestiuncula 2 had all been pub
lished; and in October 1697 he induced de Noailles to
strike out certain expressions of kindness for Fenelon
which he had inserted in his forthcoming Pastoral
Instruction. But we must pass over innumerable
documents and letters of great interest, and hurry
through this miserable scene of strife and division
among those one would fain see all fighting side by
side for God, against His great enemies, the world, the
flesh and the devil.
Fenelon's answers to Bossuet and the others made
an immense impression on the world ; — he was seen
to be worthy of entering the lists of controversy with
one who had long been considered in France as, facile
princeps of all such contests. Probably Bossuet had
thought much the same himself. "M. de Cambrai
a de l'esprit k faire peur!" he exclaimed — and he
was alarmed too at hearing how equally divided the
Examiners were, as also at his nephew's further infor
mation of April 1, 1698, " the Pope had said the
matter was not so plain " 3 — as the intriguers were try
ing to make it to him. We cannot follow the con
temptible meannesses of the Abbe Bossuet, — neither
can we help wondering that his uncle did not burn
his letters as fast as he read them, instead of letting
them make such damaging history for future times !
1 Vol. xix. p. 583. ' p. 772. 3 Vol. xxix. p. 371.

THE ABBE BOSSUET'S INTRIGUES. 429
At length the Abbe began really to fear defeat, and
he urged his uncle to bring about Fenelon's public
disgrace. When Louis XIV. had dismissed Fenelon to Cam
brai, August 1697, the Due de Bourgogne had
passionately demanded to retain the Preceptor he
loved. The King answered coldly that "it was a
matter concerning religion, which M. de Meaux
understood much better than either he or his grand
son ; " — but he had not deprived him of the title of
Preceptor. " What is the King about that he does
not take the Preceptorship from M. de Cambrai ? " '
the Abbe Bossuet now wrote, May 20, 1698; "it would
have a great effect, and it is time to act : " and at
the same time he diligently propagated all manner of
calumnies respecting Fenelon2 — calumnies such as
the Bishop of Meaux himself would never have con
descended to put forth, though he allowed his con
temptible tool to do so. Accordingly Bossuet pressed
upon the King that the condemnation they so much
desired was doubtful, and that it behoved him to do
everything in his power to bring it about. Therefore,
on June 2, 1698, the King dismissed the Abbes de
1 Vol. xxix. p. 426.
2 "L'autre jour a moi mgme il (Cardinal Bouillon) disoir,
qu'il etoit facheux de voir de grands hommes ainsi se dechirer,
je lui dis que je ne savois pas si M. de Cambrai etoit un grand
homnae, mais qu'il etoit un grand rnenteur ! " — Vol. xxx. p. 22.

43° BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
Beaumont and de Langeron, MM. Dupuy and Les-
chelles, who had all been about the Due de Bour
gogne for the last nine years, solely because they had
been appointed by Fenelon. Fleury would have
shared their disgrace, for he too had been placed in
his office by Fenelon, but Bossuet, feeling perhaps
that his own good name would suffer more than
Fenelon's by such oppression,1 made capital of sav
ing Fleury from the general disgrace of the Arch
bishop's friends.
u You could not send us better or more persuasive
news," Phelippeaux wrote to Bossuet (June 24th),
"than that of the disgrace of M. de Cambrai's rela
tions and friends;"2 and the Abbe Bossuet wrote to
urge that the young princes' confessor, Pere Valois,
should also be dismissed.3 This stroke of policy,
however, was not so successful as the intriguers ex
pected. The Pope thought the steps taken in Paris
harsh and unjust. " Expulerunt nepotem, expulerunt
consanguinem,expuleruntamicosl'H he exclaimed several
1 "Le roi s'est clairement declare touchant le preceptoriat,"
Bossuet wrote to his nephew (June 8, 1698), "puisqu'il a renvoye
les subalternes. . . Cela fut fait Mardi matin. . . Je ne doute
pas apres cela qu'on ne nomme bient6t un precepteur, et que la
foudre ne suive de pres I'eclair : on verra par Ik comment le roi
et la Cour reviennent pour M. de Cambrai." — Vol. xxix. p. 439.
2 Vol. xxix. p. 452. * p. 490.
« "They have driven out his nephew, his relations, his
friends!"

"RELATION SUR LE QUlETISME." 431
times in astonishment; and the Examiners who were
favourable to Fenelon were distinctly disgusted at the
mean persecuting spirit shown towards him. At the
same time Fenelon's brother, an exempt des gardes-du-
corps, was cashiered, solely because he was the Arch
bishop's brother. J The Abbe Bossuet, more alarmed
than ever, worked upon his uncle in every possible
way, and in the summer of the year 1698, the Bishop
of Meaux published his " Relation sur le Quie'tisme " 2
in which the attack upon his former friend becomes
acutely personal.3 In France, for the moment, it
worked the desired effect. Madame de Maintenon
wrote to de Noailles : " M. de Meaux's book makes a
great commotion here, — nothing else is talked about.
Everybody can understand the facts, and Madame
Guyon's follies amuse the world : — the book is

* Guettee, Introduction, vol. i. p. clvii.
' CEuvres, vol. xx. p. 85. Lachat gives the date late in the
year as its publication by Anisson, but it must actually have been
rather earlier, as is proved by Mme. de Maintenon's letter, dated
June 29, 1698.
3 Bossuet says, writing to his nephew, September 14, 1698,
"Je reponds sur la Relation, non pas tant pour soutenir les
faits . . . que pour faire voir le mauvais caractere de I'homme ! "
(vol. xxx. p. 1). And : "M. de Cambrai et ses affides se fient
aux mensonges et aux tours d'esprit." " M. de Cambrai est un
homme sans mesure, qui donee tout a l'esprit, k la subtilite et a
l'invention ; qui a voulu tout gouverner, et meme l'Etat, pal
la direction, ou rampant, ou insolent outre mesure." — Ibid. p. 2.

432 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
short, lively, and telling, everybody lends it about,
snatches it one from another, devours it It has
roused the King's anger that we ever should have let
him make such an Archbishop, and he has reproached
me bitterly. All the odium of this business falls on
me." Bossuet made a formal ceremony of presenting his
book to the King when the Court was assembled at
Marly,' and Madame de Maintenon seems to have
gone out of her way to do the honours of the " Re
lation." It arrived at Rome just when the Abbe
Bossuet's calumnies and treacherous half-confidences
were doing their best to convey the most disas
trous impression of Madame Guyon's character and
of Fenelon's connexion with her. One must read
through all that mean, dirty correspondence to believe
that a man of education, a priest, and one professing
to be religious, could be so far led away by partisan
ship and jealousy as to condescend to such intrigues
1 " Vous ne sauriez croire le prodigieux effet que fait ici et a
Paris ma Relation sur le Quiecisme. Vous pouvez compter qu'a
la Cour et k la ville M. de Cambrai est souverainement decrie.
. . . Je fus hier k Versailles, oil je donnai ma Relation dans la
Cour des Princes : on y fremit plus qu'ailleurs contre M. de
Cambrai. . . . J'ai fait dire, autant que j'ai pu, aux amis du
Cardinal de Bouillon, qu'il ne peut mieux faire sa cour, ni se
rendre le public plus favorable, qu'en se declarant contre le
livre " (des Maximes). — Bishop of Meaux to the Abbe" Bossuet, vol.
xxix. p. 466.

DUC DE BEAUVILLIERS. 433
and manoeuvres to damage an Archbishop's character
with the whole world.'
Amid the storm which raged no one remained
calm and peaceful except Fenelon himself. He was
reluctant even to answer the Relation, fearing that any
step he took might involve the disgrace of his con
stant friends the Dues de Beauvilliers and de Chevreuse,
whose influence around the young Princes was a
matter of still greater importance in his eyes than
their own Court favour. De Beauvilliers' letters to
Tronson, with whom he continued to take counsel,
show that he was very nearly being dismissed,
Madame de Maintenon having taken up a strong
line against him. But Tronson (who from the same
1 " M. de Cambrai commence a £tre connu : sa reputation est
perdue, et le seroit a moins. On commence k le regarder comme
un homme tres dangereux ; on ne comprend pas qu'il reste
precepteur ; on en est scandalise. Si par hasard on avoit des
faits particuliers de Madame Guyon, de M. de Cambrai et de la
cabale, qu'on ne voulut pas publier, il faudroit les montrer a
M. le Nonce, et me lesenvoyer seulement pour le Pape, k qui
j'ai un canal sur pour les faire voir, que personne ne sait, et qui
est excellent, et qui fortifiera le Pape qui en a toujours besoin, et
sur qui cela fait un terrible effet." — Abbe" Bossuet a son Oncle,
June 10, 1698, vol. xxix. p. 441.
"On m'a dit que les amis de M. de Cambrai avoient voulu
insinuer au Pape de consulter, sur la doctrine de l'amour pur,
les facultes de Douai et de Louvain. Je doute qu'on l'ait fait ;
mais il faut lire toujours stir ses gardes. ... La Relation ne
saurait venir trop t6t. II faut continuer k presser du cote de la
Cour."— Ibid. June 24, p. 456. 2 E

434 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
point of view as Fenelon, thought it most important
to keep de Beauvilliers about the Princes) advised
him to do all he could salva conscientia, and suggested
a sort of declaration which, while it did not com
promise de Beauvilliers, might satisfy the Court For
tunately de Noailles (who but for Bossuet would
never have gone the lengths he did in this matter)
helped to smooth matters with Madame de Main
tenon — but he was afraid to let Bossuet know what
he had done, and carefully kept his own secret.
De Chanterac insisted on Fenelon's replying to the
Relation. " M. de Meaux' agents," he wrote, " are
working upon men's minds continually by promising
fresh confessions of Madame Guyon's, and fresh dis
closures of her abominations ; and they set about
that they have in their hands quantities of original
letters from you to her, which they withhold up to the
last extremity in order to save your reputation. . . .
I only tell you all this in order to prove to you the
absolutely imperative necessity of answering quickly
and publicly to all these things, putting them in so
clear a light that there can be no room for confound
ing you with Madame Guyon, and letting the gross
injustice of your opponents be seen, who are trying to
throw suspicion on your reputation, so as to strengthen
their attacks on your doctrine. All your friends,
indeed all the friends of true religion, are troubled

FENELON'S ANSWER. 435
at your delay in printing your answer. It involves
everything for you and for true doctrine — your faith,
your reputation, and the honour of your ministry."
Fenelon was convinced; but the publication of his
writings was a less easy matter than that of his enemy's
books. He could not print them in Paris, and he did
not like to send them to Holland, where works that
could not be published in France were often printed.
It ended in his answers being published at Lyons,
often without any proper person to conect proofs,
although a slight enor of the press might be of
immense importance. He received the Relation on
July 8th, and by August 30th his answer was published
and received at Rome.1 Sending it to de Chanterac,
he says, " I have tried to write it in all sincerity, and
1 August 26th, the Abbe Bossuet wrote, " On commence k faire
voir ici en secret la Reponse k la Relation du Quietisme : elle
est tres-surement arrivee, imprimee en Francais. Je ne sache pas
qu'on l'ait encore donnee k aucun Cardinal, et je doute qu'on la
distribue. . . . On ne l'a donnee qu'k des gensaffides, quilalisent,
et font lire, et on ne la laissera a personne. Vous croyez bien
que je ferai 1'impossible pour la lire, et pour vous 1'envoyer. . . .
On m'a dit seulement que la Reponse etoit tres foible, quoique
les Jesuites disent qu'elle vous accable." — Vol. xxxix. p. 556.
Then follows a long account of an interview with His Holi
ness, in which the amiable Abbe Bossuet did his best to work
upon the Pope's feelings, fears or prejudices. On September 2nd
the same person writes again to his uncle: " M. de Chanterac
recut le 27 du mois passe, par un courrier extraordinaire venu en
droiture de Cambrai. . . . Une heure apres, il en porta un

436 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
you may notice that my chief proofs are taken from
M. de Meaux' own Relation."
The sensation made by this "Reponse" was great.
It was so clearly written, the narrative so full and
natural, the answer to each damaging accusation so
plain, and the whole style so simple and noble, that
it canied conviction on its front. The concluding
paragraph says : " If M. de Meaux has any further
document or proof to allege against me, I intreat
him not to make it a half secret, which is worse than
an open publication. I conjure him to send it to
Rome. Thank God, I have no fear of anything that
can be communicated and judicially examined. I
can only be uneasy as to vague rumours and allega
tions which are not investigated. If he thinks me so
hypocritical and impious as to find no safety for the
Church or himself without defaming me, let him use
all his testimony, not in libels, but in judicial proceed
ings. For myself, I must here call to witness Him
Whose Eyes penetrate the thickest darkness, and before
Whom we shall all soon appear — He Who reads my
heart knows that I hold neither to any person or any
exemplaire au Cardinal de Bouillon, et Je lendemain il le dis-
tribua dans Rome." — p. 571-
So much for no one being allowed to see it ! One wonders
how the Cardinals and other personages tolerated the Abbe
Bossuet's impertinences (see p. 567, etc.).

RE A CTION A T ROME. 437
book ; that I am bound only to Him and to His
Church ; that I ask continually with many a sigh
before His Presence for restored peace, and an end
to these days of scandal ; I ask Him to restore His
shepherds to their flocks, to gather them together in
His fold, and to grant to M. de Meaux as many bless
ings as he has showered crosses upon me."
The reaction was powerful both in Paris and Rome.
The Abbe de Chanterac describes how he himself had
felt very much depressed "while sitting under his
juniper tree," but now that the truth was known, and
that Fenelon had spoken out, he was perfectly con
tent and at rest as to the future. The Pope gave de
Chanterac a very cordial reception when he took the
Reponse to the Vatican, and he met with the like
from all the Cardinals and most eminent ecclesiastical
personages in Rome. Even de Noailles and the
Bishop of Chartres, feeling that they had been led on
further than they meant to go by Bossuet's urgency,
would fain have drawn towards Fenelon again, but it
seems as if Bossuet had discovered and hindered the
intention. Meanwhile, stung at the effect on the
public mind of Fenelon's Reponse, the Bishop of
Meaux hastened to produce a new work, " Remarques
sur la Reponse a la Relation,"1 and to this Fenelon
1 CEuvres, vol. xx. p. 173. "Les Jesuites triomphent de la
Reponse de M. de Cambrai a votre Relation. Ils repandent la-

438 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
replied in a pamphlet which strengthened the im
pression made by his first answer. The Cardinal de
Bouillon unhesitatingly pronounced it "le plus grand
effort de l'esprit humain." The Abbe Bossuet must
have been altogether terrass'e — and the virulence and
fury of his language intensifies. On November 25th he
wrote to his uncle : " His (Fenelon's) partisans make
great capital of this work against you. . . . He must be
followed in all his windings, and no means of escape
be left him ! He is a wild beast1 who must be pur
sued, for the sak e of truth and of the Episcopate, till
he is disarmed, and put beyond the power of doing
harm. . . . Did not S. Augustin pursue Julian to the
death ? ... In order to deliver the Church from the
greatest enemy she has ever had, I think in all con
science that neither the Bishops nor the King should
give M. de Cambrai any rest. . . . It is of the very
utmost consequence that you should make the Nuncio
and the King understand how important it is not to
let M. de Cambrai have the last word (ecrire le
dessus, comme une verite constante, que le roi est entierement
revenu pour M. de Cambrai, qu'il a reconnu les emportements
des eveques, qu'il a retabli les pensions de ce prelat, que c'est
vtoi qui pais courir tous les faux bruits," etc. — p. 583. This last
was probably true !
' " C'est une bete feroce qu'il faut poursuivre jusqu'k ce qu'on
l'ait desarmee et mise hors d'etat de faire aucun mal." — Vol.
xxx. p. 113.

PERE LA COMBE. 439
dernier), but go on pursuing him continually." And
again : "If you do not make haste, it will all be use
less."1 In spite of this urgent advice, Bossuet ceased from
that time to urge facts : though he published some fur
ther pamphlets.2 The Bishop of Chartres published a
Pastoral Instruction in June 1698, to which Fenelon
wrote a reply — and as a specimen of the annoyances
and difficulties which beset him, a packet of 700
copies of this reply sent to Paris was ordered to be
seized by the police. Henceforth, however, there
was no further mention made of Madame Guyon or
Pfere la Combe. The Abbe Bossuet had indefatigably
worked up stories against the morality of these two
persons ; and, as has been said before, la Combe's
letters were foolish and indiscreet. Now he was
either induced to write letters which might be taken
as telling against his own morals, or they were written
for him. But the poor man had gone completely ou<
of his mind during his ten years' imprisonment at
Lourdes, and when he was moved to Vincennes,
whence he was made to write to Madame Guyon,
urging her to confess their past sins and to repent, he
was so obviously mad, that Madame Guyon's worst
enemies could not plead such an authority, though
they seem to have persisted in believing the facts
' Vol. xxx. p. 10. * See CEuvres, vol. xx.

440 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
against her,' and la Combe was sent to the lunatic
asylum at Charenton, where he died the year following.
Bossuet tried to induce de Noailles and the Bishop
of Chartres to write against Fenelon, but they utterly
declined entering any more into the seemingly inter
minable war of words.
At length, September 25, 1698, after sixty-four
sittings, at many of which the Pope himself had been
present, the examination of Fenelon's book at Rome
came to an end. Five of the ten Censors pronounced
that the "Maximes des Saints" deserved no censure
whatever: — the other five, decided that it contained
sundry reprehensible propositions. After all the pres
sure put upon Innocent XII. by the French Court,
he was now obliged to refer the final decision to the
congregation of Cardinals of the Santo Uffizio.
The Abbe Bossuet must have been wild with rage
and despair ! He immediately suggested to his uncle
and de Noailles that they should get a censure of the
book out first, which might influence the Cardinals.
Accordingly a censure, condemning twelve proposi
tions taken from the Maximes, subject to certain
qualifications, and signed by sixty Sorbonne doctors,
was published at Paris.2 This censure was drawn up
' Vie de Fenelon, De Bausset, vol. ii. p. 92.
2 This censure is printed in CEuvres de Bossuet, vol. xxx. p.
Oi. Bossuet says of it, writing to his nephew : "La censure de
nos docteurs est assurement trop foible. " — Ibid, p . 249.

BOSSUET'S VIOLENCE. 441
by Pirot, who had revised the book himself, and pro
nounced it " correct and useful, and worth its weight
in gold ! " De Noailles found himself in some trouble
for having allowed such a dogmatic expression as this
censure to have been vented concerning a matter on
which judgment at Rome was pending.
Bossuet had now reached that point in his opposi
tion to Fenelon when a man knows not how to stop,
and he induced Louis XIV. to write a letter to the
Pope, pleading for, almost demanding, the Arch
bishop's condemnation.' This was accompanied by a
1 The letter was probably Bossuet's own composition. It is
as follows : — "Dec. 23, 1698.
"Tres Saint Pere, — Dans le temps qtte j'esperoisde l'amitie et
du zele de Votre Saintete une prompte decision sur le livre de
l'Archeveque de Cambrai, je ne puis apprendre sans douleur que
ce jugement, si necessaire a lapaix de 1'Eglise, est encore retarde
par les artifices de ceux qui croient trouver leur interSt k le dif-
ferer. Je vois si clairement les suites facheuses de ces delais, que
je croirois ne pas soutenir dignement le titre de fils aine de 1'Eglise,
si j e ne reiterois les instances pressantes que j 'ai faites tant de fois
a Votre Saintete, et si je ne la suppliois d'apaiser enfin les troubles
que ce livre a excites dans les consciences. On ne peut attendre
presentement ce repos que de la decision prononcee par le Pere
Commun, mais claire, nette, et qui ne puisse recevoir de fausses
interpretations; telle enfin qu'il convient qu'elle soit, pour ne
laisser aucun doute sur la doctrine et pour arracher entierement
la racine du mal. Je demande, Tres Saint Pere, cette decision a
Votre Beatitude, pour le bien de 1'Eglise, pour la tranquillite des
fideles, et pour la propre gloire de Votre Saintete. Elle salt

442 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
very harsh letter to Cardinal Bouillon (on whom the
Abbe Bossuet lavished abuse), making him almost
responsible for the desired condemnation. One
further stroke of vengeance remained to carry out.
On Jan. i, 1649, Louis XIV. with his own hand struck
Fenelon's name from off the young princes' household,
taking away his title of Preceptor, his apartments be
longing to the office, and his salary. Did Louis XIV.
think that the man who offered to give up that salary
for the King's need four years earlier would grieve
sorely over such a deprivation? The amiable Abbe de
Bossuet only mourned that the Due de Beauvilliers
was not likewise dismissed, and he told his uncle that
it was " very dangerous" not to get rid of him too.
The Congregation of Cardinals was working briskly,
considering their dignity and their other employ
ments. They held ten sittings between Nov. 19th and
Dec. 15th, but that fidgetty torment the Abbe Bossuet
was perpetually goading on the poor men, and corrf-
plaining of their tardiness, worrying the Pope with his
visits and impertinent suggestions and instructions,
which he seems to have thought very edifying to His
combien j'y suis sensible, et combien je suis persuade de sa ten-
dresse paternelle. J'ajouterai a tant de grands motifs qui la
doivent determiner, la consideration que je la prie de faire de
mes instances et du respect filial avec lequel je suis, Tres Saint
Pere, votre tres devot fils, Louis."
~-Vol. xxx. p. 170.

PRESSURE FROM LOUIS XIV. 443

Holiness,1 and working like the "moles" he accuses
of acting against France,2 to undermine Fenelon,
Cardinal Bouillon, and every one who clashed with his
own petty interests or views. De Chanterac wrote to
Fenelon, Jan. 9, 1699 : — "I am told that it is impos
sible for Rome to resist the constant pressure made
against you by the Court of France. The King urges
not merely a speedy decision, but he demands in pre
cise terms the condemnation of your book as necessary
to the peace and well-being of the State. It seems at
present that the majority of the Cardinals are prepared
to condemn the book owing to the impression raised
by the Court of France on the subject of Quietism.
. . . Although the doctrine be not bad, and the ex
pressions used are to be justified as having been em
ployed byrecognised and saintly authors, under existing
circumstances it is thought that Rome will condemn
the book in order to appease all this strife, and bring
about peace. ... I must own that my faith grows
1 "Le Pape fut frappe de mes observations." — Vol. xxx.
p. 12.
" Je m'appercus que tout cet expose faisoit grande impression
sur l'esprit du Pape. " — Ibid.
" II est necessaire que j'instruise les Cardinaux." — p. 17.
" Je puis assurer que le Pape prendra un bon parti si l'on ne
gate rien. Jy aurai ceil, et presque toutes les semaines je trou-
verai quelque occasion de l'entretenir et de lui parler fortement."
— p. 26.
2 P- 47-

444 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
stronger at the sight of so many persons of known
piety and sound doctrine, who see further than I do
into our matter, and appreciate its dangers more fully,
and who yet are quite unshaken in their conviction
that God will never suffer pure love or perfect dis
interestedness to be confused with enor and illusion.
Your sufferings will be blessed if they serve to defend
true charity. It fills me with joy to think that in it
we are united for time and for eternity."1
Fenelon's reply is in the same tone — calm, peaceful,
loving, confident in God only — ready, "come what
may, to adore, love, and bless Him Who can do all
things, and for Whom I gladly bear my cross."
The Pope was greatly distracted. He could not
help having the highest opinion cf Fenelon, and he
probably would have been glad to see him acquitted
But it was very difficult to resist the pressure put on
him by Louis XIV., and to expose himself to a new
collision with the Gallican Church, with whom Rome
had been so recently on unsatisfactory terms. At last
the Cardinals decided that there were twenty-three
reprehensible propositions in the " Maximes ;'' but
they differed as to whether these should be individually
censured or only generally alluded to. This final
point was left to His Holiness to determine, and, on
' MS. Letters, quoted by Cardinal de Bausset, VU, vol. ii.
P- '55-

FURTHER INTRIGUES. 445
Feb. 24, 1699, he appointed three Cardinals, Noris,
Fenari, and Albani, to draw up the decree — three
able men and practical theologians. The Pope
pointedly excluded Cardinal Casanati, because he
was intimate with the Abbe Bossuet, and His Holiness
wished every possible consideration to be shown to
Fenelon. However, Cardinal Albani pressed for his
colleague's participation, and Innocent yielded to him,
though doubtless the Abbe thought it was his work,
for he wrote to his uncle, March 1, r699, "that his
surprise and grief on hearing of this belle affaire " were
boundless, and he went off to importune the poor
Pope on the subject and teli him his duty.1 In spite
of his officious self-appointed monitor, His Holiness
took a step which the indignant Abbe Bossuet charac-
' " Je crus devoir representer moi-meme au Pape les inconveni-
ens d'une telle resolution, le tort qu'il se faisoit dans une affaire
de cette importance, de ne pas appeller un ancien Cardinal, etc.
..." The Abbe must have had a suspicion that he was not
always acceptable to the Pope, for in the same letter he says,
speaking of Cardinal Spada, that he "avoit peur que le Pape
n'eut encore plus d'eloignement pour ce Cardinal, s'il m'avoit vu
lui parler. " Poor Innocent !
" On parla au Pape de tous les c6tes, et quoique sa Saintete
eut repondu aux premiers qui lui parlerent du Cardinal Casanati :
' O ! per questo non lo vogliamo ! ' neanmoins hier matin il se
rendit. C'est un grand coup, dont le Cardinal de Bouillon est au
desespoir. . . . Je suis en repos depuis que je sais que le Car
dinal Casanati est admis. Tout itoil d craindre autrcmcnt." —
Vol. xxx. p. 273.

446 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
terises as "a step which no Pope ever took before !" '
— i.e., he " sent an Assessor and a Commissary round
to all the Cardinals, enjoining them to deal gently
with M. de Cambrai — that is to say, to spare him in
all that is not essential ; in short, after a fashion which
gives it to be understood that it will give His Holiness
pleasure if he is not roughly handled. Faites la-dessus
toutes les reflexions que vous voudrez /" Of course the
Abbe determined to go " a la pointe du jour de demain"
to point out to his much-perplexed Holiness how very
wrong he was ! " I shall see what he has got to say,
and thereupon I shall speak to him appropriately, with
all the due respect, in which I never have failed and
never will fail. Avec cela, tout est a craindre du Pape/""
How Innocent must have longed for the whole busi
ness to be at an end, if only to get rid of his perpetual
impertinent tormentor, who went on to the last, as his
letters prove, the same irritating, malicious, con
temptible person as at the first.
The first three Cardinals had already agreed that
the decree should be in the shape of an ordinary brief,
and not a bull ; that it should affirm that the Pope did
not intend to condemn the explanations of the author
(non intendimus improbare explications auctoris), and
that one point, already mentioned as arising from a
1 " Un pas que jamais Pape n'a fait." — Vol. xxx. p. 288.
" p. 2S8.

THE DECREE. 447

mistake, should be spoken of as " quam tamen propo-
sitionem negat auctor esse suam;" and the name both
of book and author were intentionally omitted. But
directly that Casanati got entrance, he insisted on
oversetting all these acts of justice, and when the
others demurred, the Abbe Bossuet's champion posi
tively refused to sign the decree unless he got his own
way. Weary of it all, Innocent called an extraordinary
Congregation of Cardinals, March 3, 1699, in which
the vehemence of Casanati prevailed, and the Abbe
was able to chant his pasan to his uncle : " Truth has
triumphed at last. Yesterday the decree was con
firmed in the presence of His Holiness, who signed it.
The bull is being printed at this moment. God be
praised." ' And he goes on viciously giving all detail
that can tend to throw obloquy or in any way depre
ciate the great, loving, patient Archbishop of Cam
brai.2 There was one bitter disappointment to be
endured : the Abbe says plaintively, " To make every
thing complete, I must confess we lack the qualifi
cation of heretic." And again in the same letter
he reiterates the lamentation : " // n'y a que Pheretique
qui manque'' 3 It was some consolation to him that

p. 302.
2 How far party bitterness led both the Bossuets can only b«
seen from their letters.
3 pp. 303-4.

448 BOSSUET IN CONTROVE IPSK
Casanati said it was not his fault that the thing was
not better and more efficaciously done, and the Abbe
cautiously adds that nothing of this sort must be told to
the King, or Madame de Maintenon or M. de Paris, "et
se contenter de ce qu'on a, qui au fond est suffisant" '
But the Abbe and his friends were not yet quite so
safe as they fondly imagined. The Pope still displayed
so decided a repugnance to condemn Fenelon, and
was so thoroughly imbued with respect and admiration
for him, and for the way in which he had met a per
secution (which indeed had won him universal rever
ence), that a fresh plan was devised, which met his
approval. Twelve canons were prepared, comprising
the doctrine of the Church as opposed to Molinos and
the Quietists, the promulgation of which it was thought
would maintain the truth without damaging the Arch
bishop of Cambrai ; and at the same time, his book
might be simply prohibited, not condemned. The
Abbe Bossuet exclaimed that all was lost, and bade
his uncle urge the King of France to write to Rome
in the most imperious terms as to this measure. This
was done. No one familiar with the Bishop of Meaux'
style can for a moment doubt that he was the author
of the Memoire" fulminated against the proposal to
avoid a condemnation of Fenelon's book.
1 p. 3".
2 CEuvres, vol. xxx. p. 319. In a letter to his nephew Bossuet

THREATS FROM LOUIS XIV. 449
" His Majesty has heard with astonishment and
grief" (so it says), " that, after all his urgency, and
after the many promises of His Holiness, repeated
through his Nuncio, that a precise decision should cut
vigorously at the root of the evil caused throughout
his kingdom by the Archbishop of Cambrai's book-
now when everything seemed to be concluded, and
when this book is acknowledged to be full of errors by
all the Cardinals and by the Pope himself, its partisans
should bring forward a fresh project which would
render all past deliberations useless, and renew the
whole dispute." The document goes on to dissect
and demolish the proposal, — winding up with a threat
that if the Pontiff should actually fall into " such
grievous weakness," His Majesty would " neither
receive nor authorise in his kingdom anything but what
he had asked, and what had been promised him, —
namely, a clear and precise judgment" (i.e. condem
nation) " of the book which has thrown his kingdom
into a state of combustion." The letter winds up with
the significant threat : " If His Majesty sees the
matter, which he believed at an end, prolonged by
wiles which he does not understand, he will know
what it beseems him to do, and will take des resolutions
acknowledges that he wrote the letter. " Je vous envoie le me
moire que nous avons dresse, par oil vous verrez les raisons dont
il (le Roi) a ete touche. II lui a ete donne ce matin."— p. 313.
2 F

45° BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
convenablcs, although meanwhile he hopes that His Holi
ness will not reduce him to such grievous extremities."
However, before this piece of dictation from his
" eldest son" reached Innocent XII., the matter was
already decided. The Cardinals hesitated about draw
ing up canons, and Casanati overthrew the project,
partly by threatening his colleagues with the vengeance
of France, aroused by the three prelates who had so
much weight in her Church and Court, and who were
such determined enemies of the Archbishop of Cam
brai. The Pope was sorely annoyed at the rejection
of his project, but he had not courage, perhaps not
power, to withstand the stream ; and on Thursday,
March 12, 1699, the brief of condemnation was read
in the Chapel of Monte Cavallo, before the Congre
gation of the Santo Uffizio, and the Pope signed it
That same day it was published, and posted in the
principal quarters of Rome. The courier sent b)
Cardinal de Bouillon to Louis with the important
brief, arrived at Versailles before mid-day on March 22,
and Bossuet received it a few hours later. The mes
senger sent by his nephew did not arrive till the
following night. The Bishop of Meaux proceeded to
Versailles, and concerted all further measures with
the King. His own Secretary says that all the world
spoke of it as " M. de Meaux having gained his suit
at Rome against M. de Cambrai."

BRIEF OF CONDEMNATION. 45 «
And so was accomplished the work which had lain
so near the heart of the great Bishop of Meaux and of
his infinitely small nephew — and the noble Fenelon
was condemned. What has been the result ? That
while the name of the nephew is simply remembered
at all by reason of the odium with which he has
covered himself (his own letters are the witnesses
against him, no extraneous evidence) in the matter,
Bossuet, the great Bishop, has drawn around him a
cloud, which his profoundest admirers must feel to be
dark and gloomy ; — the shadow cast over a life spent
to God's Glory and the Church's service, is his bitter,
unrelenting persecution of Fenelon, and the success
which called forth all his triumph is the climax
which draws the last remains of the sympathy of pos
terity from him to his victim.
To the last Bossuet was fearful lest his desired
triumph should fail ; — he could not disguise to himself
the strong consideration in which Fenelon was held.
On March 16, he wrote petulantly to his nephew:
"For my part I cannot understand the indulgence
shown to M. de Cambrai, who seems to be looked
upon as so terrible or so considerable that anything is
to be risked rather than fail to stamp him as he de
serves. . . . One would suppose that M. de Cambrai
is the only Bishop of the Church whose wisdom and
piety are to be considered ! The Archbishop of Paris

452 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
seems to be reckoned as nobody, . . . though he has
under him more learned men perhaps than can be
found in all the rest of Christendom ! . . . Why, is
M. de Cambrai, who with his haughty character
thinks to dazzle the world by his clever ways of
excusing himself, to be prefened to him ? " '
The tone of triumph of De Noailles and Bossuet
in Paris, Phelippeaux and his colleague the Abbe
Bossuet in Rome, is unseemly, to say the least;2
though through the triumph Bossuet lets appear a
desire that the condemnation had been more emphatic
and humiliating :
" It is useless to talk any more about the brief," he
writes, April 12. "It must be accepted as it is, and
the most possible made of it. 3 We think this wiser
than to begin fresh negotiations, and run the risk
of perhaps seeing the judgment made less strong by
striving to get it improved." Pfere Roslet, de Noailles'
1 Vol. xxx. p. 315.
2 De Noailles wrote to the Abbe Bossuet, March 24, 1699 : —
"Je ne ferai que me rejouir avec vous de l'heureux succes
de vos travaux : je suis ravi de l'avantage que 1'Eglise y trouve,
et j'ai en me'me temps une fort grande joie de l'honneur qui vous
en revient. En demeurera-t-on au bref, n'aurons nous point une
bulle ? . . . mais nous avons toujours l'essentiel, et c'est beau
coup. Je n'ai point encore vu M. de Meaux depuis cette bonne
nouvelle. . . . JefinisenvousassurantMonsieur,delapartqueje
prends k votre joie et k votre gloire dans cette affaire, " etc. — p-337-
3 " Et on lefera valoir du mieux qu'il sera possible." — p. 374.

DE CHANTERAC ANNOUNCES IT. 453
agent at Rome, wrote him word that he considered
their success as nothing short of a miracle — adding,
" C'est en verite beaucoup que l'on ait obtenu cette
decision." It is like turning from the din and darkness of a
hailstorm to the pure calm light of a summer's even
ing, to pass from these eager partisans to Fenelon's
letters and those of his faithful friend de Chanterac.
There is an absence of vituperation in the language
of the latter throughout which puts him into very
favourable contrast with the Abbe Bossuet His letter
to Fenelon when the last step had been taken is worthy
of a faithful and devoted agent such as he was : —
"March 14, 1699.
" Now the time is come, Monseigneur, to practise
all which religion has taught you as most holy and in
perfect conformity to the Will of God. Now is the
time, if I may presume to say so, both for yourself
and for all belonging to you, to be obedient to Jesus
Christ unto death, to the death of the Cross, so that
they who live should no longer live unto themselves.
You will stand in need of all your piety and all the
submission which you have so often promised to the
Pope in your letters, now to possess your soul in
patience, when you read the brief which he has
published against your book. It were useless to

454 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
detail various circumstances which have accompanied
this decision, and which would only make it more
painful to you. The zeal of some individuals went
so far as to make them think they were doing service
to God by striving to obtain harsher and more
emphatic verdicts against you, and the Pope felt that
he was doing much in your behalf by resisting them.
It was thought well that I should see him, both to
assure him of your submission to his judgment and
of other things. What a difference there is between
what he said in private and what his brief sets forth
to the public !
"Not all of us together appear so grieved as he
alone does at the pain you must feel at his judgment ;
he looks so ill you would scarce know him. He
repeated several times that he • knew you to be a
great Archbishop, very pious, very holy, very learned:
piissimo, santissimo, dottissimo; — they were his words,
for he spoke Italian. I will not tell you what I said
in reply.
"All your friends, Monseigneur, think that you should
receive this brief with perfect submission, simply and
sincerely as you have promised to do ; and they are
convinced that the more simple that submission is seen
to be, the more acceptable it will be in the eyes of God
and man. One would imagine that our Lord designs
you to edify the whole Church by your submission, as

EXAMPLE OF SUBMISSION. 455
much as some would fain make out that you have
scandalised it by your book. Your example will give
a higher idea of the perfection of Christian virtue
than all the holiest religious utterances you could pro
nounce. I have not hesitated to affirm that you will
fulfil all your promises thoroughly, because I have
never been able to forget the touching words I have
repeatedly heard you say — 'I think nothing of my
self or my book ;' and I know how you have striven
throughout to look to the Author and Finisher of the
faith, Who, solely in order to give God Glory, bore
His Cross, despising the shame. At the present
moment, Monseigneur, it seems to me that Jesus
Christ nailed to the Cross, exposed to the judgment
of men, and forsaken of His Father, is the Example
set before you for imitation, the mind which the Holy
Spirit would form in you. It is chiefly in such circum
stances as those in which Providence now places you
that the just man lives by faith, and wherein we need
to be rooted and built up in the Love of Jesus Christ.
Who can separate us from that? I never felt so
closely bound to you for all eternity. I feel very near
to you, and it is a consolation to me to abide firmly
and calmly at the foot of your cross, and thus give
public token of the confidence I have always had in
your piety." ' Vie, vol. ii. p. 171.

456 BOSSUE T IN CONTROVERS Y.
De Chanterac was not the first to convey the blow
to Fenelon. His brother travelled at once as fast as
he could go by post with the tidings, and reached
Cambrai on the festival of the Annunciation, just as
Fe'nelon was about to preach in his cathedral. It was
not possible for any one possessed of human feelings
and susceptibilities, however saintly, to receive such
tidings wholly unmoved, but with an absence of self-
seeking and pride in beautiful harmony with his usual
character, the Archbishop only paused for a few
moments of recollection, and then proceeded to preach,
changing the plan of his sermon, and preaching on
the subject of entire submission to authority. His
calmness and grand simplicity riveted his congrega
tion, and tears of sympathy, mingled with admiration
and veneration, fell fast from many eyes.1
The Archbishop kept all his promises of submission
to the full. He wrote at once to de Chanterac to say
that he only waited to receive the bull in order to
make his act of submission, which he would try to
frame as simply and briefly as possible. " The cus-
1 One would have liked Bossuet, to whose ears these facts
travelled, to have repeated them after a more generous fashion.
He says, in a letter to his nephew from Versailles, March 30,
1699 : " II a appris sa condemnation le 25, deux heures avant le
sermon qu'il devoit faire, et il a tourne son sermon, sans rien
specifier, sur la soumission aveugle qui etoit due aux Superieurs
et aux ordres de la Providence. "—CEuvres, vol. xxx. p. 348.

FENELON'S HUMILITY. 457
torn of France — any violation of which would be
treated as an unpardonable crime — will not allow me
to publish my submission until the brief has been
registered by parliament. In this and in all my pro
ceedings I wish to show what I sincerely feel, namely,
that I have no resentment in my heart, but a sincere
respect for the Holy See, and an unrestricted sub
mission to its judgment, however rigorous that may
seem. My intention is (1) to give sincere submission
to Rome from purely religious motives ; (2) not to
think of taking any steps in consequence ; (3) ear
nestly to seek not to offend the King any further, and
to take no measures which can make him suspicious
of me ; (4) to give every possible proof that I feel no
wounded pride or resentment towards my opponents,
yet without ever allowing any doubt as to the purity
of my opinions in order to conciliate them, on which
point I can allow no manner of negotiation. Short of
that I am ready to meet them half-way without any re
pugnance, and in the most humble and pacific spirit"
While Bossuet and his party were affecting to
suppose that the Archbishop of Cambrai would try to
elude his sentence, Fe'nelon was only hastening the
process of cheerfully accepting it. He wrote to de
Barbezieux, the Secretary of State, to know whether
the King would permit him to acknowledge the brief
before it was registered by parliament ? It was not

458 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
till the erid of a week that he received the ungracious
answer that the King said " he could not too soon
make an end of the disagreeable business alluded to."
Even before this Fenelon had privately expressed his
sincere submission to the Pope through de Chanterac,
and his manly simplicity and absence of self-con
sciousness won him the hearts of all capable of appre
ciating such rare qualities. His Suffragan, the Bishop
of Anas, wrote to express respect and sympathy, and
Fenelon replied in the same tone of peaceful dignity :
" My Superior, by his decision, frees my conscience ;
I have nothing to do but to submit, to be silent, and
bear my cross. May I venture to say to you that this
is a position full of comfort to an upright roan, who
does not cling to the world, and only wishes to look
to God ? " After explaining the reason of his act of
submission being delayed, the Archbishop adds :
" Doubtless it costs one somewhat to humble one's self,
but the slightest resistance would cost me much more,
and I must own I do not see any room for hesitation
in such a case. One may suffer, but one cannot
doubt for one moment"'
The act of submission was in strict accordance with
these expressions, and so was his letter to the Pope.
No one but a bitter partisan blinded by passion could
have felt as the Abbe Bossuet affirmed he did, " not
1 VU, vol. ii. p. 176.

PUBLIC OPINION. 459
edified, but scandalised to the last degree at the pride
and venom of it."1 Bossuet, of whom one might have
expected a larger, more liberal view, writes in a hard,
ungenerous tone of his defeated rival's act of sub
mission;2 but throughout France, Rome, and indeed
Christendom, a very different view was taken, and
the mandement has received but one verdict from
posterity.3 The Bishop of Chartres had the grace to
write and express his admiration of the " humble and
generous" way in which Fenelon had submitted.
De Noailles kept silence, probably as usual afraid of
the Bishop of Meaux, who made a sort of lame apology
to the Due de Beauvilliers for having been supposed
to question the sincerity of Fenelon's submission.
The Duke wrote to Fenelon conveying the message,
and Fenelon answered characteristically. In his an
swer he says, " Sometimes I am obliged to laugh at
' We have nearly done with this odious man, but to the last
let him convict himself: "Je vous avoue qu'au lieu d'en etre
edifie, j'en fus scandalise au dernier point. II ne me fut pas
difficile d'en decouvrir tout l'orgueil et tout le venin, et il me
semble qu'il n'y a qu'k la lire sans passion pour en etre indigne.
Bien loin d'y trouver M. de Cambrai humilie, repentant, et
console de sortir enfin de ses tenebres pour decouvrir la lumiere,
on y voit un homme outre de douleur, qui en fait gloire, qui se
donne pour innocent. . . . On voit bien ce qu'on doit penser de
sa soumission, qui ne peut-kre que forcie : voila franchement ce
que j'en pense." — CEuvres, vol. xxx. p. 413.
2 Ibid. p. 386.
3 See Me"moires du ChancellUr d'Aguesseau, vol. x'ii. p. 181.

460 BOSSUE T IN CONTRO VERS Y.
the fear some zealous people testify lest I should not be
able to make up my mind to submit. By such as these
I am bothered by long exhortations to submission, all
about the glory I shall find in humiliation, and the
heroism of the act. All this is rather wearisome, and
I am tempted to say to myself, What ever have I
done to all these people to make them fancy that I
should find it so difficult to put the authority of the
Holy See before my own poor light, or prefer the
peace of the Church to my book ? Still, no doubt
they are quite right in believing me to be full of im
perfection and dislike to humble myself, and so I will
readily forgive them, and even be grateful for their
fears and exhortations."1
The Archbishop of Cambrai's act of submission
was formally presented to the Pope and the Sacred
College, and made a most favourable impression at
Rome. The Cardinals unanimously invited the Pope
to reply in honourable terms to it, and Innocent,
rejoiced to be able thus to express his own feelings,
commissioned Cardinal Albani to draw up a brief
conveying a flattering expression of respect and
esteem for Fenelon. But once again that busybody,
the Abbe Bossuet, contrived to exercise his malicious
energy,2 and to frighten the timid Court of Rome as
to what Louis XIV. and his powerful prelates might
' VU, vol. ii. p. 185. 2 CEuvres, vol. xxx. p. 342.

FENELON'S PATIENCE. 46 1
do if it affronted their vengeance. While the Bossuets
were thus striving to prevent any softening to the
blow from Rome, Fenelon himself was actually doing
the same thing ! He wrote to de Chanterac " not to
seek any commendations or good offices from the
Pope for me. If my patience, my example, and my
instructions do not uphold me with my flock, empty
praises will certainly not do so. My reputation does
not want a brief lauding my submission, — I do not
think it is damaged among neutral parties. All this
diocese seems well disposed towards me, and satisfied
with what I have done. Moreover, I think that one
should leave one's self in God's Hands when He sees
fit to humble one ; so I will not have you take the
smallest step in order to obtain a brief with any kind
of encomium of my submission."1
In another letter Fenelon says :
" My health keeps good, and my peace of mind too,
amid all my troubles. Keep well, my dear Abbe ; if
I were to lose you my cross would be too heavy for
my weakness. God knows how much I owe Him for
giving you to me; you have done a hundredfold more
for me than I could have ventured to expect. God has
permitted us to fail, but He knows how to work out
His Own Glory from our failure, and what else need
we wish?" 1 April 11, 1699.

462 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
All national formalities were carried through, the
Pope's brief was duly registered, and in 1700 the
Assembly of Clergy, meeting at Saint-Germain-en-Laye,
refened to the subject' Bossuet was chosen as pre
sident of the Commission empowered to treat of it;
and, after all the bitterness and irritation of the past
few years, it is consoling to find the Bishop of Meaux
using more moderate language, and apparently in
greater charity with his former friend. He even spoke
more favourably of Madame Guyon, practically ac
knowledging her to be innocent, while she, poor woman,
was still a prisoner in the Bastille, where she remained
yet another year, after which she was released and
sent to her daughter, Mme. de Vaux, who lived near
Blois. There she spent the remainder of her life,
without murmuring at the persecutions she had en
dured, or giving any fresh cause for interference with
her liberty. She died at Blois, June 9, 17 17.
After the Assembly little more was said or done
publicly concerning the controversy which had so
engrossed the world of late. There could be no ques-
1 The Pope did finally write a brief to Fenelon — Cardinal
Albani having pressed upon him the indignity of allowing himself
to be snubbed and dictated to by France in such a matter — but
the letter was so feeble and so watered down that, while it
greatly aggravated his enemies, it would not give any very deep
satisfaction to the recipient. — See De Bausset, vol. ii. p. 192. The
Cardinals, with one exception, i.e. Casanati, expressed thems Ives
in strong terms of sympathy and approbation for Fenelon.

FINAL ESTRANGEMENT OF BOSSUET. 463

tion that Fenelon, although formally defeated, was the
real victor in the fray. He never spoke of himself,
however, in respect of the matter save as asserting his
submission, and one cannot question his entire forgive
ness of any who he felt had wronged him. M. de Ram
say, as he is called — a Scotchman who lived in close
intimacy with Fenelon — says that the Archbishop fre
quently spoke with admiration of Bossuet's great talents
and his noble works. On one occasion some person
showed a certain hesitation in mentioning his former
rival before the Archbishop of Cambrai, who imme
diately expressed himself as hurt by such a reserve.
" What notion can you have of me," he exclaimed,
" if you are afraid to speak in my presence of a man
whose genius and vast knowledge will do honour for
all time to his age and his country, as well as to our
profession and to all religion !"
One would so thankfully have had to record that
the estrangement was blotted out, and that before the
venerable Bishop of Meaux' death the two friends had
been once more visibly re-united in their common love
for their Lord and His Church, as in heart's forgive
ness and prayer before the Altar one cannot doubt
that such men really were. But there is no record of
their having ever met or exchanged any kindly expres
sions again. Fenelon remained, immersed in the
duties of his diocese, wholly estranged from Court.

464 BOSSUET IN CONTROVERSY.
Cardinal de Noailles, Archbishop of Paris — who must
always have felt that he had played a very weak part,
not to say a treacherous one, by Fenelon — did not
wish to see his influence at Court restored ; and the
Bishop of Chartres, who made some overtures for
reconciliation through Hebert, the Cure of Versailles,
did not go on with them : * and no sign was offered by
Bossuet that can be traced, except that, after his death,
Madame de Maisonfort, writing to Fenelon, says : " I
used often to ask God to re-unite you, and the journey
which the Abbe de Saint Andre made to Flanders, at
M. de Meaux' request, shows the sincere desire he had
for a reconciliation. " 2 Saint Andre was one of Bossuet's
ecclesiastics, and greatly in his confidence. Winslow,
a converted Lutheran and a friend of Saint Andre's,
records that, after a conversation which had taken place
at Germigny in 1699, between Bossuet and the Abbe
Benier concerning Fenelon, Saint Andre, who had
been a friend of that prelate also, offered to go to
Cambrai as a mediator, but that Bossuet answered
"the time had not yet come." Two months later,
being in Paris, Bossuet reminded Saint Andre of this
conversation, and asked if he remembered offering to
go to Arras ? The Abbe assented. " Then go now,
and you will gratify me very much," Bossuet said.
1 VU de Fenelon, vol. iii. p. 5.
" MS. letter, quoted by Cardinal de Bausset, Pie, vol. ii. p. 216.

ABBE SAINT ANDRE. 465
Winslow further reported that Saint Andre was taken
ill during the journey, and so failed to see Fenelon ! '
If all this was conect, and he really had some
friendly mission committed to him, it seems strange
that he should not have repeated the effort during the
next four years, or made it known to any one, if Bos
suet's death ultimately frustrated it; and one would
also think that some trace of such intention on Bossuet's
part would have crept out in the very minutely detailed
journals of his latter years, kept by the Abbe Le Dieu,
whose only mention of Fenelon's name during the
remainder of Bossuet's lifetime is in depreciation of
Teiemaque, which he describes Bossuet as criticising
severely, and not kindly.2
Sorrowfully and quietly let us draw a veil over the
close of this painful controversy, arising (oh, the hol-
lowness and emptiness of human undertakings !) out
of the doctrine of Pure Love ! — hoping and believing
that in the Unseen World, to which both Bishops have
so long passed, all differences and infirmities have
been blotted out, and the faults which over-eagerness
and human imperfection produced are washed out for
ever through the abundance of His Love, for Which,
however mistakenly, both combatants intended to fight.
' Hist. deBossuet, vol. iii. p. 350. 2 Journal, vol. ii. pp. 12-14,

2 G

466 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.

CHAPTER IX.
BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR AND SPIRITUAL
GUIDE.
His Penitents— Letters to a Lady at Metz — Madame
Cornuau — Direction — Retreats — Madame de Luynes
and Madame d'Albert — Letters to Madame Cornuau,
to Madame d'Albert, to Madame de Luynes, to
Madame de Mans, to Madame de la Guillaumie, to
the Ursuline Nuns at Meaux, to the Nuns of the
Congregation at Coulomnier, to a Nun — Bossuet's
Spiritual Correspondence generally.
AND now let us turn aside from the weary scenes
of controversy and strife, in which good and
earnest men have been waging war against one another
instead of against the great enemy of souls whom they
all desire to withstand, and, forgetting our griefs
against the public controversialist and opponent of
Fenelon, let us dwell awhile on the Bishop of Meaux
in his less conspicuous character of a guide of souls,
leading them one by one to seek their Lord and His
Kingdom with as much earnestness and devotion of his
great mental powers to this work as in the pulpit or
amid his literary toils. We know but little from exterior

MADAME CORNUAU. 467
sources of Bossuet's private work. The Due de Foix
is mentioned as one of his penitents by the Abbe Le
Dieu ;l and accidental allusions imply that there were
many others seeking his guidance, either because he
was celebrated and fashionable, or from being really
attracted by his piety. But there are few details and
no names recorded, and his ordinary letters are re
markably business-like and devoid of the mixture of
secular and religious matters, such as we often find in
the conespondence of other eminent ecclesiastics.
On the other hand, we have several collections of
distinctly spiritual letters, written to persons under his
guidance, in which other subjects do not intrude, and
which were preserved by those to whom they were
addressed as definite series of instructions.
The first of these series contains four letters ad
dressed to a " demoiselle de Metz," whose name is
not recorded, as early as 1662. The first three are
upon Divine Love and its effects, the fourth is on the
mystery of the Church's Unity.2
Another collection of letters on spiritual subjects,
written to a certain Madame Cornuau, remains to us.
This lady was early left a widow, with one child ; she
had a great desire to enter upon the religious life, but,
being necessary to her son, she contented herself with
retiring to la Ferte-sur-Jouarre, in the diocese of
1 Mimoires, vol. i. p. 93. 2 CEuvres, vol. xxvii. p. 204.

468 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.
Meaux, where, in r68r, she first became known to
Bossuet, who then came to visit the Community. Mme.
Cornuau has herself recorded that she was at that time
suffering from great interior trials and many conscien
tious perplexities, and she was thankful to consult the
Bishop, of whose tenderness, patience, and skilfulness
in manipulating her sorrowful soul she speaks fer
vently.1 " He could not have done more," she says,
" for one whose birth, intellect, grasp of mind and
goodness, had been worthy of his care." Sometimes
she said somewhat to this effect to Bossuet, who simply
silenced her, saying he " knew of nothing great in any
soul save the Divine image which God had stamped
upon it," and that he looked upon himself only as a
channel through which God dispensed such sustenance
as He saw fit to give each individual soul committed
to his care.2
During several years Mme. Cornuau had sufficiently
frequent opportunity of speaking to the Bishop not to
require letters, and their correspondence only began
1 See Lettres de la Saiur Cornuau au Cardinal di. Noailles,
CEuvres, vol. xxvii. p. 422.
3 Mme. Cornuau, dite Sceur de Sainte Benigne, died at Torcy,
August 27, 1708. Le Dieu, recording her death, says, "Elle
a laisse une infinite de paperasses sur le sujet de feu M. Bossuet,
Eveque de Meaux, autrefois son directeur, qu'elle a depuis ecrites
par l'ordre et le conseil de M. le Cardinal de Noailles qui lui
servoit aussi presentement de directeur." — Vol. iv. p. 190.

SYSTEM OF DIRECTION. 469
in 1686, after a general confession she had made,
which led to her wishing to have his written opinion
on certain points. One is tempted sometimes to
wonder at the patience with which so busy a man,
occupied not only with the multifarious duties of his
diocese, but with so many other pursuits, literary,
controversial, and ecclesiastical, yet wrote minute
criticisms and instructions for women living hidden
lives, on all manner of points, which often seem
merely remote or metaphysical, not to say sometimes
fanciful and far-fetched.
Mme. Cornuau gives some interesting particulars
respecting Bossuet's manner of direction, which seems
to have been, as one would be prepared to expect,
vigorous, manly, straightforward, and very decided.
He knew the value of his own time, and rated it
highly, as a busy man is wont to do. Yet he has
been known to give up as much as three hours at a
sitting to one general confession ; and when Mme.
Cornuau told him how certain persons had reproached
her for taking up his time in guiding her — time which
they said, might have been better spent — he answered,
" Allez, ma fillet tell them that they do not understand
a pastor's duties, for one of the foremost obligations of
a Bishop is the guidance of souls : it is because he
cannot do everything himself that he is obliged to de
volve a great deal of this work upon others, but he

470 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.
 3—  ¦¦
I ought to count himself happy when he is able to make
time to be the guide of some few himself."
Mme. Cornuau once remarked that she could not
think how he found time for all he had to do. " My
great object," Bossuet answered, "is not to let myself
get overwhelmed, not out of fearfulness, but because to
be overwhelmed involves excitement and hurry, which
are ill befitting the things of God. A man, especially
one of my ordinary calibre, could not fulfil his duty
unless he made it a rule to do each thing as it comes
before him quietly and carefully, assured that God,
Who lays so much work upon his feeble shoulders,
will not allow him to fail in anything that is necessary;
and when God's work is hindered by God's work he
may be sure that all will be well." '
" I do not agree," he writes, " with those who disap
prove of my occupying myself in direction. It is a part
of my commission — all that I heed is to take suitable
times for this work, so as to have enough for all my
other duties; and this once said, you will hold the
matter as settled." 2 And again: " You were wrong to
fear wearying me. So long as I have the time I give
it ungrudgingly and with pleasure. Such reserve causes
many an opportunity to be lost." 3
Mme. Cornuau must have been a trying corre-
1 CEuvres, vol. xxvii., Avertissement, p. 432.
2 Ibid., Lettre XIV. p. 464. 3 Ibid., Lettre XVI. p. 463,

CORRESPONDENCE. 471
spondent, for she falls back upon her scruples and
minute perplexities and fears of displeasing the Bishop
interminably. In one of her letters she tells him that
she finds that, unless he answers a query at once, he
rarely answers it at all ! but the patience with which
he repeats his answers is great. Sometimes the good
lady's sensitiveness does meet with a rebuke — e.g.,
" You must learn to accept my letters rightly, for
though in the main you do so, I have been sony to
see sometimes that they seem to produce a sort of dis
couragement, of which you yourself appear scarcely
sufficiently conscious, and then you fancy that you will
never correct any of your faults, and you talk of
diminishing your Communions. Nothing was farther
from my thoughts, and you are wrong to give way to
these mistrusts. Beware of making any change or of
keeping back your real mind, because your faults are
set before you. Instead of being downcast at the
sight of them you should set to work with fresh cour
age, if you wish to use my advice profitably. Again, I
think you carry your fear of displeasing me too far —
you misunderstand the sincerity which is due to the
souls for which one is responsible : one simply tells
them the plain truth without being in any sense dis
pleased with them." '
Once when Mme. Cornuau had expressed herself
1 Vol. xxvii., Lettre LXXXVIIL, p. 553.

472 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.
strongly as to the benefit she derived from his advice,
Bossuet answered, " Daughter, my words are none the
better because of these results. God blesses your
obedience, and He Whose representative I am makes
Himself felt. Do you long and sigh after Him, for
what is of man only will not reach men's hearts ; but
look at all I can do for you as coming from God, not
from me. Let yourself be filled by His holy truth,
which He imparts through His unworthy minister,
whom He vouchsafes to employ in such great matters.
My office makes me a canal through which His teach
ing flows to others; be it mine to fear lest I be nothing
more ! Anyhow, one must give again what one re
ceives, and strive to keep some precious drops one's
self. Ask that for me of the Heavenly Bridegroom." *
Sometimes his penitent could not help exclaiming
at the kind tenderness with which the Bishop bore her
failures and relapses; and then, she says, he would
answer, "God is good — He loves and forgives you,
how should I refuse to do so when He bears with me,
His unworthy minister?" And if she found it very
difficult to speak out things which humbled her, he
would say, " Alas, my daughter ! what are you afraid
of? you speak to your Father and to one who is a
greater sinner than you are !"
1 CEuvres, vol. xxvii., Avertissement de Mme. de Cornuau, p.
426.

ORDERING OF RETREATS. 473
Every year Bossuet used to, instruct this lady how
to keep her retreat, which seems to have been made
alone, and not with the Community among whom she
sojourned. His plan was to ascertain what her special
needs were, and what God required of her, and then
to leave her very much to the guidance of God's Holy
Spirit. He disapproved of too much instruction and
interference with a soul in these seasons of sacred
retirement, though he was quite ready to give such as
was really needful, and he carefully marked out pas
sages of Holy Scripture for meditation and study.
Thus on one occasion he writes : —
"The subject of your Retreat, my daughter, might
be the beauty of God's works in the seven days of
creation, as put forth in the Benedicite and the Psalm
' O praise the Lord of Heaven.' Consider what God
has done for man, and how He has made him an epi
tome of all His other works : seek to praise Him in
and for all creatures by making a good use of them
all, and so sanctifying them to God's Glory ; — a good
use of light and darkness, good use of rain and fine
weather, of storm and calm ; good use of fire and cold,
good use of everything that exists, and especially of
one's self, one's own eyes, tongue, hands and feet, and
whole body, — and even yet more of one's soul, of one's
intelligence where true light shines, of one's will
where the immortal and pure love of God should ever

474 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.
abide. Learn never to be put out or impatieit, what
ever discomfort may arise through creatures, whether
it be cold or heat, or any other thing, because all such,
irritation is really against God, Whose Will all things
work out, — 'wind and storm fulfilling His Word.'
Strive to fulfil it likewise, and be faithful to Him. It
is hard if we use the liberty He gives us only to break
loose from His laws ; — the object of that liberty is to
enable us to accept them the more heartily and volun
tarily. Meditate all this in Jesus Christ, Whose meat
was to do the Will of His Father in all things. The
detail I leave you to learn from the Holy Spirit.
Jesus be with you, my daughter, I bless you in His
Holy Name." '
Another time Bossuet tells Mme. Cornuau how to
read the first chapters of S. John, shewing the points
to be considered and their application, — e.g. chap. ii.
to ver. n, "Dwell upon the humiliation of the Blessed
Virgin, who seems at first sight to be repulsed by her
Son, but whose prayer is nevertheless granted. Strive
to understand that God's repulses are often graces,
and very great graces; never lose confidence; we must
aspire to change our water into wine, our languor
about God and all that concerns Him into a true
heavenly favour." "
For a Christmas Eve (1691) he points out foi her
1 Lettre V. p. 448. 2 Lettre XIX. p. 471.

BOSSUET AS A CONFESSOR. 475
meditation S. Luke ii. 34, 35; Isaiah xxviii. 16; 1 S.
Peter ii. 6, 7, 8 ; Rom. ix. 33 ; and S. Matt. xi. 6, and
bids her lift up her heart in the 89th Psalm.1
On other occasions, such as Mme. Cornuau's re
moval to a religious house,2 a coming Ascensiontide,3
etc., etc., he gives her a most carefully drawn-out
scheme of Psalms and passages of Holy Scripture,
together with the object and intention with which she
is to say and study them.
In common with many other great minds, capable
of containing many and weighty matters, Bossuet had
the faculty of giving himself absolutely and with fixed
attention to the one thing he had in hand, even if it
seemed of less importance than those from which he
turned aside ; and the thoroughness with which he
listened to the difficulties or confessions told to him,
gave confidence to his penitents. Mme. Cornuau
says that the earnestness and concentration with which
he gave Absolution was specially striking, sometimes
remaining for a brief space of time with his hands
raised in total silence, as though his whole soul were
absorbed in the greatness of the office intrusted to his
ministry. The same penitent remarks that he was untiring in
his efforts for the souls of his spiritual children, study-
1 Lettre XXX. p. 487. 2 Lettre LIV. p. 511.
3 Lettre LXXIV. p. 528.

476 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.
ing with the most paternal kindness all ways of com
forting or helping them on in holiness; sparing no pains
in teaching or writing out rules, or anything profitable;
but at the same time firm, and if need be severe, though
never harsh or humiliating any one unnecessarily.
" Although his guidance was generally very tender
for those under him, he expected people to work them
selves, and to be supple and docile to the hand that
led them. He was quite ready to hear what they had
to say when they found his injunctions hard, but after
that he did not allow any arguing, and used gently to
make people understand that they must submit, and
not fancy that by dint of arguing they could change
his mind, or make him give up his views, when he
thought them useful to the progress of a soul. He
was amazingly firm on such occasions, quite laying
aside his wonted indulgence. ... I know some per
sons whose guidance he gave up, though thinking
highly of them, solely because they were so disposed
to argue, and so tardy in obeying. And no entreaties
could induce him to resume the direction of such
persons. I once ventured to express my surprise at
what seemed to me too severe, but the Bishop an
swered, ' My daughter, there is a wide difference be
tween forgiving a personal injury and what is purely a
question of direction. Direction becomes mere trifling
if, out of weakness or indulgence, the director lets

FIRMNESS IN DIRECTION. 477
himself be drawn hither and thither by those he
directs, or if he puts up with their arguing and insub-
mission, the result of which is that they never will
make any progress towards perfection. Such direction
as that is sheer waste of time, and I will have nothing
to do with it.' He treated scruples much in the same
way, except that he was very pitiful to those who
suffered from them ; but he did everything that lay in
his power to cure them, and his attention and vigil
ance to ward them off was marvellous ; — he seemed
able to foresee even the smallest things which tended to
produce them, and if people were docile and submis
sive he used to root out, almost without their knowing
it, a habit of mind which he considered so formidable
a hindrance to the spiritual life. Sometimes he would
say, ' Do you think, my daughter, that what you are
doing looks like loving God ? He expects something
better of you, and you must do it. He bids you do it
by my means, and I entreat you arouse yourself. Be
brave in retracing your false steps, and go on afresh in
the path of love and faithfulness which He points out
to you.""
Bossuet habitually refened to S. Francis de Sales as
the great teacher of those who have the responsibility
of guiding souls, and declared that he always kept the
Bishop of Geneva before him as his example. He
* CEuvres, vol. xxvii., Averlisscment, p. 427,

478 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.

had perhaps learned from that most loving of men to
consider " severity and stern rebuke as less likely to
reclaim sinners than kindness, and that gentleness
draws more wanderers back to the fold than sharpness,
which only tends to initate them."
" Look not every man on his own things, but every
man also on the things of others," he says in a letter ;
"and if you give advice, mind that it be not to set forth
your own wisdom, but solely for your neighbour's
good, saying neither more nor less than is necessary
for this purpose : if you are rudely met, either be
silent, or, if you must speak in order not to seem
offended, speak not so as merely to relieve your feel
ings, but so as to calm the offender without adding
anything more ; — acting in short towards your neigh
bour in such a spirit of forgetfulness as to any humour
or self-interest of your own, as may enable you to put
yourself in his place, and say and do what will really
help him." •
Bossuet did not encourage the love of ease or per
sonal indulgence. One day he was talking to Mme.
Cornuau in a small room which smoked horribly, and
at last, able to bear it no longer, she asked leave to
go. Bossuet looked at her in astonishment. " What
is the matter ?" he asked. She, no less surprised at
his indifference, exclaimed, " Eh quoi ! Monseigneur,
' Lettre VII. p. 452.

ATTENTION TO LITTLE THINGS. tfa

don't you see this honible smoke?" " Ah ! to be
sure," he said, " the fire does smoke a good deal, but
I did not notice or feel it — God is very good to me,
and I mind nothing, — sun, wind or rain, it is all the
same to me !" '
His attention to little things, or things which the
world calls little (for there is nothing too little to
offend or please God), was very marked in his charac
ter and comes out in his spiritual letters. He objected
to huny as much as did S. Francis de Sales. " We will
do nothing hastily. Inward haste, however eager,
must be kept subject to S. Paul's rule, 'Prove all
things, hold fast that which is good.' "2
"God has His own chosen hours, and when He
gives a number of duties to be done, He teaches us
how to arrange our work." 3
" Trust to God for the means, the opportunities and
the time for fulfilling His Will, otherwise if you are
always engrossed in thinking about what cannot be,
you will never do what you can, and what God
actually requires of you."4
" Sometimes by dint of doing people render them
selves unfit to do anything : — whatever is excessive is
indiscreet" 5
There are also a good may letters of Bossuet's to
the two daughters of the Due de Luynes, known as
* P- 435- ' P- 444- 3 P- 4«3- * P- 491- SP-5I2-

480 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.
Marie Louise de Luynes and Henriette d'Albert,
two sisters of remarkable intellectual power and per
sonal holiness. These ladies were educated at Port-
Royal, where their brother, the Due de Chevreuse
(Fenelon's friend), was also the pupil of Arnauld.
They were removed from Port-Royal during its
troubles, and having both a marked vocation for the
religious life, they went to Jouarre, already mentioned
as an Abbey in the diocese of Meaux, and there they
were both professed in May 1664, Bossuet preaching
the sermon for Madame d' Albert's viture. She be
came his spiritual child, and continued so to the end
of her life, always loyal and faithful to him, though
her aunt the Abbess, Henriette de Lonaine, set him
at defiance when he became Bishop, and gave much
trouble and scandal. The elder sister, Mme. de
Luynes, also leant much upon Bossuet, but she was not
so entirely under his direction as Madame d'Albert.
After their aunt resigned the Abbey of Jouane,
Bossuet wished to see Mme. de Luynes Abbess, but
Louis XIV. would not appoint her, and it was only
in 1696 that she became Abbess of Torci, where her
sister and Mme. Cornuau both joined her. Madame
d'Albert died there somewhat suddenly three years
later. These letters, with a number written to different
members of the community of Jouarre, and certain

SPIRITUAL LETTERS. 481
numbers addressed to other religious, — chiefly to
Madame de Beringhen, Abbess of Farmoutiers, to the
Ursulines at Meaux, and a few to the congregation at
Coulomniers and the Filles Charitables de la Ferte, —
are what remain to us of Bossuet's spiritual corre
spondence. The three first-mentioned ladies were all
closely united together, both at Jouarre and Torci,
where Mme. Cornuau was at last enabled to take the
veil. Bossuet's letters to Madame de Maisonfort must be
included in the list
Some few extracts from Bossuet's letters to these
religious may serve to illustrate the substantial, prac
tical tone of his individual teaching.
To Madame Cornuau, on Prayer.
" The devotion of the present day seems to me
faulty in one point, namely, that people talk too much
about their prayer, and its special conditions. In
stead of dwelling so much upon the various stages
of prayer, it would be better simply to pray as
God leads one, without fidgetting one's self to analyse
and discuss so much. I see nothing tending to show
that one, is always in the same condition, or that
there is any fixed state of prayer : the Holy Spirit one
while casts the soul down, at another time lifts it up —
now He seems to be leading it to perfection, and the
2 H

482 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.
next moment He brings it back where it was. Oui
business is to conform in all such changes to His
leading, and go whither He draws us.
"When thoughts offer themselves, we should use
them if good, and if a truth takes possession of the
mind, we must fix our heart upon it, turn it into
practical resolutions, and above all pray that God Who
inspires us with it would enable us to bring it to good
effect. " I think people make a great mistake in drawing
so many fine distinctions concerning the Essence and
Attributes of God. A prayer framed upon these defi
nitions becomes very complex. In a word true prayer,
and that which is best, lies in whatever unites us to
God, whatever enables us to enjoy Him, to appreciate
Him, to rejoice in His Glory, and to love Him as
one's very own ; so that, not satisfied with words or
thoughts or affections or resolutions, one comes to a
solid practice of detachment from self and from all
creatures. " Above all, it is desirable not to perplex the brain
or over-excite the feelings, but to take that which
comes within our spiritual grasp, and to let ourselves
be drawn gently to God, without the intervention of
violent efforts, which are more the work of imagination
than a substantial lasting good. If we feel a sensible
delight, we may take it en passant, and as it flows by

ON PRA YER. 483

let one's self be drawn in the very depths of the soul
into God, loving Him Himself, and not merely the
pleasure we derive from Him ; — His truth more than
the satisfaction with which it fills us. . . . Follow the
path God opens to you without hesitation ; do not
desire a higher kind of prayer in order to be more
united to God, but desire a higher and closer union
with Him, that He may fill and absorb you more and
more, that you may be as wholly His by your own will,
as you are in right of creation and redemption. . . .
" There is often a great deal of delusion in the
multiplication of exterior practices; they require limits
which it is not always easy to set. I think your
tendency is to indulge too much in them.
"You have written down meditations for me to
inspect : well, be it so for this time, but I do not
think it is well to be so occupied with the thought of
one's own meditations as to write them. It is well to
write down the principal resolutions with a view to
recollecting them, or the chief points which have
touched one, so that by reading over your notes such
feelings maybe renewed; — but I advise you to let the
past go by, for fear of being led to fancy that your
thoughts are worth writing down, save for conection
if they are mistaken. Otherwise pray much, without
reflecting on what you say — according to S. Anthony.
Above all things aim at simplicity and uprightness of

484 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.
heart, which will make you right in God's Sight.
Amen." '
" As to special religious exercises for Advent, it is
a great exercise to enter into the spirit and the de
votion set forth by the Church in her services, and it
is better not to seek for individual practices unless
special need arise; — indeed there is no practice better
than conformity with the Church's intention." 2
" With respect to prayer, I am sure the best is that
wherein we give ourselves up most freely to the action
of God upon the soul, and in which we try most
faithfully to conform ourselves to His Will."3
To Mme, de Maisonfort.
" The great and only proof that our prayer is good
is a changed life. The object of prayer is not to
make us spend a few hours' comfortably with God,
but that our whole life may feel the effects and be
bettered by it." 4
Mme. de Maisonfort writes: — " I often feel a desire
to go to confession, intending after being cleansed by
that sacrament to begin to lead a new life."
Answer : — " That is all right, but you must not rest
on such intentions ; — you must rest solely in God Who
gives them."
1 Lettre IL, vol. xxvii. p. 441. ' Lettre X. p. 458.
3 Lettre LXXI. p. 526. " p. 326.

PREPARATION FOR DEATH. 485
"At other times I am full of trouble, and make my
confession, I know not how."
Answer: — "Do not be perplexed by this trouble,
but do your best and give yourself up to God, without
dwelling so much on yourself. Repress reflections
about your own perfection or imperfection. Take
what God gives you, without comparing yourself with
anybody else, believing every one to be above you, —
not judging yourself, but content to be in God's Eyes
as you really are ; — and be more anxious to progress
than to perceive your progress. . . . Do not long for
death in itself, and because you are downhearted;
but long to see Jesus Christ. It is only when we see
Him that we shall love Him perfectly, and be certain
to love Him for ever." l
To Mme. Coniuau.
"Preparation for death does not consist in outer
things, so much as in doing and bearing God's Will." z
" As to its being allowable to wish to die, we must
strive to say with S. Paul, 'Not that we would be
unclothed, but clothed upon : ' — it is not death we
wish for, but life with Jesus Christ His Grace drives
away impatience, because it inspires submission.
There is an impatience of grief which is bad, and
an impatience of love which may be painful and
1 pp- 363. 474. 376. ° P- 555-

486 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.

trying, but which is full of a hidden savour and sweet
ness." ' To the Same.
" I cannot go as fast as you would have me — wait
till I return, and let us do nothing hastily. Interior
haste, however eager, must be subject to S. Paul's
rule, ' Prove all things, hold fast that which is good.'
. . . You ask for some rules of perfection ; — take two
from S. Paul, ' Look not every man on his own
things, but every man also on the things of others.'
If you observe this maxim faithfully, you will never
yield to your own temper or self-satisfaction, but in all
you say and do you will look to whatever tends to
soothe, enlighten, and edify others. Uphold yourself
in this habit by another saying of S. Paul — 'Jesus
Christ pleased not Himself.'
" The second rule of that Apostle is, ' If a man
think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he
deceiveth himself.' The fruit of this precept is not
merely that we do not take offence (for assuredly he
who takes offence does think himself ' something '),
but further to look upon one's self as a mere nothing,
as one to whom neither God nor man owe anything,
and so to abide ever ready to receive, what the
gratuitous kindness of the one, or the continual
merciful creation of the Other, gives us. Try your
' p. S»9.

PREDESTINATION. 487
hand at these two practices, which involve all others,
and are the very height of perfection. Ask God, my
daughter, that I who set them before you may learn
to understand and keep them myself." *
To the Same.
'' Although it is very undesirable for any, especially for
women, to aim at fathoming the secret of predestina
tion, it is well, my daughter, that you should know
what you ought to believe concerning it, as the
foundation of humility and Christian confidence.
" ' Many are called, but few chosen.' All who are
called can come if they will : free-will (le libre arbitre)
is given them with that intent, nor is grace wanting to
them, so that, if they come not, they have themselves
only to thank for it ; but if they come, it is thanks to
the special impulse of God, Who inspires them to
make so good use of their liberty. Thus they owe
their faithfulness to grace to His special Goodness,
which obliges them to infinite gratitude, and teaches
them to say humbly, ' What hast thou that thou didst
not receive ? now, if thou hast received it, why dost
thou glory ? '
" All that God does in time He had foreseen and
predestinated from all eternity ; — thus from all eternity
He foresaw and predestinated all those individual
* p. 444-

488 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.
means by which He inspires His faithful servants with
fidelity, obedience, perseverance: — and this is what
we mean by predestination.
" The result of this doctrine is to make us place our
wills and our liberties in God's Hands, entreating Him
so to direct them that they may never go astray;
thanking Him for whatever good we do; believing
that it is He Who works that good in us without de
stroying or weakening our free will, but that, on the con
trary, He raises and strengthens it, teaching us to use
our own gifts well, which is above all things desirable.
" God is the Author of whatever good we do ; it is
He Who fulfils, as it is He who originates it. His Holy
Spirit forms those prayers in our hearts which He
afterwards grants. He has foreseen and predestinated
all this ; and this is simply what we mean by
predestination. But together with all this, we must
believe that no one is lost, no one is forsaken of God,
or left of Him, save wholly by his own fault. If this
is hard to be understood of human reason, which finds
it difficult to reconcile the different sides of this holy,
inviolable doctrine, faith will not fail to reconcile all,
until such time as God shows it all plainly to us in
its Source.
" When you ask day .by day, ' Deliver us from evil,'
you desire to be so delivered as to fall into it no more.
So then you believe that God has sure means whereby

HOW TO USE IT. 489
to prevent all your falls : you ask Him to use them,
and when He grants your prayer, He does but execute
that which He predestinated before all time.
" So then, ' it is neither to him that wills nor him
that runs ' that we owe our salvation, ' but to God that
showeth mercy;' that is to say, neither our will nor our
exertions are the first cause, still less the sole cause of
our salvation, but rather that grace which prevents,
accompanies, strengthens them to the end ; but which
nevertheless does not work alone, since we must be
faithful to and co-operate with it, so as to be able to say
with S. Paul, ' Not I, but the grace of God that is in me.'
" In order to give us this grace, and to ' gather
together the children of God that were scattered
abroad,' God sent His Son at the time He had deter
mined. He did not come at the beginning, because
it was needful that the sick man should know his sick
ness ; inasmuch as the first step towards a cure is to
know that one is ill, to humble one's self and wish for
the physician. But the Great Physician of souls was
promised from the beginning, in order that He might
be longed for, and that all who desired Him, and ' saw
His day ' like Abraham, might be saved. As to those
who neither desired nor knew Him, God left them to
their own devices, and they perished in their sin. His
rigid Justice to them constrains those who have expe
rienced His Mercy to eternal gratitude.

490 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.
" We must not perplex ourselves about the great
number of those who perished in the ages before Jesus
Christ came : let it suffice us to know that God has
never left Himself without witnesses. We learn from
S. Peter that all those who were destroyed by the
deluge did not perish everlastingly (i Pet. iii. 19, 20).
And although this passage is obscure, we may safely
believe that sundry repented while they were drown
ing, and that God ' reserved ' them in a place of puri
fication until the Mercy of Jesus Christ, when He
' went down and preached unto the spirits in prison,'
set their captive souls free.
" But as a general rule, our business is to make use
ourselves of the remedy Jesus Christ has brought us,
rather than to perplex ourselves as to what will become
of those who, from one cause or another, do not use
it ; just as in a hospital, we should think that man
mad, who, when the physician brings him an infallible
cure, should neglect to receive and use it, in order to
cross-question the doctor as to what he is going to do
with his other patients !
" The whole doctrine of predestination and grace
is summed up in the Prophet's words : ' O Israel, thou
hast destroyed thyself, but in Me is thy Help' (Hosea
xiii. 9). So it is, and if we cannot understand how
all these things work together, it is enough that God
knows, and it is ours ' to believe it' ' My secret is

DEVOUT PRACTICES. 49"
Mine,' the Prophet Isaiah says ;» how much more is
God's Secret His only !
" The secret of predestination is truly the secret of
God's Own hidden government, and all we can do is
to cry out, ' Oh the depth of the wisdom and know
ledge of God!'
" Humble yourself beneath His All-powerful Hand.
He Who hath promised is able also to perform.
' Fear not, little flock ; it is your Father's good pleasure
to give you the Kingdom.' ' All they that hope in
Thee shall not be ashamed.' " a
To the Same.
"You always come back to wanting me to burden
you with practices and special means. That is not
what God requires either of you or me, my daughter.
Keep to what I have already enjoined ; go on in faith,
in confidence, and forgetfulness of self. So much talk
is not necessary to lead souls in God's ways. When
once things have been explained, silence is the best
safeguard. ... It is lawful to say with S. Paul, ' 1
have a desire to depart ;' that is, to die and to be with
Jesus Christ; but no one may ever rightly bring on
1 Isaiah xxiv. 16. " Secretum Meum Mihi, secretum Meum
Milii, vae mihi," in the Vulgate. The force of the words is lost
in our English Version: "My leanness, my leanness, woe unto
me!" 2 P- 453-

492 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.
illness or reject proper remedies. Our self-abandon
ment to God, as above all means, must be interior.
Externally we must practise obedience ; and so, as to
fasting, I refer you to that. ... I would not have you
get up earlier than the rest of the Community, if by
so doing you cause any disedification among the
Sisters. Be steady in observing the rules I have given
you as to penances and prayers ; and especially as to
the needful quantity of sleep, which is of the utmost
importance with your tendency to excitement Obe
dience, discretion, and edification are worth more than
many prayers and penances. ... It is right that you
should go to bed at the appointed hour, and in order
to do so, you must cut short your reading, even in the
midst of a chapter or a psalm. Obedience is better
than sacrifice. . . .
" Be careful to keep your rule with due regard to
health, and do not urge yourself too far. This is of
great consequence, because sometimes by dint of
doing people render themselves incapable of doing
anything. Whatever is excessive is indiscreet Re
member this as in God's Sight. ... A great craving
for austerities has become more than ever suspicious
to me, since I read that S. Francis de Sales said that
were he a religious he would ask for nothing of that
kind beyond his rule. . . . Spend a quarter of an
hour daily in meditating simply on the austere yet

CARE OF HEALTH. 493
loving example of Christian virtue which is set before
us in the Person of Jesus Christ, lowly and humble
of heart; He Who often wept, but never laughed:
weep with Him, and without affecting never to laugh,
be gentle, kindly, and serious." '
" Beware of letting yourself down in the way you
speak of; — you know that God forbids it, and that
He wills us to take reasonable care of our health.
Was it thus that Jesus Christ fulfilled His Father's
Will ? Live as long as God pleases, and confess His
Holy Name. What follies does the devil tempt you
to ? Answer, ' Thou shalt not tempt the Lord Thy
God.' Who told you that you will find rest in death ?
Will it take you out of God's Hands? Live and
love." 2
To the Same, on her desire for the Religious Life.
" I do not forbid you — God forbid, to pray for
holy religion, I would only banish anxiety, and I
would not have you occupy your mind overmuch
with the thought, because it would distract you from
that which God requires of you at the actual moment.
... I would forbid all disquietude. There is every
Appearance that God means only to give you the
desire. I doubt as to your health, and should hesitate
on that ground, were everything else clear .... These
1 PP- 4S7-536. 2 p. 604.

494 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.

great longings for retreat are very good, but not very
practicable, and when such things are to be they
come without one's making great efforts to bring them
about, — which are all the result of over-anxiety. . . .
If nothing comes to pass naturally and simply, I
shall conclude that your longings are such as God
sends to some souls as a discipline, without ever
fulfilling them. I have known some very holy re
ligious with whom He has dealt thus, some desiring
greatly to become real hermits in a real desert; —
others to leave their own for some more ascetic and
interior Order. It has all been unfulfilled ; but their
desires have exercised and purified them. If, how
ever, they had fretted themselves to bring to pass
what they wished, they would have become the
victims of agitation and anxiety, which would have
resulted in total distraction of mind." >
" All that you fancy, my daughter, about your long
ings is unreal and impracticable. Let your desire foi
the religious life grow, but trust to God for all means,
occasions, and seasons for accomplishing it — otherwise
you will be so absorbed in what cannot be, that you
will not do what you can, and what God requires of
you actually at the present moment." *
" Sometimes God hides His Will from us, so far as
even to inspire us with a desire for that which He
' pp. 464, 467. 476. 2 P- 49i.

CURBING OF GOOD DESIRES. 495
does not vouchsafe to accomplish. S. Paul asked to
be delivered from that thorn in the flesh, which was
sent to buffet him lest he should be exalted above
measure. Three times he asked this, — but without
success — yet it was a Saint who tsked. We can
not doubt that it was God Himself Who inspired him
with the wish, and the Same God Who inspired the
wish refused to grant it He saw fit to leave S. Paul
to this discipline. Certainly God told him what was
His Will, but He does not always do that ; — He often
leaves us to languish in a longing which He does not
see fit to accomplish. Why so? Because there is
great gain in longing after that which is good, and
although it is well that we should wish, God sees also
gain for us in the refusal ; and He wills to give the
soul both benefits — that of desire and that of sub
mission to a denial; — thus in His great liberality
giving us two gains instead of one."1
" Be at rest, and do in your present condition
whatever you would do if God had revealed to you
that you were to remain in it always. Without this,
you cannot arrive at any perfection." 2
" As our Lord said, 'Sufficient unto the day is the
evil thereof,' so I say to you, Sufficient for each hour
and each moment is its own evil. It is not well to look
on overmuch — we have never more than one single
' p. 508. - p. 5»8.

496 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.
moment at our own disposal, but God is with us in
every moment — it is He Who spreads one moment
after another before us, and we should take each as
coming from Him. If you had full contentment and
ease in your present position, I should be afraid for
you. It is through crosses and humiliations that you
are upheld. I have but one answer to make, with S.
Paul, ' God is Faithful, and will not suffer you to be
tempted above that you are able.' J
" Your wishes will help you ; — God will accept your
sincere desires to fulfil His Will. But be sure and go
through the wall where the door is open. ... Do
not look on too far. ' Sufficient unto the day.' Allez
au jour lajournee, happy in doing hour by hour what
ever the Heavenly Bridegroom asks." 2
" Do not try to do so many things to attract your
Heavenly Bridegroom. Love is enough. Go your
way, without turning from side to side; — think more
of satisfying God than of obtaining satisfaction, and
do not be always trying to know if you are pleasing in
His Sight ; rather do all that you know is acceptable
to Him, and submit to His Will. It is not accept
able to Him when we talk a great deal about our
crosses, and seek to change those He sends us. . . .
You wish that when death comes you may be able to
feel the confidence which now you often feel : do you
* p. 590- V 629-

CONFESSION. 497

not know that that which you are in life will set its mark
upon your death ? What are we all but dying people?
Cannot He Who gives us that confidence now con
tinue it? What will your soul do at its last hour
but what it has been always doing ? Is not our every
moment in God's Hand, and is there ever one single
moment which may not be that of your death ? What
can you do then, but let your confidence stretch over
every succeeding moment as it comes, through all
eternity indeed, if life could last so long ? " J
To the Same, on Confession.
" Do not be troubled about your last confession, or
the evils you laid before me. Put your will into God's
Will. Let Him hold you; — if you do it fully and
heartily He will hold you all the faster, as you seem
each moment to be slipping from your own hold. I
pray our Lord to be with you. I will give you some
time, please God, but I know not when ; — my days
are so full that I am not my own master. But go on
in trust, my daughter, and be faithful." 2
" Generally speaking, after a certain time it is not
well to go back over one's confessions ; — it is enough
to keep a general impression of the depth of one's sin.
But some regard must be had in this matter to past
' p- 658. 2 p. 523.

49« BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.
experience. Nevertheless, anyhow, I would have such
retrospection rare." '
" If our frequent faults were to keep us back from
communion or prayer, we should be trusting in our
selves, not in the Goodness of God. Never hold back
from meditation or communion for any cause what
ever, save by your confessor's direction. Obey and
strive to enter into the Mind of Jesus in communicat
ing — His Mind of union, joy and love, of which the
whole Gospel is full." 2
" Do not be surprised at your dryness. They say
that in this country the dry seasons are generally
best ; and so it is with our spiritual husbandry, dry
ness often being simply an interior concentration of
God's sensible gifts. Give yourself up to His Will,
do not yield to an eager desire for sensible grace, —
live by faith and hope."
" Do not think about whether you are esteemed or
despised ; whether you are thought of, what is thought,
or whether you are forgotten altogether. ' My God
and my all.' ' My Beloved is mine, and I am
His.'"4 To the Same.
" I have often told you, my daughter, that married
life is holy, and the virgins who despise it are not wise
' p. 529. " p. 588. 3 p. 591. « p. 631.

WIDOWHOOD. 499

virgins. Virginity is an angelic state, and widowhood
comes very near it. . . . The Church is as a widow,
and all Christian widows, who in their manied life
have been a type of the Church's union with Jesus
Christ, are types of her widowhood through their own.
The essential peculiarity of widowhood is rather dis
taste than contempt for the world ; — a widow's out
ward mourning is modesty and simplicity, while within
it consists in that holy 'desolateness' of which the
Apostle speaks. To be desolate is to be alone ;
desolation springs from solitude; a soul is lonely
because it has nothing on earth. The Church has
nothing when she has not her Bridegroom. Thus all
three conditions, the virgin, the wife, and the widow,
are types of the Church." '
To the Same.
" Do not be fretted by your failings, they are at the
root of your natural life. Vexation and anxiety are
enemies to humility as much as to courage. The best
remedy against temptation is never to despair of
Divine Goodness, Which most certainly will not suffer
us to be tempted beyond our strength.
" Your troubles concerning the faith ought to be
banished by humbly repeating the Apostles' Creed,
without any reasoning, but with simple and perfect
1 P- 538.

500 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.

submission, remembering that as you say, ' I believe
in the Father,' so you say, ' I believe in the Son, I
believe in the Holy Ghost.'" '
" You ask how to act as regards your neighbour ?
. . . The less we can speak of others the better, but
as it is impossible for men not to speak of men, it is
difficult to keep a due midway course. Charity of
heart will be your best external rule. I do not think
these vexations against others are natural to you, but
still try to still them, lest they should take hold of you.
The way to still them is to creep into the Sacred
Heart of Jesus Christ, and unite yourself to the love
He bears to every member of His Body, and thus you
will be in charity with all." 2
"What you want, in order to profit by humiliation,
is not to be devoid of sensitiveness, — quite the con
trary, for then you would not feel humiliation. What
you must get rid of is a plaintive manner, and a
spirit of resistance and contrariety. . . . There is
often as much affectation in speaking of what is humili
ating as of what exalts us in the eyes of others. The
safest rule is not to speak of self at all, unless there is
a real reason for doing so. One ought to wish to
edify others, but without affectation, — and all is sure
to be well if you keep in mind the Apostle's rule, to
look not at your own things, but at those of others,
' p. 573. " P- 582.

SCRUPLES. 501
and remember that 'there is a time for all things.'
. . . Let your heart and lips move freely in pious
intercourse, remembering that all the beauty of good
ness consists in its conformity to God's Will."'
To Madame d'Albert.
" I assure you that your last confession was good
and sufficient, — another more general would be useless
and dangerous. You ought not to give heed to those
moods in which you fancy you have retracted your
former resolutions. Whenever they arise reject the
idea as a temptation, and go on your way. I forbid
you to indulge disquiet as to your past confessions
either now or when you are dying. It is a mere
mental hindrance which interferes with more essential
duties, such as self-abandonment, love of God, and
confidence in His Mercy. It is a great mistake for
the creature to imagine that he can quiet himself by
dint of fretting over his sins. No real calm can be
found save by giving himself up to the Infinite Good
ness of God, putting his self-will, his salvation, his
eternity, all into God's Hands, and only asking Him,
for Jesus Christ's Sake, not to let him fall among
those who hate, but among those who love the Lord
for ever. Without such confidence there is nought
- p. 584.

502 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.

save trouble to be found by timid or scrupulous
consciences. " Never be afraid of giving yourself up too freely to
the impressions of Divine Love. Always remember
that God does not draw us according to our own
merits, but according to His great Goodness, and
that we must not merely give way to His drawing,
but follow Him with all our might, bearing in mind
His words, ' I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn
thee.' Say with the Bride, ' Draw me, I will run after
Thee."" To the Same.
" Do not say that your condition hinders your per
fection ; say rather with S. Paul, ' We know that all
things work together for good to those that love God,'
and there is no condition which hinders us from loving
Him, save that of mortal sin. Consequently there is
no condition, save one of mortal sin, which, so far from
being an obstacle to your good, may not work for it,
together with God's Grace. So I will allow you to
ask to be delivered from this present ' messenger of
Satan' which buffets you, if indeed it be one, but
meanwhile you must not say that it hinders you from
aiming at perfection." 2
' Vol. xxvii. p. 36. " p. 43.

DEPRESSION. 503

To the Same.
" It would be much better not to ask so much advice
about things which youhave already had decided, either
actually or in similar cases. Such consultations foster
scruples, and hinder more profitable things. ... So
I give you warning that this is the last time I shall
answer such questions, and directly I see the sort of
thing beginning in one of your letters, I shall burn it
at once without reading any further ; — not that I am
weary of you or of directing you, but because I foresee
the consequence of allowing you perpetually to bring
up old troubles in a new dress. . . . You set traps for
yourself, and are ingenious in making difficulties ; — the
liveliness of your imagination needs a check. There
is no sin in these troubles unless you dwell upon them,
and are too eager about remedies." »
To the Same.
" It is not true that sadness cannot come direct
from God. — witness that of the Holy Human Soul of
our Lord. The heaviness in which the Evangelist
tells us that It was plunged was noways different
from what we call sadness, — it became depression,
very anguish ; and was He not agitated when He ex
claimed, ' My Soul is troubled, and what shall I say ?
1 pp. 48-52.

504 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.
Father, save Me from this hour.' Was there not a cer
tain anxious restlessness in the way He went three times
to His disciples, and returned three times to His
Father ? It is true that there was no defiance ; — that
would not have accorded with the character of the
Son of God ; — but did He not take upon Him as
much of human uncertainty as was consistent with
that character when He said, 'The spirit indeed is
willing, but the flesh is weak :' — and again, ' My Father,
if it be possible ; ' — and again, ' Father, if Thou be
willing,' — even as though He doubted the power and
willingness of His Father ?
" All this teaches us that our Head bore in Himself
all the weaknesses which His members were to bear,
so far as the greatness of His Perfection admitted.
But this was canied much farther in His servants,
since Job was driven to cry out : ' I will speak in the
anguish of my spirit,' and ' My soul chooseth strang
ling, and death rather than life.' And S. Paul was
reduced to knowing no rest day or night; to being
tried, up to his strength and beyond his strength, so as
to carry ' the sentence of death ' in him, looking to no
thing save the Resurrection. Let us not then presume
to fix any limits to the trials which God may send to
His servants, but let us give ourselves up into His
Hands to receive whatever marks of the Saviour's
Cross He may lay upon us. It is not well to tonnent

HAPPINESS. 505
ourselves with investigating whether our sadness is
the result of our own weakness, or a Divine trial ; for
supposing it to be the first, which is the safest belief —
it is none the less true that God can use it to lead us
His own way as much as what comes more immediately
from Himself, because He overrules alike our weak
ness and our evil inclinations, everything indeed, even
to our sins, till they promote our salvation."'
To the Same.
" I forgive your exaggerations, which certainly did
not deceive me, and God forgives you also. Do not
make yourself unhappy, my daughter, but learn by
your pain never to make use again of such means. . . .
Jesus Christ would have us wish to be happy. He
gives the desire for happiness to all, and our love is
pure when we are happy through God's Happiness,
loving Him more than one's self. . . . It is well some
times to accustom souls to turn solely to God, and to
find all their strength in Him only."2
To the Same.
" As to the graces one receives from God, it were a
false humility and an actual ingratitude not to acknow
ledge them, but directly that they are recognised as
graces, humility is safe. Do not trouble to decide as
1 p. 81. 2 pp. 94. 97. 99

506 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.

to whether God only gives them to pure hearts ; — He
gives them to whosoever He will, He is above all
rules, and moreover a great gift may be met with in
a very unfaithful soul. God is not less good, and His
Grace is not less grace, although man does not corre
spond rightly to it, and this ought to fill us with utter
abasement. Nevertheless we must not receive the
gift of God with mistrust, but expand our hearts in
confidence, remembering what S. Paul says, ' Where
sin abounded grace did much more abound.'
"Do not hesitate to communicate three times a
week, without waiting to feel all this. Where spiritual
hunger is felt, we ought to satisfy it, and give our
selves up to the Love of Jesus Christ"1
To the Same.
" God wills us to walk in darkness concerning our
spiritual state during this life. I grant that sometimes,
when our heart condemns us not, we have confidence,
as S. John says, but it is not every soul that is called
to this sort of confidence. Some there are that find
nought save darkness within as to their spiritual con
dition. Their confidence must be founded simply on
the Goodness of God, and if He wills them to have
any degree of assurance, He will impart it by His own
secret language, not through men. Therefore I re-
" P- '°9

OUR ANXIETY. 507

prehend absolutely all curiosity concerning your own
condition, — still more as to the past than the present.
All that is noways necessary, and tends to presumption
and illusion. ... I highly approve of your com
municating in memory of the grace received at your
First Communion. God laid the foundation of holy
fear then, because He willed to build the edifice of Love
upon it. I think it very right for you to communicate
daily through the Quarante Heures, if God gives you
the desire to do so. That desire is one of the best
possible reasons for communicating.
"The moral assurance concerning their spiritual
state which people seek is noway necessary. If God
inspires the conscience with peace, and thereby seems
to promise a faithful humble soul that He looks
lovingly on it, we should accept the witness ; but for
the rest without self-introspection and in all simplicity,
go on receiving the Bread of Life and the consolations
of God's Holy Spirit, if possible not thinking at all of
yourself, but only of His Goodness."1
To the Same.
" Pray moderate your anxiety, which runs to excess
as to confession ; so much sensitiveness is inconsistent
with the great Goodness of God. ... Go to Him in
all confidence — open your heart, walk freely. Do
' pp. 117-119.

508 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.

not make a torture of confession, let it be an exercise
of trust and love, and therein of humility, for there
can be no confidence without that. . . . You ought
not to wish for anything — eithers ecstasies or marvels —
nothing save to love God, but do not make a scruple
about it : let it pass. Do not ask God to withdraw
any of His Gifts, rather ask Him to give you the gift
of using them rightly.'" To the Same.
" In the beginning of the 9th Book of S. Augus
tine's Confessions, there is a very striking silence. For
my own part, I think the Saints said very little about
these personal matters ; they were kept a secret be
tween God and their own souls. ' Enter into thy closet,'
as you are told in the Gospel. One of the great faults
of devotion in the present day is, that it is too self-
conscious, and talks about itself too much. It is dif
ferent perhaps for those whom God puts under a
director, and who want to be sure of their path ; but
even then I am very much disposed to leave a great
deal to God, and not be so much afraid of illusions.
It is best to open one's heart honestly, and then to be
at rest2 . . . Above all, do not imitate those persons
who are for ever wanting to test and gauge their prayer.
I do not like that way of marking everything out by
1 pp. I35-I5I- " P- '54-

SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS. 509
rule and line, or of laying down the law to God, dic
tating what He has to do at each step, and deciding
that this belongs to one ' state,' and that to another.
For my own part, I believe that God knows how to
put very perfect souls to the mere A B C of devotion
without throwing them back ; and that He leads others
on to perfection without ever seeming to bring them
beyond the thraldom of a first beginning. He has
done all things well." '
To the Same.
" There is nothing in all this business which ought
to weigh upon your conscience. If you did not act
with all the perfection which God required, it is because
you are a weak and sinful creature, and there is
nothing to be surprised at. Humble yourself; do not
be discouraged, and think no more about it. If you
spoke and acted at the time according to the prompt
ing of your conscience, do not be anxious. It is the
very self-love, which you dread so much, that causes
this anxiety, wanting to be over-certain of having done
well ; but true love is content to leave all to God.
" As to talking about one's neighbours and their
faults, the safe rule is never to speak of them save
when it is necessary, either to establish a truth through
example, or to take counsel with those able to advise
- p. 212.

510 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.
as to the best means of conecting the faulty. . . .
There is a certain self-love in talking so much about
self-love : it wants to seem very enlightened as to the
vice of self-love, and rests satisfied with its own pene
tration. I prefer an honest forgetfulness of self to a
perpetual deploring of one's own self-love ; and such
forgetfulness only comes where the heart is full of God.
" Try rather to love God than to fidget yourself as
to whether you do love Him ; and make up for what
is wanting more by increased love than by bemoaning
your lack of it" ' To the Same.
" Never reject the longing for Communion, when it
pleases God to let you feel it. Neither reject your
attraction for Him, the gift of tears, of sweetness or
consolation ; but the more He lets you taste His
graces, the more you ought to strive to purify your heart.
. . . Beware of being too argumentative itrop raison-
nant) ; receive all that God gives you with both hands
open. Why should you marvel that you love more
when His Hand is on you, than when He withdraws
it, and leaves you to feel what you really are ? Do
not shrink from His Heavenly consolations ; a state
of innocence, in which love would have been alto
gether pure, would have had such. If it was a thing
¦ pp. 268, 271.

DEATH. 511

from which to seek detachment, would S. Paul so often
bid us to 'rejoice'? Did not S. John Baptist leap
for joy before his birth ? and was it not owing to this
the Blessed Virgin cried out, ' My spirit hath rejoiced' ?
Did Jesus Christ ever renounce the Heavenly conso
lations which His Father sent Him ?" '
To Madame de Luynes.
" Each time that death comes among us, it should
remind us of the curse of our nature and the just pun
ishment of our sin ; but among Christians, for whom
Jesus Christ has overcome death, it ought chiefly to
speak to us of His Victory, and of the Eternal Kingdom
to which we journey as we leave this life. And thus,
when we lose those we love, sonow should be blended
with consolation. ' Sorrow not,' S. Paul says, ' as
those that have no hope.' He does not forbid our
sorrow, but he will not have it like to that of unbe
lievers who have no hope. To them death is an
eternal and irremediable separation ; among us it is
only a journey, and we ought to part as those who
are soon to meet again. ' Let Christians shed tears,
which the consolations of the faith will speedily dry,'
S. Augustine says.2 Meanwhile such tears are profit-
1 p. 288.
' " Fundant ergo Christiani consolabiles lacrymas, quas cito
primat fidei gaudium."

reprimat fidei gaudium.

512 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.

able : they make us like to Jesus, Who Himself wept
for all men when He wept over Lazarus ; they teach
us our own weakness, they wash away sin, they lead
us to long after the Heavenly Home where all sorrow
ceases, and all tears are wiped away. Comfort your
self, my daughter, with these thoughts, and be sure
that I share your grief and join in your prayers."1
To Madame du Mans.
" As to the question you ask, there is no doubt that
as soon as any one feels conscious of mortal sin, he is
bound to seek penitence and to prepare for Confession,
but not necessarily to make such confession instantly :
it may be well to sorrow over his sin first, and to take
pains to do so well, without hurrying over or neglecting
anything. " It is equally sure that forgotten sins are pardoned
with the rest, however long they may have been for
gotten, and one is only bound to confess what one
remembers. . . .
" Be a Mary in longing, a Martha in obedience." '
To the Same.
" Frequent Communion ought to be your great sup
port, and you must follow the leading of Jesus Christ
therein. God has not made a law of only giving His
' p. 3°7- * PP- 3'9. 20.

GOD'S WORKING ON SOULS. 513
special graces to pure and innocent souls. Remember
how He dealt with the sinner, and what sweetness He
mingled with her tears. Remember how He dealt
with Mary Magdalene, out of whom He cast seven
devils. ' His Mercy is over all His works.' Go on
in confidence, and fear nothing. God is with you." '
To the Same.
" I have nothing new to say about austerities. Mor
tify your own will, govern your heart and control it
thoroughly. Ask God's Help ; speak always with
moderation and charity; never yield to your temper ; —
these are the austerities I would enjoin you. Love
silence and retirement. There is a silence and a
retirement which is not to be intemipted by the
external duties which sunound us."2
To Madame de la Guillaumie.
" In one way, my daughter, I am sorry for the try
ing state you are in, and in another I am consoled by
the hope I have that God is working secretly in you.
He knows how to hide His workings, — none knows
as He does how to act secretly. You will not be
relieved by anything of sense, still less by reason or
effort, — it is only by a bare, unquestioning faith, cast
ing yourself into His Arms, and hoping against
' p- 3^3- 2 P- 327-
2 K

514 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.
hope, that you will find help. Weigh well those
words of S. Paul, 'hoping against hope.' I give
them to you as your guide through these dark
paths, and therein I give you the self-same guide by
which Abraham was led all through his pilgrimage.
Communicate in this spirit unhesitatingly, not only
according to your rule, but whenever you feel drawn
to do so, if God wills to draw you, however dimly.
Do the like as to all your duties, making no effort to
alter your condition, convinced that the deeper God
casts you into the depths, the more firmly He holds
you with His Hand. You must not appoint Him
His time, or set limits to His work. When you seem
pressed beyond endurance, some little ray of light
will break forth from the darkness to sustain you.
Be ' faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown
of life.' " ' To the Same.
" The wounds of the Beloved are the joy of a heart
smitten with His Love. Be sure, my daughter, that
the shaft which now pierces you comes from His
Hand. Do not pray that He would lighten the force
of the blow so much as that He would enable you to
bear it well. These times of crosses are the precious
spots of life ; and we must give ourselves up in them
to Him Who, by the wounds He makes, designs to
1 P- 35'-

SELF-LOVE. 515

draw out all our blood, that is all the sensual life
that is in us. Remember how much God took from
Job in one instant, and how all He left became a
torture to him ; he was not ashamed to confess and
grieve for it. Do not you rend your garments, but
suffer your heart to be rent by Him Who has willed
to subject you to this bitter trial. Gather up all that
earthly objects could claim, and offer it to Him Only.
Live in the truth. I shall pray for you. Our Lord
be with you always." '
To Madame Du Mans.
" If we were really convinced of our exceeding
weakness, we should not be so much surprised when
we commit faults ; and I warn you that in speaking
of these a great deal of self-love often creeps in,
leading unconsciously to discouragement and a spirit
of vexation. Do not stop to pull everything to pieces,
but when your conscience tells you of a real fault,
turn to God, saying, ' Of a truth, Lord, what wonder if
a sinner sins ? Uphold Thou me, or I shall continue
to do the like.' And then abide before Him,
humbled, but not troubled, and He will help you
when you least expect it. Only be faithful to all
your duties, and stedfast in frequenting the Sacra
ments, above all the Blessed Eucharis', wherein lies
1 P- 354-

516 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.
all our strength. Our Lord be with you. If you
were a little more stedfast in the right way, you would
think more about always pressing onwards, than of so
much self-contemplation."' To Madame de la Guillaumie.
" I am glad to find you aware of the uselessness of
many words; — it ought to lead you to speak much to
God, and to men only so far as obedience and charity
require. Courtesy is a part of charity, inasmuch as
charity desires as far as possible to vex no one. As
to those who cannot be reproved without vexing them,
the art of reproving such wisely is a great gift. One
must beware of weakness or apologising, that does
away with all the benefit of the correction, but it
must be given with humility and gentleness. And
so far from the wrong mind of those who receive
correction amiss hindering our prayers, it is but an
additional cause for prayer. When those to whom
we speak as from God will not give heed to us, we
must speak to God for them, and beg Him to give us
a true spirit of charity in reproof. As to giving up
the attempt at conection, that must only be when we
see them to be quite incorrigible, specially through
pride ; but at the same time we ought to make such
persons understand that if we leave off reproving
' P. 361.

USE OF ILLNESS. 517
them, it should be a source of great fear to them ; —
since they are in the position of a sick man to whom
the physician ceases to apply any remedies, because
he is past cure. Such persons should be made to feel
that one is always ready to come to their aid with
patience and charity, directly that they have a health
ful desire to amend, and when one is constrained to
keep silence it is a reason the more to cultivate an
interior silence, so that by means of God speaking
in us we may henceforth speak through His Holy
Spirit'"
To Madame du Mans.
" As to illness, God is Ruler, but we on our side
must do what we can to avoid it. It is a mistake to
imagine that we should not shrink from such trials when
they come; this shrinking is often the meritorious
side thereof. I" pray God to give you health, but at
the same time I pray that He would teach you to say,
' Not my will, but Thine.' I hear, my daughter, that
you are very much troubled by your sickness, and
that you would fain choose any other cross. But
Jesus Christ did not have any choice in His. He is
with all His sick children, and it is His right to
crucify us after His own fashion, for in His Agony
He forestalled all our crosses, and blessed each one.
1 P- 369-

518 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.
Nevertheless I pray that He may lighten your burden,
and at all events bear it with you." '
To the Ursuline Nuns at Meaux.
" Regretting as I do, my daughters, the inevitable
intenuption of my visitation (which I hope to resume
as early as possible), God puts into my heart the
thought of telling you on what it should specially
turn. The things concerning which I would have
you each examine herself individually, and give
account thereof, are : First, silence : whether it is kept
and loved, — whether you are convinced that it is the
watchman of the soul, and the mortification of the
tongue, the most needful means whereby to disarm
the enemy of which, according to S. James, that
tongue is the instrument.
" II. Then as to Divine service and prayer; whether
you are punctual, if you are jealous of wasting any of
the precious moments you spend before God, and
strive to use them profitably in His Sight.
" III. As to that charity which ought to reign among
sisters, whether you bear with one another as you would
have God bear with you, and so far from provoking
one another to wrath, whether you are beforehand in
helping one another; whether you return blessing for
anger or insult, if any one ever forget themselves so far
as to give way to such. ' P- 38i-

FREQUENT COMMUNION. 519
" IV. Then as to poverty. If you are really stripped
of all, including the wish to give or receive. As to
obedience, if it is from the heart, as to the Lord
and not to man. In short, whether you are generally
following S. Paul's rule, ' Whatsoever ye do, do it
heartily.' God be with you each and all."1
To the Nuns of the Congregation at Coulomnier.
"Several of you, my daughters, have asked my
leave to communicate more frequently than is pre
scribed by your constitutions. Others have com
plained that your confessor deprived you of certain
extra Communions allowed by the Superior. It is
impossible for me to go into the individual causes for
any such privations or extensions. So, instead of
answering separate applications, I will give you certain
rules which each one can apply to her own case.
And first, you must distinguish between that un-
worthiness which arises from mortal sin, in which a
man ' eats his own damnation,' ' not discerning the
Lord's Body :' — and in which he incurs positive guilt;
from other cases in which he may be wisely deprived
of Communion or deprive himself thereof.
" I have nothing to say as to the first : every one
knows that in such a case you cannot rightly approach
the holy table without being absolved by the priest. If
' P. 458.

520 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.
you should doubt whether a sin be mortal or venial, have
recourse to him, whose office it is to discern between
leper and leper; — and be satisfied with his judgment.
" But as to other cases where this unworthiness does
not exist; — a confessor cannot refuse Communion to
those whom he has absolved, but he may delay it, if
he thinks them insufficiently prepared. I should not
approve a frequent use of such delay at the great festi
vals, for fear of scandal, and, strictly speaking, those
who are sincerely penitent and cleansed are free from
mortal sin through absolution, and so have the
requisite disposition for Communion.
" Next, as to the question of more or less frequent
Communion, it is certain that the confessor, being in
his priestly capacity God's appointed dispenser of the
Sacraments, his judgment must be your rule, and you
must not increase voluntary Communions contrary to
his directions.
" In like manner, he may have good reasons for
diminishing the usual Communion in special cases, or
for exciting a hunger for this Heavenly Food by delay.
He may also impose the privation of more frequent
Communion as a penance, where he knows by experi
ence that a soul is restrained from sin by the fear of
being deprived of the Great Gift, and will return to
the Altar with renewed fervour.
" ... There is no question but that a confessor

MEEKNESS. 521
can enjoin increased Communions, not, as I think, as
a penance (which seems to me inconsistent with the
dignity of so gracious a Sacrament), but for the in
dividual good of souls, of which he is the fittest judge.
As to daily Communion, doubtless it is set before us
as an aim by the Council of Trent, and it is what we
pray for when we say ' Give us our daily bread ; ' —
but at the same time it is certainly not a favour to be
granted generally as things are at present, even in the
best disciplined Communities ; — it is a thing only to
be attained after long preparation and much pre
caution. . . . Our Lord be with you."'
To a Nun.
" You have done well to take that passage from S.
Matthew as your guide : — in very truth you need to
learn the lowliness and meekness of Jesus Christ.
You cannot master yourself too much in this respect —
and you are right to do so specially with respect to
the person of whom I spoke to you, and I am glad to
hear what you tell me on that score. I have always
had some uneasiness about what you told me concern
ing one whom you called by a name forbidden in the
Gospel;2 you did not seem to me to feel it suffi
ciently. The more infirm people are the more con
siderate we are bound to be towards them. I do not
1 p. 476, 486. 2 Probably "fool."

522 BOSSUET AS A DIRECTOR.
say this to give you scruples as to the past, as you
tell me you have done your duty about that matter,
still less to lead you to enter into useless explanations,
but in order to make you more watchful over yourself
and your words. . . . Never say, I have done what I
could — that is self-justification — say rather, I will do
what I can. Only strive to justify yourself in the
Sight of Him Who sees into the depth of all hearts." '
A large number of Bossuet's letters to the various
religious he ruled are full of small details and minute
affairs, such as one wonders he could find time to
consider, and sometimes one cannot help feeling a
certain impatience with the good ladies who asked
him the same scrupulous questions, and obliged him to
repeat the same answers so very often. As a whole there
is much less of the wholly spiritual element in Bossuet's
correspondence than in that of S. Francis de Sales ; —
the natural character of the two men would lead one
to expect much less of tenderness. It is marvellous,
however, that the Bishop of Meaux should have found
time to write so much and so kindly as he did ; —
never expressing impatience at what must often have
been harassing amid his multifarious occupations.
Thus, writing from Meaux, April 14, 1696, in reply to
some small details concerning Madame d'Albert's
1 PP- 493. 501-

HEAVY EPISCOPAL DUTIES. 523
concerns, he mentions having just confirmed nearly
eleven hundred people, and having communicated
almost the whole population with his own hand,
besides preaching five or six times in two days,
" which did not prevent my preaching yesterday, nor
will Sunday and Easter Day."' And another time he
admits to being " very weary, having just confirmed
between twelve and thirteen hundred people.''2
Sometimes his correspondents seem to have re
proached him (most unfairly) for not answering
speedily, and even with not reading their letters at
tentively! But the Bishop always answers good-
humouredly, though he sometimes expresses a wish in
return that they would " not spare paper by writing
too close, and squeezing in the ends of the lines," or
by over small writing !
" As for me," he says at the end of a letter, in which
he has gone patiently into the details of elections, etc.,
in a Community, "at my age, I ought to have no other
object left save ever to have my own account ready to
give to the Great Judge, and the welfare of all concerned. "
The years were passing fast away, and his sum
mons to give that account was fast approaching.
1 Vol. xxviii. p. 277. 2 Ibid. p. 309.

524 BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.

CHAPTER X.
BOSSUET'S LAST DAYS.
Bossuet appointed Conseiller d'Etat— Premier Aumonies
to the Duchesse de Bourgogne — Goes to Saint-Germain
for the Assembly of Clergy— Jansenism, Morale Re-
lachee — The Abbe Bossuet — Probabilism — Quesnel —
The Probleme Ecclesiastique — Efforts at obtaining
the Unity of Christendom — Correspondence with
Leibnitz and Molanus— Version de Trevoux — Quarrel
with the Chancellor de Pontchastrain— Cas de Con
science — Beginning of Bossuet's last Illness — His
Activity — Hospitality — The Abbe Bossuet's urgent
Endeavours to succeed his Uncle— Bossuet's Applica
tion to Louis XIV. not accepted — Last Move to Paris
— Final Illness and Death — Burial — Bossuet's Remains
taken up in 1854, and verified — his successor de blssy.
THE last few years of Bossuet's long and busy life
were not destined to be inactive. During the
busy turmoil of the Quietist controversy he had proofs
of the royal favour as strong as his adversary of the
reverse. On June 29, 1697 the Bishop of Meaux was
appointed Conseiller d'Etat, and the following October
he was further appointed Premier Aumdnier to the
Duchesse de Bourgogne. This latter post he desired,
and even asked for, as he himself records in a letter
to de la Broue, Bishop of Mirepoix. Perhaps he

COURT APPOINTMENTS. 525
thought to establish a counter influence which might
prevent Fenelon's return to the Court of his former
pupil, who to the end loved the Archbishop of Cambrai
devotedly. A point of etiquette arose when the house
hold of the new little Duchesse took their oaths — the
Marquis de Dangeau, Chevalier d'honneur, pressing his
right to precedence, whereas Bossuet claimed it as his
own to take the oaths first, citing the fact of his having
done so already when appointed to the same office
about the late Dauphiness. Louis XIV. decided that
the precedence could not be refused to M. de Meaux,
"en consideration de son grand merite;" but de
Dangeau would not play second fiddle, and he per
suaded the King to allow him to take the oath in
private ! When the little Duchesse de Bourgogne,
who was only eleven years old (she was Marie Adelaide
of Savoy, daughter of the first King of Sardinia), saw
the venerable white-haired Bishop kneeling before her
to take the oaths, she could not help exclaiming,
" Oh, Monseigneur, I am ashamed to see you thus !"
This appointment kept Bossuet near the Court during
the rest of his life. On June 1, 1700, we find him
taking up his abode with his household at the Hotel
de Cond£ at Saint-Germain,' for the Assembly of
Clergy, in which once more he was to piay an im
portant part. Realising, as he did, that this was the
¦ Le Dieu, Journal, vol. ii. p. 43.

526 BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.

last time he was likely to share in the labours of these
national representatives, Bossuet was anxious to bring
forward two points on which he felt strongly — Jan
senism and its opposite, the relaxation of moral tone
(" la morale relachee ").
To this end he presented two Memoir es to Louis XIV.
and Madame de Maintenon, written concerning these
subjects in the Mayprevious, and during the manyinter-
views with the King, which are chronicled by the Abbe"
Le Dieu, it is probable that he explained his mind fully
to His Majesty, who was accustomed to be so much
influenced by the opinions of his great theologian. At
the same time, Louis XIV 's prejudices were all favour
able to the Jesuits, and he did not communicate Bossuefs
papers to his Confessor, Pere Lachaise, who was, by
esprit de corps, and perhaps by conviction likewise, on
the other side. Madame de Maintenon was the only
person able to counterbalance his influence with the
King, and consequently Bossuet was anxious to win
her interest, and he lost no opportunity of doing so.
On June i ith the Journal records his having had an inter
view with her as earlyas 7 a.m. on the subject. When at
last Louis XIV. gave his authorisation to the Assembly
to take the Casuists in hand, he specified that they
were not to mention any condemned authors by name.'
The Assembly met on June 2nd. Jealousies arose
' VU de Bossuet, vol. iv. p. 5.

ASSEMBLY OF CLERGY. 527

as to the presidency; — Le Tellier, Archbishop of
Rheims, succeeding in excluding the Bishops (who,
according to the rules laid down by the Assembly of
1695, ought to have shared in it). The manoeuvring
and caballing is wearisome to follow, and does not
raise one's opinion of Archbishop le Tellier.1 The
Abbe" Bossuet was there with his uncle, and " could
not restrain exhibiting his vexation" about the pre
sidency, or his indignation against the Archbishop of
Rheims. Bossuet was very silent, his secretary says,
but clearly showed his displeasure at the injustice of
the measure, and at the cowardice of his brother
Bishops for letting themselves be ovenuled by the
imperious, worldly Le Tellier.
There was again some opposition to appointing a
Commission to investigate "doctrine and moral;" but
here Bossuet canied the day, and he was himself
appointed head of the Commission, which was called
upon by him to investigate no less than one hundred
1 " Cet Archeveque et son neveu, l'Abbe de Louvois, ne ces
sment de continuer leurs brigues jusqu'a fatiguer les gens, et
s'incommoder eux-memes. Car hier jeudi soir, M . de Reims dit
chez l'Abbe de Louvois oil il soupa : ' II est bien fatiguant de
faire le metier d'embaucheur. ' Ce matin avant la messe, ils ont
encore assiege tous ceux de leur parti, de maniere a ne leur laisser
aucune liberte dans leurs suffrages ; exigeant comme ils avoient
toujours fait, qu'on leur donnat parole positive, dans la crainte
qu'ils ne se laissent persuader par la force de la verite que M. de
Meaux devoit representer. " — Le Dieu, vol. ii. p. 44.

528 B OSSUET'S LAST DA YS.
and sixty-two propositions which he had drawn up for
condemnation — five against the Jansenists, four against
certain Pelagian enors recently put forth in some
Jesuit writings, and the rest on questions of moral
theology. At the same time Bossuet published four
Latin treatises on the principal points he laid before
the Commission.1 The Archbishop of Rheims had
already made himself so unacceptable to the As
sembly, and Bossuet feared so much that opposition
to him might influence decisions he considered im
portant, that he profited by the promotion of de
Noailles to the Cardinalate, which was made known on
June 28th, to get him brought in as virtual President.
A fresh dispute arose as to who had the right to vote,
and whether the Second Order of Clergy had a delibe
rative or only a consultative voice. Bossuet held to
the latter opinion, and put down his nephew, who con
tended vehemently for the opposite view, and whose
temper, as usual, made him very unmanageable.
Wherever that individual presented himself he raised
trouble, and even among his own adherents he was
troublesome.2 Some of the passages-at-arms between
2 De dubio in negatio salutis.
De Opinione minus probabili, ac simul minus tula.
De ConscUntia.
De Prudentia. — CEuvres, vol. xxxi.
2 "M. l'Eve'que de Troyes ... en fut fort surpris et un peu
confus de son indiscretion. "—Le Dieu, vol. ii. p. 85.

THE JESUITS. 529
him and the assessors are amusing — as when the
Bishop of Auch turned and rebuked him for a con
temptuous gesture caused by some utterance of that
prelate, saying, " Monsieur, il ne faut pas hocher la
tete ;" to which the inepressible Abbd replied, " Je
parle a M. l'Abbd de Louvois, et point du tout a
vous, Monseigneur !" The Abbd Le Dieu adds
naively, " It is true that the Abbe Bossuet branloit la
tete — I saw it ; he often does it when he hears things
he does not like." '
Meanwhile the quanel between the friends and
enemies of the Jesuits proceeded, and many harsh and
bitter things were said on both sides. Bossuet did
not like their doctrine or their tone, but he strove not
to make the contest personal, and was annoyed at the
way in which Archbishop Le Tellier seized every
occasion of speaking of them in depreciatory and
even insulting language. Le Dieu says that he de
clared that "though for the present M. de Rheims
must be allowed to say his say, when the time came for
drawing up a formal censure, he was determined that
no bitter or harsh word should be admitted." 2 Mean
while day after day the Journal records steady, hard
work; and at this time, in spite of advancing years, Bos
suet resumed his old habit of getting up in the middle
of the night to work, and he worked so steadily, that
' Me" moires, vol. ii. p. 107. 2 Vol. ii. p. 64.
2 L

530 BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.
sometimes on Sundays he only heard mass, and re
turned to his writing "pour ne pas se d&ourner."'
Bossuet's time was divided between reading up the
works he condemned, writing concerning them, sitting
in the Assembly, and visiting the various Prelates and
Doctors taking part in the discussion. He does not
seem to have had a very high idea of his colleagues,
for he told a visitor in his secretary's presence that the
Assembly was composed of the very weakest theo
logians to be found among the French Clergy, many of
whom, into the bargain, were corrupted by the Jesuits.2
At length, August 26th, Bossuet laid the report of
the Commissioners before the Assembly. The con
demnation he sought for was unhesitatingly pro
nounced on the four Jansenist propositions, although
there was not absolute harmony among the doctors on
this perplexed question, and few — not even Bossuet
himself — were willing to stigmatise the name of
Arnauld.3 The four Pelagian propositions concerning
Grace were soon despatched, and the Assembly pro
ceeded to the more numerous propositions which had
reference to the Casuists and Probabilism. Bossuet
' Vol. ii. p. 95, etc.
= "Composee des'prelats les plus foibles en doctrine qu'il y eut
dans le Clerge, et dont quelques-uns etoient tout corrompus et
livres aux Jesuites." — Ibid. p. 71.
3 " M. de Meaux* a dit qu'il falloit epargner M. Arnauld, un
si grand homme." — Ibid. p. 70.

PROBABILISM. 531

laid down as a rule, concerning all mental reservations
and equivocations, the precept given by our Lord, —
" Yea, yea ; nay, nay." A book had been published
— " Patriarchce et Prophetce" — by the Casuists, which
pleaded the cause of equivocation, as used by
Abraham when calling Sarah his sister; by Isaac,
Jacob, Rebecca, and other persons mentioned in
Holy Scripture ; and also bringing forward that often-
misquoted Father, S. Augustine, as sanctioning deceit
by his words, " Non est mendacium sed mysterium." No
one was better able to interpret S. Augustine's mind
than his devoted student Bossuet, and he gave an
elaborate view of the patristic mind on this head.
The necessity of love for God as a due qualifica
tion for rightly receiving the Sacrament of penance
followed, and then the Assembly embarked in the
question of Probabilism. This strange doctrine arose
with Antony of Cordova, a Franciscan monk, who, in
1571, wrote that "all theologians were unanimous in
affirming that the surest opinion was always to be
adopted, when the opposite opinion seemed equally
probable, and still more so in proportion as its pro
bability was greater."1 A "probable opinion" is one
which, without the character or strength of certainty,
nevertheless tends to the belief that any given action
is permitted or forbidden.
1 See Cardinal de Bausset, Vie de Bossuet, vol. iv. bk. xi.

532 BOSSUE T'S LAST DA YS.
In 1577 and 1584 the Dominicans de Medina and
Bannez affirmed " that men might conscientiously
prefer the less probable opinion to that which was
more so." The name of Probabilism then became
general, and their relaxed doctrine spread so rapidly,
that, in 1592, Salonius, an Augustinian monk, wrote
that the opinion, " that it was lawful in good con
science to prefer the least probable of two probable
opinions, was held by a large number of distinguished
theologians, chiefly of the school of S. Thomas."
The first Jesuit who publicly professed Probabilism
was Vasquez, in 1598. Many members of the Society
followed his example, and the name became associ
ated with them. The early " Probabilists," as they
wefe called, carefully laid down as a rule, that no
" opinion which was in opposition to Holy Scripture,
the decisions of the Church, or the general mind of
the Fathers, could be held as probable;" and in such
a sense Bellarmino, Pallavicini, and other great names,
were reckoned among the Probabilists. It was on
this doctrine of Probabilism that, as time went on,
the Casuists founded opinions of so lax a nature, as
to appear to many good and wise men utterly sub
versive of all Christian morality. Not that such lax
morals were promulgated by bad men, or men of im
pure lives — their error sprang only from the idea of
making religion easy and of t ringing back sinners to

CENSURE OF THE PROBABILISTS. 533
the fold by indulgence and laxity, whom it would be
hopeless to win by severity or a more rigid discipline.
It is only fair to say that if the doctrine of Probabilism
found extensive favour and support among the Jesuits,
some of its ablest opponents were also drawn from the
Society, and the best known work in its refutation
was published in 1694 by Gonzalez, General of the
Jesuits. Bossuet however may be considered the real
conqueror of the doctrine, which he summed up and
laid before the Assembly so skilfully, that it did not
hesitate to adopt his censure, and on Sept. 4th the
formal documents, including a circular letter to the
French Bishops, — all composed by Bossuet, — were
signed by the Assembly, which held its final sitting
on the 2 1 st, and then broke up.1
That same day — the festival of S. Matthew— Bos
suet preached .before the King and Queen of England
(James IL), then exiled to Saint-Germain— all their
Court, and the large mass of clergy assembled there.
Not unnaturally, during his residence at Saint-Germain,
the Bishop of Meaux had been sought after by the
English royalties, and had often visited them. It
does not seem necessary to speculate, as the Abbe- Le
Dieu does, whether these visits "had in view a
nomination to a Cardinal's hat;" — a subject about
which he confesses himself to have been very inquisi
1 Journal, vol. ii. p. 146.

534 BOSSUE T'S LAST DA YS.
tive, though unsuccessfully so. Indeed, the good
Abbe" strikes one as having been possessed largely with
the faculty of inquisitiveness, and he often enters into
an amusing detail of his little manoeuvres to find out
somewhat concerning the doings of his more reticent
master. Apparently he was not singular in discussing
the question of a Cardinal's hat for Bossuet. " We
have the pleasure," he says, " of hearing all over Paris,
from great and small, that M. de Meaux ought to
have had the last hat, and it is more creditable to
him to be judged worthy of this honour by all the
public than it will be to somebody else to win it
by Court favour or intrigue." Bossuet's biographers
generally have assumed that his birth, which was not
noble, stood in the way of his promotion to the Sacred
College. Certainly his successor, de Bissy, who was in
no other respect Bossuet's equal, received it.
About this time another storm was raised in the
ecclesiastical world, rising out of a book of Quesnel's
published in 1693. He was at that time Superior of
the Oratory, a most saintly man, and de Noailles
formally approved the work, called " Riflexions morales
sur les Evangiles," speaking of it as " meat for the
strong, and milk for babes." In 1696 the Abbe*
Barcos, a nephew of the celebrated Port-Royalist
Saint-Cyran, brought out a book upon Grace, which
was pounced upon by all the opposite party as incul-

QUESNEL. 535

eating Jansenist error ; and de Noailles published an
Ordonnance condemning it, which was written by
Bossuet. - This fed the flame, for the friends of Barcos
asked why one book should be approved and the other
condemned, when both taught the same doctrine?
and an attack on de Noailles, called " Le Probleme
Ecclesiastique," appeared in 1699. The Archbishop,
who hated the Jesuits, and was very generally sus
pected of being a Jansenist at heart, was convinced
that they were the authors of this attack, and he
succeeded in getting a decree from the Parliament
ordering it to be burnt Soon after a new edition of
Quesnel's book being called for, the Archbishop
asked Bossuet to undertake its revision, and he
brought out accordingly an " Avertissement,'" as a.
Preface to the new edition, which professed to rectify
errors and make the book sound; but Quesnel declined
so cumbrous" an appendage to his work, and the Arch
bishop refused his approbation. Accordingly the book
was published in its original shape without that appro
bation, and eventually condemned as Jansenist by
Clement XL in 1708.2 Another affair in which Bos
suet was concerned during his last years arose out of
the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, " that national
error," as it has been well called by M. de Saint-Lam-
' CEuvres, vol. iii. p. 305.
2 Lachat, Remarques Historiques, vol. iii. p. vi.

53° BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.
bert, — for there can be no doubt that it was a national
act, sanctioned by public opinion, and not merely an
individual act of Louis XIV. or his government. We
have not space here to go into the many evils arising out
of this unhappy measure, or to recapitulate the scenes
of persecution and blood which stained too many
provinces of France, where the spirit of a Fenelon in
Poitiers didnotguidewhatwere called missionary efforts.
The death of Louvois and the Peace of Ryswick (1697)
led to milder measures, and Bossuet entered into a
correspondence with M. de Basville, Intendant of
Languedoc, and her Bishops, — Mirepoix, Nimes,
Montauban, and Rieux, — in which he advocated the
cause of gentleness and tolerance — a line he had
always pursued in his own diocese, as we have already
seen. Two Pastoral Instructions,1 published in 1700
and 1701, enter fully into Bossuet's opinions on this
subject. His active brain and pen were also engaged
in the renewal of a most interesting attempt to bring
about reunion between the German Lutherans and the
Church of Rome — an attempt which indeed requires
a history to itself in any way to do it justice, but
which nevertheless we may glance at, not only with a
view to its historical interest as a part of Bossuet's
theological career, but also as showing how very far
some of the greatest and largest-minded men of his
1 CEuvres, vol. xvii. p. 83.

PROJECTS OF REUNION. 537
day were prepared to go in the path of conciliation
and smoothing away hindrances to the reunion 01
Christendom. Some years previously certain steps had been
taken in this direction. After the signing of the
Treaty of Westphalia, Spinola, titular Bishop of Tina,
a very learned and conciliatory man, had made ad
vances towards the Lutherans and had astonished
many of them (so it is said) by showing that there
was not so wide a gulf as they imagined between the
Council of Trent and the Augsburg Confession. The
Emperor Leopold I. entered warmly into these pro
jects, and Spinola having been to Rome, and won the
approval of both Pope and Cardinals, was summoned
to the See of Neustadt, and forthwith entered into
communication with the Abbot of Lokkum, better
known as Van der Meulen, or Molanus, one of the
ablest and wisest among the Lutheran professors. A
document called " Regula circa Christianorum omnium
ecclesiasticum reunionem,"x supposed to be the work
of Molanus, was put forth in the name , of all the
theologians of Hanover; and the Bishop of Neustadt
at the same time consulted Bossuet as to their pro
jects, who conveyed in return an assurance of his own
interest and the favourable light in which these were
regarded by Louis XIV.
'. CEuvres, vol. xvii. p. 360.

538 BOSSUET S LAST DA YS.

A little later, and Bossuet was drawn more closely
into the matter. At that time the Princess Palatine,
a granddaughter of James I. of England, was Abbess
of Maubuisson. When an exile in Holland, after the
battle of Prague, she had forsaken Lutheranism and
become a fervent Catholic; and it was Louis XIV. who
had appointed her to the Abbey of Maubuisson.
Her sister, the Duchess Sophia of Hanover, who like
herself was , a clever and highly educated woman,
made acquaintance with Mme. de Brinon, already
mentioned as a great favourite of Madame de Main
tenon, and a leading spirit at Saint-Cyr. Having lost
her favour there, Mme. de Brinon was introduced
to Maubuisson by the Duchess of Hanover, where
she soon acquired a great influence over both the
royal sisters. Both were deeply interested in the
theological questions of the day, and both threw
themselves with ardour into the design of effecting a
reunion between the Lutherans and Catholics. The
great philosopher Leibnitz had entered into it, and
in July 1691 he wrote to Mme. de Brinon in earnest
language on the subject : — " All those," he says, " who
keep up the schism by throwing obstacles in the way
of reconciliation are the real schismatics, and those
who are ready to do whatever is possible to bring
about visible communion are true Catholics."' It is
1 CEuvres, vol. xviii. p. 118.

LEIBNITZ. 539

not quite clear whether the desire to bring the Bishop
of Meaux actively into the undertaking originated
with the ladies or with Leibnitz. The latter says,
"We are indebted to France for having preserved the
liberty of the Church against the infallibility of the
Popes, without which I believe the greater part of the
West would be already under the yoke ; " - and in a
letter written in the September following, the Duchess
of Hanover refers to Bossuet's having formerly seen
the projects entertained by the Bishop of Neustadt.
In a letter to Mme. de Brinon (Sept. 29, 1691),
Bossuet says, " I think that certain concessions might
be made to the Lutherans, such as Communion in
both kinds." 2
A Project of Reunion, drawn up in Latins by
Molanus and translated by Bossuet,4 shows the mind
in which both these learned and eminent men were
concerning so important a matter. Molanus asks
six things : (1) That the Lutherans may receive the
Blessed Sacrament in both kinds ; (2) That they may
not generally have to use solitary masses (although,
he says, they do not hold these as "simpliciter
illicita," s inasmuch, as in case of necessity, and
where there are no assistants, their celebrants may
communicate alone); (3) That they may retain their
1 CEuvres, vol. xviii. p. 119. 2 Ibid. p. 124.
3 Vol. xvii. p. 394. * Ibid. p. 432. 5 Ibid. p. 401.

540 BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.

doctrine of justification, which he defines as requiring
for the remission of sin, not only sorrow, but sole
trust in the death and merit of Jesus Christ, and a
firm resolution of amendment; (4) That the Pope
would acknowledge the marriages contracted by the
Lutheran Clergy, " every one agreeing that the celi
bacy of Priests is only an ecclesiastical institution,
which the Church can abrogate, and the Council
of Florence having permitted the Greek Priest to
many;" r (5) That the Pope should confirm and ratify
the Orders confened by Protestants hitherto ; and (6)
That the Pope should treat with such princes as
are in possession of Church territory, and bring
them to agree as to terms of reunion. These points
granted, Molanus says that the Lutherans are
ready —
(1) To acknowledge the Pope as first among Bishops,
and as sovereign Patriarch in order and dignity by
ecclesiastical right, especially as Patriarch of the West,
and to render him all due obedience in things
spiritual; (2) To accept all Roman Catholics as
brethren, notwithstanding their Communion in one
kind, and other matters, until a legitimate Council
shall decide thereon; and (3) To accept the Orders
and obedience of the Church.
Molanus then goes into the various controverted
' Vol. xvii. p. 437.

PROPOSITIONS OF MOLANUS. 541
points between Catholics and Protestants, most of
which he treats as more a question of words than
faith — such as " whether the Sacrament of the Altar
be a sacrifice," in which he believes them to agree ;
as to the doctrine of intention ; as to the number of
Sacraments, of which he says the only question is
whether all seven be " of like sort with Baptism and
the Eucharist;" as to justification, where he shows
that they are really at one; as to good works; as to
prayers for the dead, which, he says, many Protestants,
especially those of the Confession of Augsburg, use.
Of the Immaculate Conception alone he says, "All
Protestants reject it." Of the invocation of Saints,
Molanus says they are quite ready to accept it if
used as asking their intercession — if the prayer " Holy
Mary, deliver me in the hour of death," is to be
understood as meaning " Pray to Thy Son, that in the
hour of death He would deliver me." Purgatory
they are ready to accept as a " sententia problematica " '
with S. Augustine ; the Primacy, as already said, they
would accept, though not the infallibility of the Pope.
Monasticism and vows are an easy question, he says,
for some Protestants still retain them, together with the
rule of S. Benedict, and " those other matters which
are of primitive institution." 2
Upon this document Bossuet wrote a double dis-
1 Vol. xvii. p. 427. * p. 455.

542 BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.
quisition ; one in Latin1 for Molanus and his brother
theologians, which is in a strictly technical form, and
another in French, intended for the royal persons and
others interested in the question, called " Reflexions;"2
and written in a simpler, less severe style. He meets
the Lutheran Doctor in a most friendly spirit; though
of course on one demand, that of receiving the
Lutheran pastors " already ordained " as priests, there
eould be but one answer, that, never having received
the laying on of hands from the Episcopate, they are
not ordained at all, in fact are " simply laymen."
Bossuet sums up what he thinks the Pope might and
would grant — in which the last point is met by the
proposal to ordain and consecrate the pastors who
seek reunion as priests and bishops. Prayers and
hymns in the vulgar tongue in services, as also the
Bible generally (Bossuet volunteers that Luther's
version might be used, " because of its clearness and
elegance) ;" 3 Communion in both kinds ; " the retrench
ment in the worship of the saints or images of what
ever savours of superstition."4 Moreover, Bossuet held
out the prospect that the Pope might permit those
Lutherans who, being married, should receive Holy
Orders or Consecration, to retain their wives, their
successors being appointed from the celibate.5
1 Sententia Episcopi Meldensis, CEuvres, vol. xvii. p. 458.
2 Ibid. p. 548. 3 p. 589. 4 p. 590.
5 " Superintendentibus ac ministris in episcopos ac presbyteros

BOSSUET AND LEIBNITZ. 543
A most interesting correspondence between Bossuet
and Leibnitz followed,1 in which an elaborate discus
sion concerning Councils and their authority occurs1} —
one of the most interesting parts being on the Council
of Trent, respecting which Bossuet says, "There is no
hope of reunion if it is to be supposed that the deci
sions of that Council remain doubtful."2
As Leibnitz took more and more the lead, Molanus
dropped out of the correspondence, to Bossuet's regret,
for he always believed that the negotiation was more
likely to have borne fruit under his guidance than
under that of the more learned, perhaps, but less
devoted philosopher.
The correspondence dropped in 1694, but Leibnitz
renewed it in 1699, and some most learned letters
concerning the Vulgate, etc., 3 were exchanged during
the two following years. In 1701 the letters ceased,
ex hujusmodo pacti formula ordinatis, quandiu erunt superstites,
sua conjugia relinquantur ; ubi decesserint, coelibes praficiantur,
multa probatione, setate matura. "
This passage is not given in Lachat's edition of Bossuet's
" Sententia ; " probably on the ground that it was erased in the
original MSS. But Cardinal de Bausset, who cites it as a proof
of Bossuet's great desire for reunion, says that in that same
original manuscript there is a marginal note in the author's own
handwriting to the effect that the erased passage had nevertheless
been sent to Leibnitz and Molanus. And in 1702, writing to
Clement XI. on the same subject, Bossuet makes precisely the
same suggestion. — Histoire de Bossuet, vol. iv. p. 184.
' See CEuvres, vol. xviii. 2 Ibid. p. 216. 3 Ibid. p. 246, etc.

544 BOSSUE T'S LAST DA YS.
apparently without result ;J but just at the same time
Clement XL applied to Bossuet for counsel on the
same subject, the Duke of Saxe-Gotha having opened
communications with the See of Rome on the point
of reunion. Bossuet's first intention was to send the
Pope his writings on Molanus's propositions, but on
reflection he determined rather to write a fresh paper,"
which Le Dieu says he found, on careful examination,
to be an abridgment of the Bishop's former treatises,
" written with all the force of the first, only about half
the length, without dropping any of the quotations
from the Fathers," etc. The Abbe- Le Dieu says that,
while preparing this document, Bossuet went carefully
over his own " Histoire des Variations." 3 The wat
which absorbed the attention of all Europe in 1702
brought an end to all these hopes, and the interesting
papers connected with them remained lying by in
the Bishop of Troyes' study until 1753, when the Abbe"
Leroy published them, with other posthumous works
of Bossuet.
1 Bossuet seems to have hoped that, if seemingly in vain at the
time, these efforts would not be useless ultimately. Le Dieu
says, on August 12, 1701, that Bossuet closed his letter to
Leibnitz, which he sent to M. de Torcy, "saying, that it must
be hoped these things will have] their effects some day, if not
now." — Journal, vol. ii. p. 197.
2 De Professoribus Confessionis Augustance, CEuvres, vol.

xvm 3

Ibid. pp. 212, 213.

"HISTOIRE CRITIQUE!' 545
In 1 701, too, Bossuet published his second Instruc
tion Pastorale,1 already mentioned, answering the
minister Basnage : he wrote against a book published
by a Doctor of Sorbonne concerning Oriental reli
gions, which he considered dangerous, as "fostering
that indifference concerning all religions which is the
mania of our day." In 1702 he also wrote a large
critical work on a version of the New Testament put
forth by one Simon, an Oratorian, known as the Ver
sion de Trevoux : " and during his very last days he
was occupied in reviewing and adding to a manu
script begun in 1693, refuting the Histoire Critique
des principaux Commentateurs du Nouveau Testament;
as also Simon's work, and which was called Defense de
la Tradition et des Saints Peres ;3 as also a Dissertation
on Grotius."
Amid all this work, well-nigh too much one would
have thought for his declining strength, Bossuet met
with an annoyance which ruffled him exceedingly.
He did not find the authorities as ready as he thought
them bound to be in condemning Simon's book, or in
pressing his retractation of what Bossuet believed to be
serious errors therein, and he resolved himself to pass a
solemn censure upon it He waited for the Archbishop
of Paris to do the like, which was done, September 15,
. Vol. xvii. p. 143- ' Vo1- in- P- 372-
3 Vol. iv. * Vol. iii.
2 M

546 BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.
1702 ; and just as his own censure was about to follow,
Bossuet received tidings, that the Chancellor de Pont-
chastrain had forbidden its publication without the ap
probation of a doctor of theology— naming Pirot. Bos
suet had no objection to Pirot, with whom he frequently
took counsel concerning his theological works, but he
was deeply stung by the attempt to subject an act of his
episcopal jurisdiction to any priest, the rather that for
so great a length of time, during the rule of five
successive Chancellors, he had never been hampered
by any of these old and half-forgotten formalities.
There is something pathetic in the appeals1 of the aged
Bishop, who had done so much service to his Church
during the long years of toil which had whitened his
' " L'Eveque de Meaux se croit oblige de representer tres
humblement a sa Majeste le nouveau traitement qu'on lui fait,
au sujet d'un livre qu'il se croit oblige d'imprimer contre la version
et les notes du Nouveau Testament de Trevoux. . . . On lui fait
des incidens, sur lesquels il ne croit pas devoir passer outre, sans
les avoir exposes a sa Majeste en toute humilite et respect. Cet
eveque ecrit depuis trente a quarante ans pour la defense de
1'Eglise contre toutes sortes d'erreurs ; et cinq chanceliers de
France consecutifs, depuis M. Seguier, y compris celui qui
remplit si bien aujourd'hui cette charge, lui ont toujours fait
expedierle privilege, sans le soumettre jamais a aucun examen.
. . . L'Eveque de Meaux esperede la bonteet de la justice de Sa
Majeste. . . . afin de laisser la reputation saine et entiere a un
EvSque qui a blanchi dans la defense de la vraie foi, et dans le
service de Sa Majeste, en des emplois d'une si grande confiance."
— Mimoire au Roi, vol. xxxi. p. 67.

CONTEST WITH THE CHANCELLOR. 547
head and worn out his strength, against what he felt
to be an insult both to his order and himself.
"It would be very painful to me," he says, writing
to Cardinal de Noailles, " to be the first to under
go this severe treatment, but the worst is that it is
only a step towards subjecting others to the like
yoke. ... I implore Madame de Maintenon's help,
although I dare not write to her for it. Your Emi
nence will do what is right. May God keep you."'
Not finding the Cardinal's advocacy sufficiently active,
Bossuet went to Paris, and sought a special interview
with the King on the subject which so sorely tried
him. Several audiences took place between Louis
XIV. and his venerable Bishop, and at last, after
many difficulties and formalities, almost as though the
matter in hand were a treaty of peace between two
great belligerent nations, the King brought about
"a I'aimable" (says the Abbe* Le Dieu), a conference
between Bossuet, de Noailles and the Chancellor, the
result of which was that the latter consented to allow
Bossuet to publish his book and his censure upon
Simon, as of old, without interference. But it took
four hours' hard fighting, though at last Bossuet re
mained "very much satisfied, not for his own sake only,
but for that of all the Bishops." A few days later Anis-
son, the publisher, who had first received the order not
* Vol. xxxi. p. 65.

548 BOSSUE T'S LAST DA YS.
to print Bossuet's Ordonnance, came to say that he had
received the Chancellor's orders to print whatever the
Bishop of Meaux pleased!' There were some uneasy
passages yet to come between him and Cardinal de
Noailles about the same condemnation ; and as one
glances wearily along the discussion and its various
details and intrigues, a humiliating sense of the little
ness of all men, even the learned and good, will
come sadly across one.
But one more public question of theology saw
Bossuet putting out his eagle strength, nor would it
now be worth dwelling upon, save as his last effort.
It is known in the interminable contest between
Jesuits and Jansenists as the Cas de Conscience, and
turned upon the kind of submission due to the Pope's
utterances on Jansenism ; — a majority of Doctors of
the Sorbonne granting that " a respectful silence" was
sufficient obedience. Cardinal de Noailles was sup
posed by some to wink both at the question and
answer, — if not more. Bossuet was applied to, and, as
his secretary says, he at once "took fire."2 He fore
saw that the King would probably ask his opinion in
the matter, and forthwith he began to read up the
subject with all the energy of forty years back ! He
wrote upon it also, and finished his " Riflexions sur le
Cas de Conscience" on Jan. n, 1703. The stir in the
1 Journal, vol. ii. p. 332. 2 Ibid. p. 357.

"CAS DE CONSCIENCE." 549
religious world was great, and the Jesuits — who had
never been Bossuet's special friends — were diligent in
seeking him, and urging him onVards. The whole
thing is tedious in detail, but it is interesting to see
Bossuet throwing himself laboriously into it, and
declaring that he " wished to do this one service
yet for the Church." ' He was writing " Sur I 'Auto-
rite des Jugemens Eccl'esiastiques" and studying, making
copious extracts with his own hand, collating, etc.,
up to the time when bodily suffering overpowered
even his iron will, and he was constrained to pause.
This manuscript has been lost.
Nor was it only in great matters of theology that
the old Bishop's marvellous energy was displayed.
Through these latter years his perpetual journeyings
to and from Paris and Versailles, to Meaux and
Germigny, to Conflans, Saint-Germain, and other
places, must have been wearying to a younger man ;
and latterly movement, especially in a caniage, had
become a serious evil to him.
Bossuet's health had always been good ; — one never
finds him hindered in his work by the ordinary
ailments from which the generality of men suffer
occasionally. The Abbe* Le Dieu, whose Journal is
an amusing medley of the gravest affairs of Church
and State with the minutest details of the Bishop's
1 Journal, vol. ii. p. 443.

550 BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.
physical condition, mentions latterly some small
internal derangements, together with the detail of
their treatment, but it is rare that any work or duty
is omitted. In 1699 an attack of erysipelas caused
some anxiety at his age ; and the results were very
weakening, so that for the first time he had to dis
continue the practice of abstinence in Lent, by his
doctor's orders. He used to compare himself to Job,
and say he was "ulceribus plenus;" but he was not
obliged to stop any of his usual work, except that
of preaching, which the physicians forbade on the
curious ground, that he preached with so much ani
mation as to involve a risk of poisoning the wounds
formed by his complaint ! However, his strong consti
tution threw off all this malady, and all through the
time immediately following we find him working in a
way which would have been thought excessive by
many far younger men. All through his residence at
Saint-Germain, during the Assembly, we have seen
how incessant his work was, and on his return to
Meaux he continued a ceaseless round of diocesan
toil. One while (Nov. 14, 1700) he is receiving
Sisters of Charity for the Hospital, and meeting all
the town Clergy in conference' — then holding a large
Ordination, spending much time in individual instruc
tion to his Ordinands2 on New Year's Day 1701, and
1 Le Dieu, vol. ii. p. 163. ' Ibid. p. 167.

LAST DIOCESAN SYNOD. 551
receiving all the civic authorities after having said Mass
in his own chapel, and assisted at the Cathedral High
Mass, as also at Vespers and Sermon; holding the
Assemblie des Syndics du Clergk one morning, and in
the afternoon of the same day that of the Dames de la
Charite; — as usual celebrating pontifically and preach
ing on all great festivals, frequenting his Seminary,
holding his Synod, in the course of which he suddenly
rose, and, holding his square cap in one hand, raised
the other to his head, saying, —
" My very dear brethren, these white hairs Warn me
that I must soon appear before God and give account
of my ministry, and that this is perhaps the last time I
shall address you. I intreat you, by the bowels of His
Divine Compassion, do not let all that I have said fall
fruitless from my lips, so that the Lord should reproach
me when I come before Him with not having fulfilled
my duty towards you. Let your conduct prove that my
word has not been barren. I take our Divine Saviour
to witness, that throughout my episcopate I have never
had any other intention than that of leading you to fulfil
the duties of your holy calling worthily, a calling on
which the salvation of the people committed to you
depends. I hope you will not deny me the consola
tion I expect from you, and that in our last hour our
Divine Master will not reproach either you for not
having profited by that which He committed to me

552 BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.
on your behalf, or myself for having held back such
teaching as to the duties of your office."1 Again we
find him settling parish affairs, taking part in the Jubilee
services of 1702, preaching — sometimes for an hour at
once — "with a full clear voice," receiving every one
who wished to see him ; — and all this together with
constant and close literary work. Le Dieu constantly
records long hours spent over his Defensio, which he
was revising, as also his Politique Sacree, " for which
he was continually studying Holy Scripture," and
other former writings, besides a fresh work on the
Apocalypse, concerning which Le Dieu says, " M. de
Meaux can hardly leave working at his book on the
Apocalypse for a moment"2 His diversion* seems to
have been versifying the Psalms, and constantly when
travelling, if he had no other work of importance, he
would produce a metrical version of some psalm at the
end.3 His hospitality too, which was great, must have
been a certain strain upon him. The Abbe* Le Dieu
chronicles a succession of guests wherever Bossuet
was, but chiefly at Germigny, where he continually
' Quoted from the Journal de Verdun, by Cardinal de Baus
set, vol. iv. p. 356.
2 Ibid. p. 263.
3 Those who wish to study Bossuet's poetry will find it in the
26th vol. of his works ; but it is noways remarkable or very
interesting, and his reputation as an author depends rather on
his prose than his poetry.

FAMILY TIES. 553

found time for a walk in the woods with his intimates,
where they would often read aloud, as in the " Philo
sophers' AlleV' at Versailles. His relations were
almost always living upon him, and bringing all
their friends and connections to his house. Bossuet's
favourite brother, father to the Abbe" Bossuet, died
during the excitement of the Cambrai affair, and the
Abbess letters are interspersed with pious reflections
and commonplace lamentations for his father, and
intreaties to his uncle to send him money. Bossuet
himself evidently felt his brother's death very much.
Writing to M. de la Broue from Versailles, Feb. 24,
1699, he says: "No one knows better than you,
Monsieur, what I have lost ; — such a brother, such
a friend — so gentle, so wise, so straightforward ! He
was everything to me. God has taken it all from me,
and I feel so left alone, that I hardly know how to go
on. I can only say, God is my Master, and a good
Master too, and Jesus Christ will keep His Word and
supply the place of all He takes away."' Two of
Bossuet's sisters died at a short interval before himself
— Mme. de Chasot in Feb. 1702, and Mme. Foucault
in June 1703, the latter seemingly in his apartments
in Paris, where, during a long illness, Le Dieu says that
her cheerful patience and intellectual conversation
attracted every one, so that her room was not only
' CEuvres, vol. xxx. p. 262.

554 BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.
the rendezvous of all the family, but of all her
brother's distinguished visitors.'
During the last years of Bossuet's life, his nephew
the Abbd appears perpetually, and not in at all a
favourable light, or one calculated to make one forgive
his intriguing persecution of Fenelon. Numerous
passages in Le Dieu's Journal have been erased which
recorded his selfish views, his neglect of his uncle, and
even still more discreditable things. Probably the
Abb^ Le Dieu made these erasures himself when the
acrimony he felt towards his master's nephew had worn
off with time, although, to say the truth, it was but a
sparring friendship (if such a name may be profaned
as between them !) which they kept up : " Je n'y
reconnois aucune apparence d'amitid veritable ni de
cordialite'," Le Dieu says, November 1706; and they
seldom concluded an interview " sans nous dire
assez nos v&itds" (October 1709, vol. iv. p. 260); in
other words, expressing mutual distrust and dislike —
only holding together inasmuch as to a certain degree
each served the other's interests. But there are often
words left indicating the tendency of the passages, and
without these, quite enough of the ordinary entries in
the Journal remain to characterise the A006 Bossuet.
His natural disposition3 seems to have been captious
1 Journal, vol. ii. p. 446.
2 Le Dieu talks of his " vetilleries. "-— Vol. ii. p. 393,

BEGINNING OF LAST ILLNESS. 555
and troublesome ; and work went well when " the
Abbe" — perpetually contradicting all that is good, but
not choosing to do any himself" — was absent'
From the time Jacques Bossuet was in Rome, when
he was always urging his uncle to forward his interests,
he seems to have aimed at succeeding him at Meaux,
and his love of intrigue and manoeuvring found full
scope during the remainder of the Bishop's life in this
direction. Doubtless it casts a blemish over the
memory of the uncle, but it is only fair to remember
that when he yielded to the self-seeking urgency of his
nephew he was an old man, and daily growing weaker
under the pressure of severe bodily pain and its weak
ening influences. Although as late as the end of 1700
the watchful Secretary pronounced his master " per
fectly well," it was not so. As far back as 1696,
Bossuet had had premonitory symptoms, to which
unfortunately sufficient heed had not been given, but
the evil advanced, and on November 30, 1701, after
a long morning's work at his MS. on the Apocalypse,
Le Dieu was surprised to find Bossuet awaiting the
visit of Du Verney, a celebrated Parisian surgeon. A
few days later, Dodart, his ordinary medical attendant,
told the secretary that Bossuet was suffering from
stone, but that he might live twenty years yet before
it became acute or dangerous. At the same time
' Ibid. vol. ii. p. 396.

556 BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.
the doctors recommended him to travel as little as
possible, to have softer springs put to his carriage, and
even to set up a litter for his ordinary and inevitable
journeys. This was done, and Bossuet submitted to
such regime and precautions as were prescribed : he
was no longer permitted to keep abstinence, and Le Dieu
was sent to the Curd of Versailles to ask a dispensa
tion for the venerable Bishop in the Lent of 1702, on
the ground of his seventy-five years of age, — he would
not allow any other reason to be pleaded. That
Christmas Eve (1701) for the first time he was absent
from midnight Mass, " not," he said, " that it is neces
sary, but they say I must take care of myself." Month
by month his state of health evidently grew more
serious, and as that worsened, the restless activity of
Jacques Bossuet and his brother and sister increased.
The former was perpetually travelling backwards and
forwards between Meaux, Paris, and Versailles, be
sieging every one likely to forward his views, and
winning for himself the nickname of " l'Abbe neveu
qui va de porte en porte." '
For reasons best known to himself, Jacques Bossuet
wished to conceal the fact of his uncle's declining
health from the world, and even after fresh attacks
had led to further consultation with de Tournefort and
Mareschal, a celebrated operator, he pretended not to
1 Journal, vol. ii. p. 402.

ABBE BOSSUET'S SELFISHNESS. 557
believe in the real state of the case even to Le Dieu,
bidding him " think what he pleased about the illness,
but say nothing." The fact was he wanted to keep
Bossuet at the Court until such time as he should
have obtained a promise of succeeding him ; and even
when the Bishop was perfectly unfit to move, the
selfish man urged his going to Versailles in his capa
city of Chaplain to the Duchess of Bourgogne with
this object. Bossuet himself used to speak as though
he were looking to the fatal termination of his malady,
and he told those around him that he never had the
22nd Psalm, " My God, my God, why hast Thou for
saken me ?" out of his mind ; that he went to sleep
and woke up repeating it, calling it " the psalm of
death," as consecrated by the Saviour in His own
Agony ; adding that it was " full of confidence, and
there is nothing like confidence as a preparation for
death."1 Early in 1703, Fagon, the King's chief physician, was
also called into consultation, but on the Ember Sunday
of that Lent, Bossuet held his Ordination as usual, hav
ing travelled to Meaux in his litter. Le Dieu remarked
on Palm Sunday that the Bishop was evidently in
great suffering while saying Mass (he was then once
more at Versailles), and the doctors would not allow
of his return to Meaux. In fact, on Maunday Thursday
1 Journal, vol. ii. p. 289.

558 BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.
they ascertained past question the nature of his dis
ease, and he was so overcome at the prospect of an
operation, that the four doctors decided to give up
any idea of it. Distress of mind and physical pain
combined altogether upset his strong mind, and for a
short time Bossuet lost self-control and consciousness.
The Abbd Bossuet played upon this weakness in a
cruel and selfish manner, continually working upon his
uncle's mind, and for the moment displaying an assi
duity in attendance upon him which unhappily was by
no means uniform. Both he and the Louis Bossuets
had the meanness to complain on all sides that the
Bishop had done nothing for him. All possible pres
sure was brought to bear upon the sick man, even appar
ently through his ordinary confessor, Pere Damascene,
a Trinitaire of Meaux, whom the Abbd Bossuet sum
moned to Versailles at his uncle's desire,1 and who
was greatly courted by himself and his brother. Bos
suet also sent for Pere de Riberolles, the Superior of
his Seminary, and Saint- Andre, his Grand Archidiacre,
and Prior of Varelles. Writing to the former, he says,
' The beginning of a note from Bossuet himself to this reli
gious, written on that trying Maunday Thuisday, was found
after his death : "Paris, Avril $, 1703.
"J'ai un extreme besoin, mon reverend Pere, que vcus veniez
ici au plut6t pour me determiner a la taille, qu'il faudrc peut-etre
souffrir au premier jour. " . . .

INTRIGUES FOR THE SEE. 559

" I am awaiting you anxiously to receive from you the
spiritual consolations of which I have need in my pre
sent painful position." And when they came, he said
to them that he had long known what awaited him,
but he had not wished to distress others by speaking
of it, " but now it is decided, and I have every reason
to believe that the malady is serious, and will kill me."1
Soon after this, the Bishop himself told Le Dieu
about his malady, adding that there was nothing for
him to do but to lie still under God's Hand, accepting
His Will, and trusting everything to His Mercy. The
Abbd too took the Secretary into his confidence as to
his uncle's condition ! and talked of the impossibility
of working under another Bishop of Meaux, the " triste
vie" of an ecclesiastic living in Paris without employ
ment, and much more, with the object of making Le
Dieu say that he ought to be appointed as coadjutor.
Certainly one would have respected Le Dieu if he had
not done so, but he does not seem to have felt guilty
of any meanness in accepting the bait he saw offered ;
and he records of himself, that he " did not fail to tell
Jacques Bossuet how well the Bishopric would suit
him, et le reste /" ° Thereupon the Abbe- poured out
the most extravagant flatteries upon the Secietary,
with innumerable professions of his own intended good
1 De Bausset, Hist, de Bossuet, vol. iv. p. 364.
2 Journal, vol. ii. p. 412.

560 BOSSUE TS LAST DA YS.
deeds, and rewards for those who had served his uncle
well ! Le Dieu took all this for what it was worth ;
and as a proof that the Abbd wanted to conciliate
every one in his own favour, " even me, though I can
be of no possible use to him!" He proceeded to
abuse his former friend and colleague in dirty work at
Rome, Phelippeaux, — all in the strictest confidence, —
only, says Le Dieu, with a gleam of fun, Phelippeaux
had been beforehand with him, and had been abusing
the Abbd " The sum of the whole thing is," says
Le Dieu, " that he wants to get the Bishopric of
Meaux, and to make us all feel that it is through that
means that he can reward us. He ended by begging
for my friendship, making many excuses for all the
raillery I have often had to put up with from him."
It must be confessed that the worthy secretary had
somewhat of the Boswell in him, and the simplicity
with which he records his own inquisitiveness and
anxiety to find out all that was going on is very
amusing. - After the above conversation he went to
the ArchevSchd, where his curiosity was still more
piqued at finding the Abbe" Bossuet's carriage waiting,
while the Abbe" himself was closeted with the Cardinal.
A day or two later the Bishop of Meaux told Le Dieu
he was going to Versailles; the secretary remonstrated
because of the discomfort and risk of the trajet, and
asked if any important business took him there?

LAST STA Y AT VERSAILLES. 561
Bossuet answered in the negative — "it was only to
show himself;" and Le Dieu was more than ever con
vinced that it was on his nephew's behalf this was
needed. The following week Le Dieu spoke to Pirot,
the Sorbonne Doctor, of the necessity of giving the
Bishop of Meaux a coadjutor who would do the work
for which he was now unable, suggesting that his
nephew would be the best person, and also that he,
M. Pirot, should propose it to the Bishop. Pirot
replied, "with an affirmative interrogation," "Is not
the Abbe" Bossuet seeing to it himself?" The said
Abbe1 seemed to think his prospects good. He was
walking with Le Dieu in the Pepiniere du Route, and,
as they admired the orange trees there, Le Dieu said,
on purpose to draw him out, that he hoped the Abbe
would see M. de Meaux' orange trees as fine some
day. " I hope nothing about it," was the answer.
Meanwhile the Bishop was nursing himself up to go to
Versailles, and there were endless private consultations
between him and his nephews. Le Dieu thought that
he was feeling reluctant to resign his post to Jacques
Bossuet. Since the last attack of illness the Bishop
had given up his usual hard study, and now spent all
his spare time in meditation on Holy Scripture, which
Le Dieu says he always found him reading. Some
times he read Fleury's Church History, and he asked
for Eusebius and St. Cyprian, which he took to Ver-
2 N

562 BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.
sailles, where, on April 29th, he himself went; and, on
May 1st, in a private audience of Louis XIV., he pre
sented a memorial to the King, asking that his nephew
might be appointed his coadjutor, or, if His Majesty
pleased, his successor — in which case he would imme
diately resign. He appealed both to Madame de
Maintenon and Cardinal de Noailles to forward his
wishes, which, however, he kept veiy secret, giving it
to be generally supposed that his interview with the
King had turned upon some totally different subject.
The King was prepared for the application by Madame
de Maintenon, and, instead of a gracious assent, such
as, probably, the venerable Bishop expected, Louis
XIV. only answered, " I will see — it is a thing which
requires great consideration.'"
Nothing more was heard about the matter for a time.
The Abbe" Bossuet pined in restless anxiety and vexa
tion, in a rage with his friends — whom he thought
played him false — especially with Cardinal de Noailles,
for whom, as he said, he had worked so hard at Rome
in the Cambrai matter ; and even sulking towards his
uncle, because his application had not succeeded;
dining alone, and supping and spending the evenings
with his sister-in-law, Mme. Bossuet, although he knew
his uncle liked to have him at his table, and leaving
the Bishop to go out accompanied by Le Dieu only.
' Hist., vol. iv. p. 369.

HIS NEPHEWS' NEGLECT. 563

His brother was equally neglectful. In June, no
answer having yet been given by the King, the Abbe
Bossuet became quite ill, and he told Le Dieu that it
was from distress and anxiety, arising, however, as he
said, from the illness of Mme. Bossuet and that of his
uncle, which he professed to have allowed to be a cause
of too great grief to him. " It is all a pure pretence,"
says the Abbe" Le Dieu, "for Mme. Bossuet is in better
health than she ever was, and M. de Meaux is so well
that one can only hope he may continue so, so that
the Abbd ought to be as glad now as he was sorry ;
and why then does his anxiety continue ? why should
his blood be so hot and his temper so sharp that he
cannot bear the least thing to be said contrary to his
own opinion ? The real reason is his keen annoyance
and anger at seeing himself excluded from the
Bishopric of Meaux." '
It is painful to think of Bossuet's last days being
clouded by the perverse and selfish ingratitude of the
nephew for whom he had done so much, and to whose
unworthiness possibly natural affection blinded him,
though so keen-sighted a man, with such long experi
ence of the world, could hardly help being conscious
of the Abbess real character.
If his nephew neglected the aged Bishop his friends
did not Cardinal de Noailles, Pirot, and Fleury
1 Journal, vol. ii. p. 443.

564 BOSSUE T'S LAST DAYS.
especially were his constant visitors — the latter some
times spending several hours reading the Bible to him,
a companion rarely out of his hand.' Le Dieu persisted
in trying to think him "a merveille" but even he is ob
liged to own that "those from without think him weaker
and sinking." He often heard Mass only, instead of
celebrating himself; and the Journal frequently records
that he went from his chapel back to his bed exhausted,
although perhaps the next entry may be that he
"worked as usual." The vigorous brain and fertile intel
lect would struggle as long as it was possible against the
steady advance of pain and infirmity. Early in August
the Marquise d'Albgre, after an interview with Bossuet,
told Le Dieu that she had never seen him so alive to
all that concerned religion — love of the Church, the
purity of her doctrine, or the Goodness of God and
the devotion due to His Service.
On Friday, August 16, 1703, the Bishop of Meaux
went in his litter to Versailles, where he wished to
present his book (the second Instruction against Simon)
to the King, which accordingly he did on the Sunday
at the lever, but he was so tired with the exertion that
he had to go to bed afterwards without even hearing
Mass. The Bossuets kept goading him to take
measures concerning the See, and the Louis Bossuets
came to stay with their uncle in order to be present,
Journal, vol. ii. p. 460.

THE ABBE BOSSUET. 565

as they hoped, at their brother's appointment. Mme.
Bossuet, to whom Le Dieu paid his respects while at
her toilette, talked eagerly of the nomination, which
was daily expected. An audience which they made
the Bishop ask of Madame de Maintenon seems not
to have been granted till later on, — probably both
she and the King felt uncomfortable at wounding the
aged prelate with whom they had been so closely
bound for so many years, and yet one cannot but see
plainly how much there must have been to lead Louis
XIV. to refuse promotion to "le neveu qui va de porte
en porte." Probably, considering how fast Bossuet's
health was failing, the King hoped to avoid having to
give a direct refusal; — anyhow, when on August 15th
the nominations to bishoprics, eagerly awaited by the
"famille Bossuet," were made public, appointments
were made to Narbonne, Alby and Montauban, but
Meaux was not mentioned. The Louis Bossuets went
off at once, and Jacques Bossuet, who was at Meaux,
arrived shortly at Versailles, "upsetting the whole
house with his contemptuous proud temper."
All the Bishop's friends were distressed at the whole
episode, — probably they were quite sufficiently alive
to his nephew's failings, and to the unlikelihood that
his ambitious desires would be gratified, and the Court,
whose very atmosphere was one of intrigue and self-
seeking, was fully aware of the undignified position of

566 BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.
petitioner into which the aged Bishop was forced.
His friends grieved, those who were indifferent pitied
him, and hardened old courtiers laughed at him.
One would exclaim, " Courage, M. de Meaux ! you
will succeed in time ! " Another, " Poor M. de
Meaux, he is well out of it ! " and the greater part
added, "Why does he not go home and die chezluii"
Madame de Maintenon herself expressed astonishment
at the Bishop's remaining at Versailles, and asked
" s'il vouloit done mourir a la Cour ? " ' Even the
Bishop of Amiens, one of Bossuet's tried friends, spoke
with distress to Fleury about the obvious meaning of
the sick man still lingering at Court. " It is too sad
to see so wise and learned a man, so respected for his
great powers, become the laughing-stock of a malicious
Court, for want of courage to act for himself, and go
home to prepare peaceably for death. Let him get
this business of the Bishopric of Meaux settled quickly,
and may God inspire him with a mind to do the only
thing which beseems his own credit and the general
edification." 2
Friends urged his return, one M. Tanel especially
pressed his going to Germigny urgently. " It is true,
I ought to be there," Bossuet replied — "but  "
The "but" doubtless was the urgency of Jacques
Bossuet, who apparently however kept up the game
1 Journal, vol. iii. p. 6. J Ibid. vol. ii. p. 469.

INCREASING ILLNESS. 567

through his uncle, and also himself continued to seek
interviews with Pfere de la Chaise, etc. All this constant
harass and annoyance brought on fever, and (August
26) the Bishop's mind wandered, and he was not in a
condition to receive the Sacraments. He was re
peatedly bled, and large doses of quinine were given.
As soon as his recollection returned, Bossuet asked to
see the Cure of Versailles, M. Hubert, to whom he
made his confession, and the nephews took good care
to see to his secular affairs, which indeed he had for
long left far too much to them. He made his Secretary
write to Meaux, commending him to the prayers of
the Chapter, adding that he hoped to go and die
among them. "Dieu veuille lui en jaire la grace!"
piously adds the Abbe" Le Dieu. Bossuet probably
did really wish to go there, for soon afterwards he
spoke of Germigny, and how refreshing its pure air
would be ; and Dodart told the Abbe" Fleury that the
Bishop had still strength to move, and might go to
Meaux, and that as there was now nothing to be done
for the complaint, he would be better there than else
where. But the Abbd Bossuet pressed the doctors to
treat it as impossible, as his object was to keep his
uncle near the Court to the last, always hoping that
his great influence with the Kin„ and Madame de
Maintenon might at last succeed. Le Dieu himself
thought the time for moving past, and wrote, "We
are here for life and death."

568 BOSSUE T'S LAST DA YS.
Fever returned from time to time, when the Bishop
lost consciousness, which distressed him lest he should
die without the Sacraments. On September 8, he got
up at six o'clock, and had himself carried to the Chapel,
where the Curd of Versailles communicated him. At
this time he was clearly getting worse, and his re
moval to Paris was earnestly desired by all except
the selfish nephews, whose solicitude seemed con
fined to their uncle's money ; the Abbd receiving his
appointemens, which amounted to 17,000 francs; while
he intreated M. Tanel, who had got the necessary
orders for him, to say nothing about it, lest he should
be bothered with clamorous debtors.1 Both brothers
wanted to get possession of the Bishop's manuscripts,
the Abbd under pretence of wishing to read the Poli
tique, while the layman (maitre des requites) inquired
about them simply as so much property. "Voila
de bons m'enagers qui ne veulent rien perdre ! " exclaims
the Secretary, to whom they separately applied.
At length, Sept. 20, Bossuet was moved to Paris
— on "the most beautiful day of the whole year."
He was carried by porters to Sevres, and proceeded
thence in a boat, and was not the worse for the
1 "Voila le fond de cceur de Messieurs les neveux! " writes Le
Dieu, " et fiez-vous-y pour les legs, le testament, et les dettes de
M. de Meaux, sur lesquelles choses ils lui ont tous trois donne
tant de belles paroles ! " — Journal, vol. iii. p. 5.

FINAL MOVE TO PARIS. 569

journey. For a time the invalid seemed better ; he
heard Mass most days in his own chapel, he was
frequently able to saunter about the garden of the
Hotel de Coislin, and even sometimes in the Tuileries,
and he received many visitors; — Bourdaloue, Pere de
la Chaise, De la Rue, the Archbishop of Rheims, and
many others, were continually around him. On the
7th October, he said cheerfully, " I see that God means
to preserve me;" and then after Le Dieu had read the
14th chapter of S. John to him, he said, "That is
my greatest comfort One must thank God for giving
such comfort in trouble, for I should break down
without it"
There was a strong natural clinging to life in
him, which seems to have surprised the Abbe" Le
Dieu, who expresses his wonder that the Bishop's
" constant meditation on the Gospels should not
have extinguished it." But probably he was not
able to appreciate the keen intellectual vigour which
remained unimpaired in spite of bodily pain and weak
ness, and which finds actual pleasure in exercise and
work so long as it lasts. There is no sign of a want
of resignation in the records of Bossuet's last days,
and he frequently spoke of Psalm xxii., and other parts
of Holy Scripture specially referring to death, as his
constant food and mainstay. He even from time to
time dictated some meditations on that Psalm. The

570 BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.
Bible was his first study in the morning, and the last
at night after he had finished his Offices, and during
his illness he had the Gospel of S. John read through
to him no less than sixty times, besides returning con
tinually to the 6th, 15th, and 16th chapters, and
various passages from S. Paul's Epistles which dwell
most specially on confidence in God's Love and
Mercy. The Abb^ de Saint- Andr^, who was much with
him during the latter part of his illness, says that
Bossuet sometimes would make him read over the
same chapter five times running, while he sucked up
its strength and consolation. The same Priest records
that one day after Bossuet had made him read a suc
cession of passages from Holy Scripture touching on
predestination, he fell into deep meditation, during
which Saint-Andre" did not like to disturb him. In
about a quarter of an hour, he burst out, raising him
self with eagerness as he spoke, " No, my God, I
cannot think that Thou hast given me such trust in
Thy goodness for nought ! My salvation is far safer
in Thy Hands than in mine. I give myself up to
Thee without any self-reliance, for it is impossible to
look at one's self apart from Thee, O God, without fall
ing into despair." Words such as these, Saint-Andre'
says, he repeated continually. But side by side with
his religious and devout preparation for the end which
could not be far off, his mental activity was marvellous,

LAST LITERARY EFFORTS. 571
and the eagle's wing did not fail in strength in pro
portion to the general decay. To say nothing of the
counsel given to others (for even on his deathbed
Bossuet was the one great theologian to whom all
his contemporaries turned, and we find Archbishops,
Bishops, Doctors, and Abbe's consulting him on
writings of all kinds), he continued his own theological
and literary labours unremittingly. His Second In
struction on the Trevoux Version was finished in the
midst of keen bodily pain ; he worked on at his book
upon the Cas de Conscience so earnestly, that on Dec.
18, 1703, Le Dieu writes: "The Bishop's mind be
comes so excited about all these points, that unless
we divert it by reading or conversation he becomes
excited, and is restless and weary in consequence.
He said to me, ' In the midst of all this ' (his illness)
'I feel that I cannot do all this work. But God's
Will be done; I am prepared to die— God will know
how to raise up defenders for His Church. If He
should see fit to renew my strength, I will use it all to
this end.'"
Just before he grew so seriously ill, Bossuet had
been keen about revising and enlarging his " Politique
Sacrfe," and now at the last he frequently reverted to
it. He had his " Meditations" and " Elevations" read
to him, and talked of adding to them, and also his
" Histoire Universelle." " He is setting himself tasks

572 BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.
which he cannot live to accomplish," Le Dieu wrote
sorrowfully. Moreover, this Christmas, the very last
of his life, he published three letters addressed to M.
de Valincour, on the Prophecies of Isaiah, with which
were bound up the Paraphrase he had dictated of his
favourite Psalm xxii.1 This book was only given to
the public a few days before the author's death.
When the December Ordination came, Bossuet
took pleasure in seeing all the Ordinands of his friend
the Bishop of Condom, and entertained that prelate
at dinner, enjoying a little music in the evening, as he
often did ; and on Christmas Day — the last he was to
see on earth — he heard the usual three Masses, com
municating at the first, and "profiting by a ray of
sunshine to get a little walk." But through all this
activity there were frequent returns of sharp pain, and
on the first day of the New Year (1704), a fresh attack
of the disease which was killing him, accompanied
by fever and unconsciousness, made the physicians
think the end was near. He kept exclaiming, " I
don't know where I am ! what does all this mean ? "
and his groans were piteous to hear, now that he had no
power of controlling the expression of pain. However,
this attack subsided, and Bossuet's full mental vigour
returned, though not that of his body; he almost lived
upon quinine, and did not get beyond his arm-chair
1 CEuvres, vol. ii.

THE BOSSUETS. 573

by the fireside, except to hear Mass in his chapel,
which he continued to do regularly, whenever it was
possible to him to move. He liked to have his
friends round him, and the Abbe" Le Dieu is often
unable to restrain his indignation at the heartless way
in which the Louis Bossuets and their brother Jacques
forsook the Bishop's sick-room to amuse themselves
in the world," often leaving him alone, and returning
late in the night, or rather early in the morning. The
Bishop never complained. " I am glad they should
amuse themselves," he would say patiently, although
he found great comfort in being ministered to, " il se
console, pouvu qu'on soit avec lui," his secretary often
says. When no one was present to enliven him in the
evening, the Bishop used to have Tillemont's Life of
S. Augustine read aloud, and he sent for his own copy
of that book from Meaux, in order to mark it freely.
Some days he was very weak, and could only return
to his bed after Mass. " Thank God for giving rest
' Mme. Bossuet must have been a thoroughly worldly woman.
The gossip of Le Dieu lets this out on many occasions ; e.g. on
the death of her aunt the Comtesse de Novion, for which Mme.
Bossuet "fait bien la pleureuse," saying that she regretted her
" infmimenl parce qu'elle ttoit si amusantel c'est la raison que
Mme. Bossuet m'a dite a moi-meme." The worthy Abbe
moralises a little thereon: " Tel est l'esprit du monde; il ne
s'afflige pas du mort des justes a cause de leur piete, de leurs bons
exemples, mais parce qu'il perd eu eux des consolations sensibles et
des douceurs humaines : quelle amitie ! "—Journal, vol. iii. p. 38.

574 BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.
to my weakness," he would say at such times. But
even then he liked to be read to, and seemed unwill
ing to lose time. That January was a very severe
month, and tried the sick man much, a bad cold
adding to his discomforts. He was delighted when at
last a thaw came. " It is a real thaw, is it not ? " he
asked eagerly ; " we shall not have any more cold ? "
The Abbe" Bossuet was still intent on obtaining the
Bishopric of Meaux, and in October 1703 his uncle
signed his own resignation, with the hope of his
nephew's gratification. The Abbd himself seems to
have left no stone unturned, and was continually
flitting backwards and forwards to Versailles, making
up to every one who could by any possibility promote
his views. Evidently the King avoided a direct refusal
for his old friend's sake, perceiving that it was not for
long that these earthly matters would trouble him; but
the ambitious Abbd met with no success, though some
times when he returned from Versailles " pleasant and
gracious and speaking civilly to every one, contrary to
wont," his uncle's secretary supposed he must have
conceived fresh hopes.
Lent came (it fell early that year), and Bossuet sent
the Abbd Le Dieu to the Curd of Saint Roch, in whose
parish he was living, for a dispensation from abstinence.
His family set a less edifying example. The Abbd said
he had been ill last Easter in consequence of keeping

THE LAST LENT. 575

Lent, and dispensed himself or was dispensed." The
whole party of relations 2 (we should infer that the
Abbe" refrained, though Abbe- Rose was one of the
masqueraders) went off on Shrove - Tuesday after
supper to a masked ball, and stayed out all the night !
On Ash-Wednesday Mme. Bossuet got up at noon,
and hunied to the chapel to receive the ashes and hear
a late Mass which the Abbe" Le Dieu said for her
dying uncle, and then went back to bed. " Quelle
vie!" the Abbe" ejaculates.
Lent passed on — many visitors came daily to see the
sick man, — he was busy with the proofs of his last
book, but sharp pains often occurred, which were
more to be discovered by his altered countenance
than anything else; for he always strove to control
complaint. Some days he was too ill to see any one,
and after eight days of increasing suffering, one night,
after he was alone as he thought in bed, Le Dieu
heard him say to himself, " O my God ! what is this ?
I must resign myself!" His nights became extremely
suffering between pain and restlessness, and he could
1 "II fut malade l'annee derniere apres Paques d'avoir, — dit-il,
fait le careme ; ainsi il previent sagement cette annee la maladie
en laissant la le careme pour ceux qui, se portant bien, comme
il fait, n'ont d'ailleurs rien a craindre. " — Journal, vol. iii. p. 60.
2 The De Chasots — another nephew and his wife — seem also
to have quartered themselves upon the Bishop of Meaux
frequently.

576 BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.
only snatch a few moments of sleep at intervals; yet
notwithstanding this, on March 2nd, in spite of remon
strance, Mme. Bossuet gave a magnificent and noisy
entertainment " en gras et en maigre," in the Bishop's
house, while he lay dying and craving for quiet ! That
night was worse than usual, and the aged Bishop fell
the next day into the same state of unconsciousness
which had alarmed his doctors before ; and when this
passed away, his weakness was extreme, though his
mind was perfectly clear. He could hardly get from his
bed to his arm-chair, supported by two servants; his ema
ciation was extreme, and his face sunken and hollow.
One evening, as he was being supported thus to his
chair, one of his servants congratulated the Bishop on
moving more easily than he had done during the past
week, and said something about his recovery. Bos
suet checked him directly. " Hush ! " he said, " do not
flatter me." About this time, too, he began to hear
Mass in his room, having no longer strength to go to
his chapel ; and he evidently felt his end approaching,
saying to the doctors Dodart and Tournefort, who
were in constant attendance, "Anyhow, gentlemen,
you know what you are about ; — you will give me
notice when I ought to receive the last Sacraments."
He told the bystanders that during his seeming
unconsciousness he was meditating upon the words,
" Positus est hie in ruinam et in resurrectionem."

THE HOLY WEEK. 577
His friend, the Abbe Saint-Andre", was now sharing
in the attendance, and he says that Bossuet con
tinually consulted him and the Superior of the Semi
nary at Meaux (who also frequently came to see his
Bishop) on matters which concerned his own con
science, and that with such a touching simplicity, a£
to surprise and edify the two priests. On soms
occasion one of them expressed his astonishment
that one so learned and experienced should have
recourse on spiritual matters to those who were so
immeasurably his inferiors. "You are mistaken,"
Bossuet answered, " God only gives us light for other
men, He hides it from ourselves, and often leaves us
in the dark as to our own guidance."
March 15 th, de Tournefort thought the Bishop rather
stronger. "Do not deceive me," he said; "God's
Will be done : I am well aware how weak I am."
The next day he expressed a wish for the last Sacra;
ments. The Vicaire of Saint-Roch came on the 17th,
and confessed him, and after hearing Mass, for which
on this occasion he got into the chapel, he spoke
much of the blessing of dying at the time of our
Lord's Passion. That was Monday in Holy Week ;
and after Mass (during which he repeated the Creed
with singular energy and earnestness) he received the
Blessed Sacrament in viaticum, and afterwards said
the Te Deum, as thanksgiving, taking the alternate
2 o

57» BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.

verse in a strong voice, and he was even able to
remain and hear a second Mass. On e'ach day in
Holy Week he asked to have the Offices and Passion
read to him, and expressed his intense comfort from
the latter. On Good Friday (March 20) he had all
the service for the day read to him, and those portions
of the Epistle to the Hebrews which occur in the
Tenebrse; but later in the day he all at once became so
weak, that Dodart feared he might pass away suddenly,
and he could not bear even a familiar Psalm through
out. His own thoughts wearied him, he said, and,
characteristically enough, even his powerful memory
added just now to his trials, for certain Odes of
Horace would keep troubling it, and he had not
strength either to recall the literal words or to put the
whole thing away. Very wisely he asked to have the
Odes read to him, and thus was able to dismiss the
jscnnoyance. On Easter Eve the Bishop heard Mass from his
bed, and remained very feeble. Le Dieu was reading
the Offices aloud when the Abbd Fleury came to see
him, but Bossuet refused to admit Fleury, and was
impatient at the pause in those sacred words which
alone gave him comfort. As he grew weaker the
power of restraining his expressions of pain naturally
diminished, and frequent sickness added to his troubles,
" God's Will be done 1" was his constant exclamation.

INCREASING WEAKNESS. 579

During Easter Week he seemed a little better, sat
by his fire to dine, and was able to attend to reading,
hearing with interest a book, " De la Souverainete*
des Rois," said to be written by Quesnel, and the
Life of a Capucin Father Joseph. But when the
Abbe de Saint-Andre" returned from a necessary
visit to Meaux, he found his beloved chief very
markedly worse. Bossuet greeted him affectionately
as "bien arrivL" "I feel the machine going to
pieces," he said; "let us both ask God to give me
sufficient grace to bear patiently and die well. Let
us pray often," he added; " only but little at a
time, because of my pain. Let us say the Lord's
Prayer again and again, — that is the one most perfect
of all prayers, one which includes everything; and
pause particularly on the words, Fiat Voluntas
Tua."
Drowsiness increased upon the sick man, together
with weakness, and he could not hold up his head to
take his soup. One of his attendants settled it com
fortably. "All very well," he said patiently, "if it
would only stay so ! "
By April 1st he had lost almost all inclination to
take any nourishment, and lay in extreme weakness,
and for the most part silent, save that they often
heard him whisper, " My God, have pity on me ! "
or " Adveniat regnum Tuum," "Fiat Voluntas Tua."

580 BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.

The frightful way in which, according to the medical
notions of that day, he was drenched with physic,'
must have aggravated his weakness and discomfort as
much as it was possible to do. On the 7th the
doctors said nothing more could be done, and those
in charge proposed again to administer the last Sacra
ments. He made his confession to the Vicaire of
Saint-Roch that evening — his mind very active and
full of awe of God's Judgment, so he said himself.
But faith was no less alive in him, and he was in
perfect tranquillity, seldom speaking, never complain
ing, but full of. resignation, often ejaculating, " Fiat
Voluntas Tua." At six o'clock, on the morning of
April 8, Bossuet received Extreme Unction and the
Viaticum, making all the responses firmly, clearly and
devoutly, " without any ostentation, as docile as a
humble sheep iii the Church's common fold." He
had had some fears as to his power of swallowing, but
with the help of a little wine he was able to swallow
the Sacred Host.
The next day Cardinal de Noailles came to see
him, and the Abbe* Bossuet, who was present, asked
him to give his uncle a blessing. The Archbishop
1 "Avril2. J'ai l'estomac bien derange, disoit-il ce matin ;
cependant on lui donne mille drogues pour le lui fortifier et
nettoyer, mais tout sans effet. ... 3. Ces jours passes les
medecins ordonnerent jusqu'a douze grains par jour d'aloes,"
etc. — Journal, vol. iii. p. 92.

LAST SACRAMENTS. 581

did so, and asked his old friend in turn for his
benediction. Even so late as this Bossuet whispered
a commendation of his ungrateful nephew to the
Cardinal, who made a soothing reply.
All the natural functions of the sick man's frame
seemed paralysed save those of his mind, and the
physicians told the watchers that no help save in the
last prayers for the dying remained. On the night of
the 10th and nth, thinking the last hour was come,
the Abbe" Bossuet asked for his uncle's blessing,- and
the others all did the same.
The Abbe" Le Dieu spoke of his personal gratitude
to his master, and said something about his remember
ing the friends who had been so devoted to his
service and glory. The last word jarred on the dying
man's ear, already realising the utter worthlessness of
earthly glory and the nearness of Judgment, and he
raised himself with a momentary nervous strength
in his bed, and uttered distinctly, " Leave such words
alone. Ask God to forgive me my sins."
He sent a message of kindness to Mademoiselle de
Maule"on, and asked for M. Hebert, the Cure" of
Versailles, just nominated Bishop of Agen; but by the
time he anived his old friend was unable to speak
articulately, and M. Hubert could not understand any
thing he said. Through the day he rallied a little, and
about nine in the evening, when, noticing that his

582 BOSSUE T'S LAST DA YS.
hands and feet were struck with the death-chill, those
around began to say the prayers for the last agony,
the old Bishop roused himself from his lethargy, and
followed the prayers, devoutly making audible re
sponses. His sufferings became very severe, and the
attendants often heard him say in broken accents,
¦ "Domine, Vim patior, sed non confundor," "Scio
enim cui credidi," " flat voluntas tua."
Towards midnight he seemed to sleep, and all save
the Abbe" de Saint-Andre" went to bed, not expect
ing any immediate change. He however thought
differently, and remained closely watching beside his
dear old friend. He was right About three the Bishop
woke, and vainly endeavoured to swallow a spoonful
of bouillon. The Abbe" said a brief prayer, which
soothed him for a while; but towards 4 a.m. Saint-
Andre' found his pulse fast failing, and when he held
the Bishop's Crucifix before him, a sign with head and
hand was all Bossuet had strength to make. The
Abbe" said aloud some few passages from the Office
for the dying, and rather before half-past four the
venerable Bishop heaved two or three slight sighs,
and passed peacefully from this life. His faithful
Archdeacon closed his eyes, murmuring, "Truly a
great light is gone out, and there is a bright torch the
less in God's Church."
Directly that the Abbe" Bossuet was informed of his

HIS DEATH. 583

uncle's death, and denying the fact to such members
of the household as did not already know it, he went
off to Marly, where the King then was, and through
Pere de La Chaise obtained audience of Louis XIV.,
to whom he announced the departure of his long-tried
friend. The King was much touched, and before the
interview ended he appointed Jacques Bossuet to the
Abbey of Saint- Lucien de Beauvais. It was not what
the Abbe" wanted, but it was better than nothing, and he
came back cheerful and rejoicing to the house where
his great relative lay, still scarcely cold in death, and
where already his brother Louis had made haste to
seal up the cabinet where he had put their uncle's
plate, and another where his books were kept.
That afternoon the body was examined, and the ex
tremely aggravated nature of the disease which was the
cause of death was clearly ascertained. It was then em
balmed and placed in a coffin bearing the inscription:
" HlC QUIESCIT RESURRECTIONEM EXPECTANS, JACO-
bus Benignus Bossuet, Episcopus Meldensis, Comes
Consistorianus, Serenissimi Delphini preceptor primus.
Serenissimi Ducis Burgundise eleemosynarius, TJni-
versitatis Parisiensis privilegiorum apostolicarum Con
servator, ac Collegii regii Navanse Superior. Obiit
Anno Domini M.D.CC.IV. die XII. Aprilis, annos
natus LXXVI. menses VI. et dies XVI."
On Sunday, April 13th, the earthly remains of the

584 BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.
great Bishop were moved to the Church ofSaint-Roch,
attended by a large gathering of his friends ; and on
the 1 6th the funeral procession started at six in the
morning for Meaux, the body accompanied by two
priests of Saint-Roch, the Bishop of Agen (lately Cure
of Versailles), Bossuet's nephews and immediate attend
ants following. At Claye they stopped and said a
funeral mass. As the procession approached Meaux
all the population turned out to meet the last return
of their Bishop ; — men were perhaps rather proud of
his learning and eloquence than personally bound to
him by softer ties. The body rested that night in the
Church of the Seminary, and the next day, April 17,
1704, the funeral was celebrated with all the pomp
and reverence attainable in the Cathedral. The Abbe
Le Dieu gives a most minute account of every detail
with a precision scarcely interesting now. The Bishop
of Agen celebrated pontifically ; and in the presence
of a great multitude, Bossuet's body was laid in the
spot named in his will, i.e. a vault within the Sanctuary,
somewhat in front of the high altar on the Epistle side,
and there it still rests. Probably the fact of no dese
cration having occurred during the Revolution is to be
attributed to Cardinal de Bissy's having removed the
stone which marked the spot in 1724, when he repaired
the Sanctuary. This stone was put behind the high
altar, and it is supposed that the sacrilegious hands

VERIFICA TION OF BOSSUE T'S GRA VE. 585
which disturbed the dead at Meaux, as elsewhere,
during the dreary days of the Revolution, finding no
tombs beneath the inscriptions, did not take the trouble
to look further, and contented themselves with defac
ing the stone to a certain extent. After a while, in
spite of the local tradition and of Le Dieu's notes,
uncertainty prevailed as to the exact spot where the
venerable remains lay, and the present Bishop, Mon
seigneur Allou, greatly desired to ascertain the precise
resting-place of his famous predecessor. Accordingly,
on Nov. 8, 1854, the vaults beneath the Sanctuary were
opened, and Bossuet's coffin, bearing the inscription
already given, was found, placed, as he had desired,
at the feet of his immediate forerunner, de Ligny.'
On the 14th the coffin was brought out of the vault,
opened and reverently examined — the head only
being uncovered, which was found perfect in form, the
skin dry, the teeth and hair preserved (the mouth was
slightly open).
An interesting record of this day was given by M.
Floquet, dated — " Formentin, Calvados, Nov. 16, 1854.
" On my return from Meaux after the discovery and
recognition of Bossuefs coffin.
"Returning from Meaux, where I have been spend
ing two days in Bossuet's Cathedral, I feel an urgent
> Hist, de la Cathedrale de Meaux, par Mgr. Allou, p. 59.

586 BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.
desire to nanate what I have been privileged to see.
There, in a coffin just opened, I beheld the revered
head of the great Bishop, majestic, beaming, almost
exactly such asRigault painted it at Germigny in 1701.
I saw that inspired mouth, ready yet, as it well-nigh
seemed, to utter those words of power which God had
committed to him. A limited number of Priests and
laymen crowded round the sleeping pontiff, gazing
eagerly upon him, waiting, awestruck, almost listening as
though he might yet speak ; the whole house of God
was hushed in the silence of reverence and devotion ;
and ere long, at a sign given by the venerable and
pious successor of Bossuet, who was visibly moved by
the spectacle, every one simultaneously followed his
example and knelt down, and followed him in -a loud
fervent De Profundis, more striking, more solemn
than any ever uttered at the royal obsequies of Saint-
Denis. The next day the fine Church was hung with
black, and the venerated coffin placed beneath a pall,
while a funeral service, the last office rendered to the
great Bishop, was celebrated, and noble words were
spoken concerning him.1 The multitude present was
earnest and sympathetic, silent, attentive, taking an
intense interest both in the touching scene of the
previous day and in the actual service. In short, all —
clergy, men of the world, people — all seemed as
1 By the Abbe R&ume, Canon of Meaux.

INSCRIPTION ON THE GRAVE. 587
thoughtful and interested as though this dead man,
who has lain here one hur.dred and fifty years, had
died last night!"' The body remained twenty-four
hours in the Sanctuary, during which a perpetual stream
of people came to look upon it ; and on the 16th, after
vespers, it was reverently restored to its resting-place.
The old damaged black marble slab was replaced,
but above it a new slab was laid, with the same
inscription renewed : —
a n
Hie quiescit Resurrectionem expectans,
JACOBUS BENIGNUS BOSSUET,
Episcopus Meldensis,
Comes, Consistorianus,
Serenissimi Delphini Preceptor,
Primus serenissimi DELPHiNiE,
Deinde serenissimjE Ducis Burgundy
Eleemosynarius :
Universitatis Parisiensis
Privilegiorum Apostolicorum Conservator,
Ac Collegii Regii Navarr/e,
Superior.
Obiit anno Domini M.D.CC.IV.
Die xii. Aprilis,
Annos natus lxxvi. MENSES VI. ET dies xvi.
VlRTUTIBUS, VERBO, AC DOCTRINA.
Claruit IN Episcopatu ANNOS XXXIV.
E QUIBUS Meldis sedit xxii.
1 Etudes sur la Vie de Bossuet, vol. i . p. xii.

588 BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.
Bossuet's arms — three wheels -or on azure — are at
the top, and below are figured a mitre, palm branches,
and three books, on which appear the names : Biblia
Sacra: Sanctum Jesum Christum Evangelium
on the one; Exposition Athanasius, Gregorius
Nazianzen on the second; and Augustinus, Hie-
ronymus, and Variations on the third. Must one
confess to a little sense of irritation that even here we
cannot get rid of the irrepressible Abbe" Bossuet, and
of annoyance that his unworthy name should be
perpetuated on his great uncle's grave ?
"Jacobus Benignus Bossuet,
Abbas Ste. Luciani Bellovacensis
Et Archidiaconus Meldensis
Patrus Colendiss. Lugens posuit."
Not long since I knelt beside the grave wherein so
much learning and eloquence lies crumbled to dust,
as all earthly things must do, and then talked with
the quaint, old-fashioned royalist sacristan of the
Cathedral, whose historical knowledge of and interest
in Bossuet were considerably less than what he felt
concerning the Prussians, of whose occupation of the
town and Cathedral during the late war he was keen
to tell. " Doubtless the Bishop who lay there was a
great man — he knew Monseigneur that is said so;
and sometimes there came some one who seemed to
think much of him and his books, as Madame does—

FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 589
Mais enfin, que voulez vous, le monde s'en va /" and
the old man went off to ring the Angelus, on the
whole feeling that pilgrims to Bossuet's grave were,
after some dim, unexpressed fashion, a tribute to his
own merit, and therefore worthy of encouragement.
According to the custom of the time, a grand funeral
ceremonial was held in the Cathedral of Meaux the
summer following Bossuet's death. The Church was
decked with enough black velvet and cloth adorned
with silver and heraldic devices to delight the Abbe"
Le Dieu, and on July 23, 1704, the Archbishop of
Narbonne celebrated pontifically, assisted by the
Bishops of Condom, Tulles, Troyes, and Autun,
together with many of the most eminent of the
French Clergy.
The Pere de la Rue, a Jesuit Father, had been
invited to preach the funeral sermon. He took as
his text 2 Chron. xxxi. 20, 21 : "Operatusque est
bonum et rectum et verum, coram Domino Deo suo,
in universa cultura ministerii domus Domini, juxta
legem et ceremonias, volens requirere Deum suum in
toto corde suo, fecitque et prosperatus est." ("He
wrought that which was good and right and truth
before the Lord his God. And in every work that he
began in the service of the house of God, and in the
law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he
did it with all his heart, and prospered."

59° BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.

All funeral orations, those spoken by Bossuet him
self excepted, fall with a strained unreal sound upon
one's ear — panegyric being usually the one object
aimed at ; and we need not dwell on that delivered
by the Jesuit Father, or on the eulogium spoken by
Cardinal de Polignac at the Academic Frangaise,
where he was Bossuet's successor. Perhaps the most
remarkable point of this was the speaker's total silence
respecting the controversy with Fenelon. A funeral
oration was also spoken in honour of Bossuet at
Rome in January 1705.
The Abbe" Le Dieu, on the whole, dwells with more
interest on the episcopal banquet which took place
after the ceremonies of July 23 than on the oration.
He does not fail to record " les faisandeaux et les
perdreaux; " or that the secretaries' table was as well
served as that of the prelates, and the wine supplied
as good ! z
Already, in this short time, the Abbd Bossuet had
exchanged his uncle's old-fashioned plate for a
magnificent and fashionable service, and the soft
springed-carriage had given place to a " belle et bonne
berline" then a new kind of vehicle, which to modern
ideas is oddly described as much lighter than the
ordinary caniages in use.
But the Abbe" complains that the servants who had
1 Journal, vol. iii. p. 137.

AFTER SCENES. 591
been recommended to his care, and the poor, had re
ceived nothing. He himself was anxious to get what
he could; and, recording how he asked Jacques Bos
suet for a certain enamelled chalice which he had been
wont to use when celebrating for the Bishop at Paris, he
adds, " I shall follow up this request, and drag what
I can out of these gentlemen, since they have not the
common civility to give or offer me anything! "' The
Abbd Le Dieu kept up a sort of grumbling clanship
attachment to his late master's nephew, whose in
gratitude for all his attentions, to say nothing of
his long and faithful service to the Bishop, he often
reviles. For a long time the Abbd Bossuet kept Le
Dieu in play, utilising him in the revision and arrange
ment of his uncle's manuscripts,2 — whether or no
intending to take to himself the credit of the " noble,
concise, simple, clear, touching and elegant style," in
which Le Dieu tells us all good indges considered his
1 Journal, vol. iii. p. 260.
2 The Abbe Bossuet made the best thing he could of his
uncle's manuscripts and books, clearing out of the latter "at least"
all that he had a right to. " Tous les livres absolument ont ete
6tes de la bibliotheque, et tous les ornemens avec leurs armoires
emportes de la sacristie, meme les livres a 1'usage de 1'Eglise
Cathedrale, les gens de l'Abbe disant : ' Si l'Eveque en a besoin,
il les demandera.' "—Ibid. p. 225. He owned to having re
moved all he could find of manuscripts and the " livres cCestampes
de la bibliotheque" the Easter before, "prhioyant la mort pro.
chaine." — Ibid. p. 121.

592 BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.
MeYnoires to be written,1 we cannot say. Certainly
the Secretary imputes such unworthy intentions to his
master's nephew ; but we must confess that the Abbe"
Le Dieu is much addicted to imputing evil motives to
most of those of whom he writes, and the result left
on one's mind by his Journals is not calculated to
raise one's estimate of human nature. He says
that the Abbd Bossuet thought to recompense him
sufficiently for all his services by giving him a bed
once or twice a year when passing through Paris,2 — " a
civility," he says elsewhere, "which I had the still
greater civility not to accept"3 But he let himself
be counted as one of the Abbe"'s partisans, and he
remained on at Meaux, living in the Ev£che", and
feeding at his expense, during the prolonged time for
which Jacques Bossuet still endeavoured to make
something profitable for himself out of his uncle's
name. Apparently he yet had some hopes of the
Bishopric, and when that was announced as about to
be given to M. de Bissy, Bishop of Toul, the Abbe
Bossuet made great professions of admiration for him,
and intrigued for a time to obtain his Vicar-General-
i " Ces messieurs m'ont dit . . . que 1'ouvrage est curieux,
piquant, et d'une grande edification, qu'il y a mSme de l'eleva-
tion et de la beaute dans le style, et que de la maniere que je m'y
prends et avec les particularites que j'ai recueillies, il n'y a que
moi qui puisse faire un tel ouvrage." — Journal, vol. iii. p. 381.
* Vol. iii. D. 376. 3 Ibid. p. 147.

BISHOP DE BISSY. 593
ship. Various delays occurred, and it was not till
March 1705 that de Bissy's procurator took possession
of the temporalities of Meaux on behalf of the new
Bishop. In the May following he came himself, and for
many months an undignified struggle to get everything
possible out of him went on on the part of the Bossuets,
and hardly less so on that of Le Dieu and Phelip
peaux, who had turned entirely against his former
friend and associate in the Cambrai intrigues, and
who could not now do or say enough to blacken
Jacques Bossuet's character.' The whole behind-
scene is a tissue of mean, time-serving, self-interested
doings, every one's hand against every one else — the
de Bissys quanelling with the Bossuets over dilapida
tions and architects' bills, turning one another's
orange-trees out into the frost out of spite ! and all the
while fawning and caressing when anything is to be
got. Jacques Bossuet spoke "sans menagemenf" of
his uncle's successor; and when the suggestion of his
receiving a Cardinal's hat arose, he remarked con
temptuously, " That at that rate there must be a great
many hats to spare ! " '
1 " Tout ce que M. Phelippeaux disoit des desordres de
l'Abbe a. Rome, car il n'en faisoit pas la petite bouche ; il m'a dit
en particulier des choses affreuses. . . . Les bruits publics con-
firment qu'il ne disoit que la verite."— Journal, vol. iii. p. 203.
' " II faudroit qu'il y eut bien des chapeaux de reste I " — Hid.
p. 184. 2 P

594 BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.
Le Dieu abused them both ! He was very anxious
to get employment from the new Bishop, and had him
self recommended to de Bissy as best he could. The
Abbe" Bossuet reviled him for this, and said that he
(Le Dieu) had always been ill-disposed to him. " Au
reste, he is right," says the Secretary ; " I have never
liked him, because I n sver met with anything but ill-
treatment from him ; never in all my life the least
token of friendship, small or great. And I know his
hauteur too well to put myself under so hard and heavy
a hand." * But beyond continuing the revision of
the Meaux Missal, which Le Dieu had begun under
Bossuet, and which the new Bishop employed him to
finish, de Bissy never gave him any preferment, and
he lived and died in possession of his old offices of
Chancellor and Canon of Meaux. Le Dieu's Journal,
which is continued up to a short time before his death,
in Oct. 17 13, gives a curious picture of the interior of
the Chapter, its petty squabbles, jealousies of place
and rank, contests over small rights and gains, and
persevering opposition and cabal one against another.
Nothing can be more perfect as a bit of Dutch painting
than the good Secretary's accounts of his own domestic
arrangements — the feastings of the Cathedral town, its
" bonne chere? the excellent wine sometimes given by
the Bishop and the Dean (though he does not fail to
1 Journal, vol. iii. p. 214.

BOSSUET'S SUCCESSOR. 595
note that the " bon vin de Champagne et d 'Alicante "
are only forthcoming when the former wanted the
Chapter's' votes!); his own little visits, — when he
greatly liked to be received, " en perfection, avec bonne
chere et grand feu, et bon lit;"' his bargaining over his
tapestry and the like — all mixed up with minute details
ol ritual, accounts of sermons, and in truth be it told,
with not a little ill-natured gossip concerning his
colleagues and the authorities. Bossuet's successor
seems not to have been worthy of treading in such a
man's steps, and the diocese had been accustomed to
better things. Le Dieu says that, in 1703, Bossuet
himself pronounced de Bissy, then Bishop of Toul, to be
a "fripon,"* which might somewhat excuse Jacques
Bossuet's perpetual mistrust,4 and zealous heed to his
own interest. De Bissy seems to have estranged his
Clergy by his harsh, proud, interfering ways, and he
certainly was in continual hot water with the Dean and
Chapter, the Seminary, etc. Le Dieu says that both
the Bishop and his immediate attendance were lament
ably ignorant of all detail and ceremonial. He
describes de Bissy's first Ordination as "all going by
haphazard;" and says that "such confusion and
such ignorance of the rubrics had never been seen;"
1 Journal, vol. iv. p. 18. 2 Ibid. p. 326. 3 Ibid. p. 26.
* " L'Abbe Bossuet a ceil a tout, et agit toujours avec defiance
dans la crainte qu'on ne le trompe." — Vol. iv. p. 27.

596 BOSSUE T'S LAST DA YS.
winding up with the pious ejaculation, "Dieu soit
loue de tout ! je n'ai a repondre de rien lorsqueje ne suis
pas meme consulti /" ' or again, " Yesterday and to-day
there were more mistakes than ever in the pontifical
offices, because those who make the anangements
know nothing about them, and the Bishop does not
care in the least, and does not make a habit of per
forming ceremonies rightly, or of chanting properly."*
Naturally Bossuet's old friends were keenly alive to
the contrast, and so they were to the different manner
of life led at Germigny by the new Bishop, who never
attended Mass or any other service at the parish
church, neither did any of his household ; while his
chaplain, whose name was Denis, scandalised the
neighbourhood by going out shooting as much as he
could, and being met " en pourpoint, with a gamebag
at his waist, a gun on his shoulder, and three or four
rabbits dangling at his back !" 3 Moreover, de Bissy
never took part in any of the Diocesan Conferences,
which his predecessor had watched with so much care,
and the bystanders not unnaturally commented on the
omission, saying that " doctrine would be greatly
lowered under this prelate, who lost such opportunities
of stimulating the Curds to study; and opining that he
himself had no great amount of theology." *
1 Journal, vol. iii. p. 250. 2 Ibid. p. 273.
3 Ibid. p. 390. 4 Vol. iv. p. 3.

THE LAST OF THE BOSSUETS. 597

The Bossuets hoveredabout Meaux for a long while :
it was not till November 1706 that Jacques Bossuet
finally paid all his uncle's dues, and sold everything that
remained, the linen, even the old tables, timbers, etc.
At last the Abbe- Le Dieu records, Nov. 2nd, " Ainsi,
pour le coup, voila les Bossuets partis de Meaux; — la
maison r endue et videe: Dieu soit lout!" '
We have lingered a little over these after details,
partly because they are in themselves so curious and
illustrative of the times in which they happened,
partly as all throwing light upon our special object —
the history of the great Bossuet, and partly from a
vague sense that there is a lesson to be learnt by
ourselves, from realising that all was not perfect and
ideal in days gone by any more than in our own — that
at the very time when great works for God and His
Church were being brought about, and saintly charac
ters formed, and marvels of learning and theology
trained, men had to contend with much the same
troubles and trials as we have : — that Cathedrals and
their Chapters did not always fulfil the great works for
which their founders designed them — that religious
houses fell into laxity and disorder — that some Bishops
fell short of the standard of a Bossuet or a Fenelon,
and parish priests were often secular and self-seeking—
1 Vol. iv. p. 19.

598 BOSSUET'S LAST DA YS.
that Jesuit raged against Jansenist, Oratorian or Port-
Royalist, and that good men, all seeking God's Glory
really and truly, found it hard to see anything right or
good in their opponents' opinions or doings. In short,
that history, whether on a large or small scale, sets the
same spectacle before us of human infirmity, human
jealousy, seeking itself, while thinking to do God
service. Is there not a lesson for each student of
history to learn and to practise — of love, patience,
toleration, so that at least, if it be true — and Truth
Itself has said it — that " offences must come," each
one of us, in our several paths (and there is surely
Bone so lowly, so unimportant a link in the great
chain of the world's life as not to have his own path
in which to tread rightly or wrongly), may give good
heed not to incur the denunciation, " Woe be to
him through whom the offence cometh;" but may
be ready to say with Dante, —
" La nostra carita non serra porte
A giusta voglia, se non come quella,
Che vuol simile a se tutta sua corte."
Faradiso, c. iii.

INDEX.

ACADKMIE Francaise, 203.
Adoration of the Cross, 280.
Agnes de Saint Paul, Mere, 125.
Albert, Madame d', 252, 398, 480,
501-51 1.
AIIe*es du Petit Pare, 208.
Anne of Austria, 25, 63, 70, 73, 76,
129, 130, 138.
Anne de Gonzague, Princess Pala
tine, 07, 315.
Antony of Cordova, 53T.
Arnauld, Angeiique, 123.
Arnauld, Antoine, 123, 132,
Assembly, The Great, 251.
Assembly of Clergy of 1700, 462.
Augustine, S., 29, 30, 31,102, 249, 369.
Augustinus, The, 123.
Austerities, 513.
Beauvilliers, Due de, 356, 402,
433*
Be*dacier, Bishop, 35, 46, 53, 121.
Bellefonds, Marechal de, 168, 214,
217, 230, 237, 251.
Bible, Bossuet's first knowledge of,
5, *°i*
Bissy, Bishop de, 282, 592-597.
Blois, Mademoiselle de, 211, 220,
231.
Bossuet, Jacques, the Bishop's
Grandfather, 2.
Bossuet, Claude, his Uncle, 3, 5, 20.
Bossuet, Francois, 14, 47.
Bossuet, Benigne, his Father, 3, 71,
89.
Bossuet, Abbe*, 423-461, 527-529,
554-575> 580-583* 588, 59°-594-
Bossuet, Louis; 556, 562, 573-575.
Bouillon, Cardinal de, 424.
Bourbon, Henri de, 45.
Bourdaloue, 161, 213, 237, 305, 371.
Bourgogne, Due de, 196, 200, 356,
364.

Bourgogne, Duchesse de, 525.
Bull's, Bishop, Judicium Ecclesiae
sent to Bossuet, 332.
Burial of Bossuet, 584.
Caffaro, Pere, 21.
Calvinism, 337.
Capets, The, 307.
Casuists, The, 525, 530.
Cas de Conscience, 548.
Catechisms, 293-295.
Chanterac, Abbe* de, 426, 453.
Classical Studies, 5, 105, 174.
Claude, M., 248
College de Navarre, 10, 25, 48.
Communion in both kinds, 309.
Communion, frequent, 506, 510, 512,
„ 5i9-
Conde*, The Great, present in the
schools, 18-21 ; blockades Paris,
25 ; engaged in the Fronde,
26, 27 ; Funeral Oration, 87,
323-327 ; his grandson marries
Madlle. de Nantes, 246 ; corre
spondence with Bossuet, 321 ;
death, 322.
Condemnation of Fdnelon, 450.
Condom, Bishopric of, 135, 167.
Conferences Ecciesiastiques, 28c.
Confession, letters on, 49^, 501, 507,
Connaissance de Dieu, Traite" de la,
182.
Consecration of Bossuet, 167.
Cornet, Nicolas, 10, 12, 18, 48.
Cornuau, Madame, 467 ; Letters to
her, 481-485, 501. ^
Cospean, t Mgr. See Lisieux.
Coulomnier, Nuns of. Letters to, 519.
Dauphin, The, 142, 164, 170, 189,
191, 197, 199.
Dauphiness, The, 191-197.
Deacon, ordained, 35.

6oo

INDEX.

Death, preparation for, letter on,
485, 5"-
Death of Bossuet's sisters, 553.
Death of Bossuet, 583.
Declaration of the Frenah Clergy,
264, 274.
Defensio Cleri Gallicani, 273.
Degree, Bossuet takes his Doctor's,
,-* 33" ¦
Depression, 503.
Descartes, 8-10.
Dijon, 1-3, 20. [476.
Direction, Bossuet's system of, 469-
Dirois, M., 253, 258, 261, 269.
Dryness, spiritual, 498.
Duras, Mademoiselle de, 247, 250.
Duty of Kings, g6.
Edict of Nantes, Revocation of,
306, 535-
Education, Bossuets views of, 170,
173.
Elevations, 84,
Eloquence, 87.
Etats d'Oraison, 374.
Exaggeration, 505.
Excommunication of Mde. de Mon
tespan, 234.
Exposition, The, 118, 247.
Fathers, The, 22, 29, 102.
Fenelon, 201, 207, 303, 339, 347, 367-
377» 39°, 395, 435, 442"444, 450,
459» 461, 4^5- ,
Ferry, Paul, 53 ; his Catechism, 54,
Feuquieres, de, 15.
Filles de la Propagation de la Foi , 59.
Final Impenitence, 05.
Five Propositions, Port-Royal, 123.
Fleury, Abbe", 209, 578.
Floquet, opening of Bossuet's grave,
585-
Fontanges, Mademoiselle de, 245.
Fouquet, 15.
Fronde, Wars of the, 25.
Funeral Orations, 87, 97, 144, 157,
3r3-327-
Gallican Church, 255.
Gamache, Pere, 139.
Germigny, 278.
Godet, Bishop of Chartres, 378.
Grand Archidiacre, 48.
Gratry, Abbe", 9, 183.
Guillaumie, Madame de, letters to,
5i3» 5'7.

Guyon, Madame, 375, 389, 395, 400,
408, 439, 462.
Harlay, Archbishop, 21, 253, 351,
353, 377. 396-
Henrietta Maria of England, 26, 135,
147 ; her death, 150-162.
Henriette de Lorraine, 299, 301.
Histoire Universelle, 185.
Hospitals, 297.
Illness, last, 555.
Infallibility, 55 ; letter on, 269 ; Car
dinal de Bausset on, 271.
Innocent IX., 272.
Inscription on Bossuet's coffin, 583.
Issy, Conferences of, 386.
Jansenius, 122.
Jouarre, Community of, 298.
Jurieu, 334, 338.
Justification, 57.
La Combe, Pere, 375, 401, 439, 44a
Lazarist Fathers, 36.
Leibnitz, 538-544.
Le Quieu, Pere, 42.
Le Tellier, Archbishop, 319, 527.
Le Tellier, Chancellor, 316.
Letters, Bossuet's, concerning Metz
Mission, 65.
Letter to Pope Innocent on the Dau
phin's Education, 185.
Letters to Louis XIV., 238.
Letters to Cardinal d'Estrees, 259.
Letters to M. Dirois, 269.
Lisieux, Bishop of, 14, 17, 18.
Logique, La, 184.
Longueville, Duchess of, 26, 226.
Louis XIV., 63, 78, 148, 211, 217,
227, 234, 237, 283, 355, 441, 449.
Louise de la Valliere, 210.
Louvois, 319.
Luynes, Madame de, 479, 511.
Maintenon, Madame de, 245, 313,
, .354. 355, 37t, 377, 397, 526.
Maisonfort, Madame de, 377, 379,
4M, 484-
Marginal notes, 108.
Mans, Madame du, 512, 515, 517.
Marie Therese, Queen, 77, 226, 313.
3J4-
Maule*on, Mademoiselle de, 236, 581.
Maximes sur la Come*d'e, 22.
Maximes des Saints, 409, 416.

INDEX.

601

Mazarin, Cardinal, 48, 63.
Meaux^ appointment to, 253 ; Instal
lation, 278 ; residence at, 281 ;
Palace of, 281.
Metz, 25 ; Archdeaconry of, 34 ;
Mission of, 64; Deanery, 121;
Demoiselle de, letters to, 467.
Miramion, Madame de, 376.
Missions, 289 ; of Poitou, 352.
Molanus, 537-539.
Molinos, 373.
Mons Version, 133.
Montausier, Due de, 164, 201, 234.
Montespan, Madame de, 212, 216,
Muse Historique, 73.
Nicole, 124, 132.
Noailles, De, 380, 396-398, 528, 534,
50°, 547-
Offices, manner of saying, 49.
Olier, M., 17.
Orders, Deacon's, 35.
Orders, Priest's, 42.
Orleans, Henriette of, 136, 141, 147,
*57-
Orleans, Philip of, 141, 155-
Panegyric on S. Joseph, 73, 119.
Paranymphe, 27.
Pe'lisson, 207, 372.
PeVe'fixe, Archbishop, 122.
Perfection, religious, 502.
Perigny, De, 163.
Personal habits, 284.
Perth, Lord, 340.
Phelippeaux, Abbe*, 423, 430, 560,
593-
Plessis, Madame du, 14.
Pontchastrain, Chancellor, contest
with, 547.
Port-Royal, 122, 131.
Potier, Bishop, 35.
Prayers, letter on, 481-485.
Pleaching, 77, 91, >45> z88«
Predestination, 487.
Politique Sacre*e, 187.
Priest's Orders, 42.
Probabilism, 530.
Protestants of Metz, 58, 118, 249,
305. 3", 33Q-
8UATRE Articles, 262.
uesnel, 534-
Quietism, 373- .
Quietism, Relation sur le, 388, 431.

Racine, 339.
Rambouillet, HStel de, 14, 15.
Ranee", De. See La Trappe.
Reformation, The, 329.
Refutation, The, 54.
Regalia, 256.
Religious Life, 493.
Religious Houses, 298.
Retreats, Ordinand's, 35, 72, 473.
Retz, Cardinal de, 27, 138.
Reunion, prospects of, 537"539-
Richelieu, Cardinal, 11, 23, 24.
Richmond, Duke of, 346.
Rigaud, portrait of Bossuet, 47.
Rochefoucauld, Due de la, 250.
Rule, observance of, 491.
Sadness, 503.
Santeuil, 303.
Schomberg, Marshal and Madame
de, 34, 51.
Scruples, 477.
Self- Consciousness, 509.
Self-i-ove, 515.
Seminary of Meaux, 296.
Sensitiveness, 500, 507.
Sermons, 80, 227, 258.
Sevigne*, Madame de, 14.
Sfondrati, Cardinal, 340.
Sickness, 517.
Sisters, Bossuet's, 51
Society, 303.
Spinola, 537
Spiritual Letters, 467,
Sundays at Court, 209.
Synods, Diocesan, 291 ; last, 551.
Thirty-Four Articles, The, 392.
Trappe, La, Abbot of, 17, 27, 253,
254, 278, 299.
Tronson, 357, 371, 403, 433.
Turenne, 27, 119, 215, 247.
Ursuline Nuns, letters to, 518.
Valliere, Louise de la, 88, 116,
162, 210-233.
Variations, Histoire des, 329.
Verification of Bossuet's remains,
584.
Version de Trevoux, 545.
Vincent de Paul, S-, 35, 61, 64.
Voiture, bon mot, 16.
Widowhood, letter on, 498.
Winslow, 302.

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Hatch.— THE ORGANIZATION OF THE EARLY
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By Edwin Hatch, M.A., D.D., late Reader in Ecclesiastical History
in the University of Oxford. Svo. 5.1.
A2

10 A SELECTION OF WORKS
Holland.— Works by the Rev. Henry Scott Holland, M.A.
Canon and Precentor of St. Paul's.
GOD'S CITY AND THE COMING OF THE KINGDOM. Crown
Svo. 3s. bd.
PLEAS AND CLAIMS FOR CHRIST. Crown Svo. 3s. 6d.
CREED AND CHARACTER : Sermons. Crown Svo. 3s. 6d.
ON BEHALF OF BELIEF. Sermons. Crown Svo. 3s. bd.
CHRIST OR ECCLESIASTES. Sermons. Crown Svo. zs.6d.
LOGIC AND LIFE, with other Sermons. Crown Svo. 3s. bd.
GOOD FRIDAY. Being Addresses on the Seven Last Words. Small
Svo. zs.
Hollings. — Works by the Rev. G. S. HOLLINGS, Mission Priest of
the Society of St. John the Evangelist, Cowley, Oxford.
THE HEAVENLY STAIR ; or, A Ladder of the Love of God for Sinners.
Crown Svo. 3s. 6d.
PORTA REGALIS ; or, Considerations on Prayer. Crown Svo. limp cloth,
is. bd. net ; cloth boards, as. net.
CONSIDERATIONS ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. Crown Svo. 45.
PARADOXES OF THE LOVE OF GOD, especially as they are seen in
the way of the Evangelical Counsels. Crown Svo. 4s.
ONE BORN OF THE SPIRIT ; or, the Unification of our Life in God.
Crown Svo. 3s. bd.
Hutchings.— Works by the Ven. W. H. Hutchings, M.A. Arch
deacon of Cleveland, Canon of York, Rector of Kirby
Misperton, and Rural Dean of Malton.
SERMON SKETCHES from some of the Sunday Lessons throughout
the Church's Year. Vols. I and II. Crown Svo. s5- each.
THE LIFE OF PRAYER : a Course of Lectures delivered in All Saints'
Church, Margaret Street, during Lent. Crown Svo. 41. bd.
THE PERSON AND WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST : a Doctrinal
and Devotional Treatise. Crown Svo. 41. bd.
SOME ASPECTS OF THE CROSS. Crown Svo. 4*. bd.
THE MYSTERY OF THE TEMPTATION. Lent Lectures delivered at
St. Mary Magdalene, Paddington. Crown Svo. 41. bd.
Hutton.— THE SOUL HERE AND HEREAFTER. By the
Rev. R. E. Hutton, Chaplain of St. Margaret's, East Grinstead.
Crown Svo. 6s,

IN THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE.

Inheritance of the Saints ; or, Thoughts on the Communion
of Saints and the Life of the World to come. Collected chiefly
from English Writers by L. P. With a Preface by the Rev. Henry
Scott Holland, M.A. With 8 Illustrations in Colour by Hamel
Lister. Crown Svo. bs, net.
James.— THE VARIETIES OFRELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE:
A Study in Human Nature, Being the Gifford Lectures on Natural
Religion delivered at Edinburgh in 1901-1902. By William James,
LLD. , etc., Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University. Svo.
izs. net.
Jameson. — Works by Mrs. Jameson.
SACRED AND LEGENDARY ART, containing Legends-of the Angels
and Archangels, the Evangelists, the Apostles. With 19 Etchings and
187 Woodcuts. 2 vols. Svo. zos. net.
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS, as represented in the
Fine Arts. With n Etchings and 88 Woodcuts. Svo. ios. net.
LEGENDS OF THE MADONNA, OR BLESSED VIRGIN MARY.
With 27 Etchings and 165 Woodcuts. Svo. ios. net.
THE HISTORY OF OUR LORD, as exemplified in Works of Art.
Commenced by the late Mrs. Jameson ; continued and completed by
Lady Eastlake. With 31 Etchings and 281 Woodcuts. 2 Vols.
Svo. zos. net.
Jones.— ENGLAND AND THE HOLY SEE: An Essay
towards Reunion. By Spencer Jones, M.A., Rector of Moreton-
in-Marsh. With a Preface by the Right Hon. Viscount Halifax.
Crown Svo. 3s. bs. net.
Joy and Strength for the Pilgrim's Day : Selections in
Prose and Verse. By the Editor of ' Daily Strength for Daily Needs,'
etc. Small Svo. 3s. bd. net.
Jukes.— Works by Andrew Jukes.
LETTERS OF ANDREW JUKES. Edited, with a Short Biography,
by the Rev. Herbert H. Jeafferson, M.A. Crown Svo. 3s. bd. net.
THE NAMES OF GOD IN HOLY SCRIPTURE : a Revelation of
His Nature and Relationships. Crown Svo. 41. bd.
THE TYPES OF GENESIS. Crown Svo. ys. 6d.
THE SECOND DEATH AND THE RESTITUTION OF ALL
THINGS. Crown Svo. 3s. bd.

12 A SELECTION OF WORKS
Kelly. — Works by the Rev. Herbert H. Kelly, M.A, Director
of the Society of the Sacred Mission, Mildenhall, Suffolk.
A HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. Vol. I. a.d. 29-342.
Crown Svo. 3s.6d.net. Vol. II. A.D. 324-430. Crown Svo. 3s.bd.net.
ENGLAND AND THE CHURCH : Her Calling and its Fulfilment
Considered in Relation to the Increase and Efficiency of Her Ministry.-
Crown Svo. 4*. net.
Knox— PASTORS AND TEACHERS : Six Lectures on
Pastoral Theology. By the Right Rev. Edmund Arbuthnott Knox,
D. D. , Bishop of Coventry. With an Introduction by the Right Rev.
Charles Gore, D.D., Bishop of Worcester. Crown Svo. ss- net.
Knox Little.— Works by W. J. Knox Little, M.A., Canon
Residentiary of Worcester, and Vicar of Hoar Cross.
HOLY MATRIMONY. Crown Svo. ss. (The Oxford Library of
Practical Theology.)
THE PERFECT LIFE : Sermons. Crown Svo. ys. 6d.
THE CHRISTIAN HOME. Crown Svo. 3s. bd.
CHARACTERISTICS AND MOTIVES OF THE CHRISTIAN
LIFE. Ten Sermons preached in Manchester Cathedral, in Lent and
Advent. Crown Svo. as. bd.
THE MYSTERY OF THE PASSION OF OUR MOST HOLY
REDEEMER. Crown Svo. zs. bd.
THE LIGHT OF LIFE. Sermons preached on Various Occasions,
Crown Svo. 3s. bd.
SUNLIGHT AND SHADOW IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
Sermons preached for the most part in America. Crown Svo. 3s. bd.
Lear. — Works by, and Edited by, H. L. Sidney Lear.
FOR DAYS AND YEARS. A book containing a Text, Short Reading,
and Hymn for Every Day in the Church's Year. ibmo. zs.net. Also a
Cheap Edition, 3amo, is.; or cloth gilt, is. bd.; or with red borders,
as. net.
FIVE MINUTES. Daily Readings of Poetry, ibmo. 3s. 6d. Also a
Cheap Edition, 3zmo. is.; or cloth gill, is. 6d.
WEARINESS. A Book for the Languid and Lonely. Large Type.
Small Svo. JJ-

IN THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE.

13

Lear. — Works by, and Edited by, H. L.
continued.

Sidney Lear.

DEVOTIONAL WORKS. Edited by H. L. Sidney Lear. New ana
Uniform Editions. Nine Vols. ibmo. zs. net each.

Fenelon's Spiritual Letters to
Men.
Fenelon's Spiritual Letters to
Women.
A Selection from the Spiritual
Letters of St. Francis de
Sales. Also Cheap Edition, 3Zmo,
bd. cloth limp ; is. cloth boards.
The Spirit of St. Francis de
Sales.

The Hidden Life of the Soul.
The Light of the Conscience.
Also Cheap Edition, 3amo, bd.
cloth limp ; is. cloth boards.
Self-Renunciation. From the
French.
St. Francis de Sales' Of the
Love of God.
Selections from Pascal's
' Thoughts.'

Leighton. — TYPICAL MODERN CONCEPTIONS OF
GOD ; or, The Absolute of German Romantic Idealism and of English
Evolutionary Agnosticism. With a Constructive Essay. By Joseph
Alexander Leighton, Professor of Philosophy in Hobart College,
U.S. Crown Svo. 3s. bd. net.
Liddon.— Works by Henry Parry Liddon, D.D.,D.C.L.,LL.D.
SERMONS ON SOME WORDS OF ST. PAUL. Crown Svo. $s.
SERMONS PREACHED ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS, 1860-1889.
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ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES : Lectures on Buddhism— Lectures on the
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EXPLANATORY ANALYSIS OF PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE
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ADVENT IN ST. PAUL'S. Crown Svo. 5*.
CHRISTMASTIDE IN ST. PAUL'S. Crown Svo. $s.
PASSIONTIDE SERMONS. Crown Svo. ss. [continued.

1 4 . A SELECTION OF WORKS
Liddon.— Works by Henry Parry Liddon, D.D., D.C.L.,
LL. D. — continued.
EASTER IN ST. PAUL'S. Sermons bearing chiefly on the Resurrec
tion of our Lord. Two Vols. Crown Svo. 3s. bd. each; Cheap
Edition in one Volume. Crown Svo. 5.5.
SERMONS PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF
OXFORD. Two Vols. Crown Svo. 31. bd. each. Cheap Edition in
one Volume. Crown Svo. 5*.
THE MAGNIFICAT. Sermons in St. Paul's. Crown Svo. as. net.
SOME ELEMENTS OF RELIGION. Lent Lectures. Small Svo.
as. net. [The Crown Svo Edition (ss.) may still be had.']
Luckocfe.— Works by Herbert Mortimer Luckock, D.D.,
Dean of Lichfield.
THE SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FOUR GOSPELS.
Crown Svo. 6s.
AFTER DEATH. An Examination of the Testimony of Primitive
Times respecting the State of the Faithful Dead, and their Relationship
to the Living. Crown Svo. 3s. net.
THE INTERMEDIATE STATE BETWEEN DEATH AND
JUDGMENT. Being a Sequel to After Death. Crown Svo. 3s.net.
FOOTPRINTS OF THE SON OF MAN, as traced by St. Mark. Being
Eighty Portions for Private Study, Family Reading, and Instruction
in Church. Crown Svo. 3s. net.
FOOTPRINTS OF THE APOSTLES, as traced by St. Luke in the
Acts. Being Sixty Portions for Private Study, and Instruction in
Church. A Sequel to ' Footprints of the Son of Man, as traced by
St. Mark.' Two Vols. Crown Svo. ios.
THE DIVINE LITURGY. Being the Order for Holy Communion,
Historically, Doctrinally, and Devotionally set forth, in Fifty Portions.
Crown Svo. 3s. net.
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF COMMON
PRAYER. The Anglican Reform— The Puritan Innovations— The
Elizabethan Reaction — The Caroline Settlement. With Appendices.
Crown Svo. 3s. net.
Lyra Germanica : Hymns for the Sundays and Chief Festivals
of the Christian Year. Complete Edition. Small Svo. 51.
First Series, ibmo, with red borders, zs. net.

IN THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE. I?
MacColl.— Works by the Rev. MALCOLM MacColl, D.D., Canon
Residentiary of Ripon.
THE REFORMATION SETTLEMENT : Examined in the Light of
History and Law. Tenth Edition, Revised, with a new Preface.
Crown Svo. 3s. bd. net.
CHRISTIANITY IN RELATION TO SCIENCE AND MORALS.
Crown Svo. bs.
LIFE HERE AND HEREAFTER : Sermons. Crown S.vo. ys. bd.
Marriage Addresses and Marriage Hymns. By the Bishop of
London, the Bishop of Rochester, the Bishop of Truro, the Dean
of Rochester, the Dean of Norwich, Archdeacon Sinclair,
Canon Duckworth, Canon Newbolt, Canon Knox Little,
Canon Rawnsley, the Rev. J. Llewellyn Davies, D.D., the Rev.
W. Allen Whitworth, etc. Edited by the Rev. O. P. Wardell-
Yerburgh, M. A. , Vicar of the Abbey Church of St. Mary, Tewkesbury.
Crown Svo. $s.
Mason. — Works by A. J. Mason, D.D., Master of Pembroke
College, Cambridge, and Canon of Canterbury.
THE MINISTRY OF CONVERSION. Crown Svo. as. 6d. net.
(Handbooks for the Clergy. )
PURGATORY; THE STATE OF THE FAITHFUL DEAD;
INVOCATION OF SAINTS. Three Lectures. CrownSvo. 3s.bd.net.
THE FAITH OF THE GOSPEL. A Manual of Christian Doctrine.
Crown Svo. ys. bd. Cheap Edition. Crown Svo. 3s. net.
THE RELATION OF CONFIRMATION TO BAPTISM. As taught
in Holy Scripture and the Fathers. Crown Svo. ys. bd.
Maturin.— Works by the Rev. B. W. Maturin.
SOME PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES OF THE SPIRITUAL
LIFE. Crown Svo. 4s. bd.
PRACTICAL STUDIES ON THE PARABLES OF OUR LORD.
Crown Svo. s1-
Medd.— THE PRIEST TO THE ALTAR ; or, Aids to the
Devout Celebration of Holy Communion, chiefly after the Ancient
English Use of Sarum. By Peter Goldsmith Medd, M.A., Canon
of St. Albans. Fourth Edition, revised and enlarged. Royal Svo. 15.1.
Meyrick.— THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH OF
England on the Holy Communion Restated as a Guide at the Present
Time. By the Rev. F. Meyrick, M.A. Crown Svo. 41. bd.
Monro —SACRED ALLEGORIES. By Rev. Edward Monro
Complete Edition in one Volume, with Illustrations. Crown Svo.
3s. 6d. net.

16 A SELECTION OF WORKS
Mortimer.— Works by the Rev. A. G. Mortimer, D.D., Rector
of St. Mark's, Philadelphia.
THE CREEDS : An Historical and Doctrinal Exposition of the
Apostles', Nicene and Athanasian Creeds. Crown Svo. 5*. net.
THE EUCHARISTIC SACRIFICE: An Historical and Theological
Investigation of the Sacrificial Conception of the Holy Eucharist in the
Christian Church. Crown Svo. ios. bd.
CATHOLIC FAITH AND PRACTICE : A Manual of Theology. Two
Parts. Crown Svo. Part I. ys. bd. Part II. gs.
JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION: Thirty Addresses for Good
Friday and Easter. Crown Svo. ss-
HELPS TO MEDITATION : Sketches for Every Day in the Year.
Vol. I. Advent to Trinity. Svo. ys. bd.
Vol. 11. Trinity to Advent. Svo. ys. bd.
STORIES FROM GENESIS : Sermons for Children. Crown Svo. 41.
THE LAWS OF HAPPINESS; or, The Beatitudes as teaching our
Duty to God, Self, and our Neighbour. iSmo. zs.
THE LAWS OF PENITENCE : Addresses on the Words of our Lord
from the Cross, ibmo. is. bd.
SERMONS IN MINIATURE FOR EXTEMPORE PREACHERS :
Sketches for Every Sunday and Holy Day of the Christian Year.
Crown Svo. 6s.
NOTES ON THE SEVEN PENITENTIAL PSALMS, chiefly from
Patristic Sources. Small Svo. 3s. bd.
MEDITATIONS ON THE PASSION OF OUR MOST HOLY RE
DEEMER. Part I. Crown Svo. 5*.
THE SEVEN LAST WORDS OF OUR MOST HOLY REDEEMER :
Being Meditations on some Scenes in His Passions (Meditations on
the Passions. Part II.) Crown Svo. ss-
LEARN OF JESUS CHRIST TO DIE : Addresses on the Words of our
Lord from the Cross, taken as teaching the way of Preparation for
Death, ibmo. zs.
Mozley. — Works by J. B. Mozley, D.D., late Canon of Christ
Church, and Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford.
ESSAYS, HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. Two Vols. Svo. 24J.
EIGHT LECTURES ON MIRACLES. Being the Bampton Lectures
for 1865. Crown Svo. 3s. net.
RULING IDEAS IN EARLY AGES AND THEIR RELATION
TO OLD TESTAMENT FAITH. Svo. bs.
SERMONS PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF
OXFORD, and on Various Occasions. Crown Svo. 3s. net.
SERMONS, PAROCHIAL AND OCCASIONAL. Crown Svo.
3s. net.
A REVIEW OF THE BAPTISMAL CONTROVERSY. Crown Svo.
3s. net.

IN THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE. if
Newbolt.— Works by the Rev. W. C. E. Newbolt, M.A., Canon
and Chancellor of St. Paul's Cathedral.
APOSTLES OF THE LORD : being Six Lectures on Pastoral Theo
logy. Crown Svo. 3s. bd. net.
RELIGION. Crown Svo. y (The Oxford Library of Practical
Theology. )
WORDS OF EXHORTATION. Sermons Preached at St. Paul's and
elsewhere. Crown Svo. ss- net.
PENITENCE AND PEACE : being Addresses on the 51st and 23rd
Psalms. Crown Svo. zs. net.
PRIESTLY IDEALS ; being a Course of Practical Lectures delivered in
St. Paul's Cathedral to ' Our Society' and other Clergy, in Lent, 1898.
Crown Svo. 3s. bd.
PRIESTLY BLEMISHES ; or, Some Secret Hindrances to the Realisa
tion of Priestly Ideals. A Sequel. Being a Second Course of Practical
Lectures delivered in St. Paul's Cathedral to ' Our Society ' and other
Clergy in Lent, 1902. Crown Svo. 3s. bd.
THE GOSPEL OF EXPERIENCE ; or, the Witness of Human Life
to the truth of Revelation. Being the Boyle Lectures for 1895.
Crown Svo. 5.J.
COUNSELS OF FAITH AND PRACTICE : being Sermons preached
on various occasions. Crown Svo. 55.
SPECULUM SACERDOTUM ; or, the Divine Model of the Priestly
Life. Crown Svo. ys. bd.
THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT. Being Ten Addresses bearing on
the Spiritual Life. Crown Svo. as. net.
THE MAN OF GOD. Small Svo. is. bd.
THE PRAYER BOOK : Its Voice and Teaching. Crown Svo. as. net.
Newman. — Works by John Henry Newman, B.D., sometime
Vicar of St. Mary's, Oxford.
LETTERS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF JOHN HENRY NEW
MAN DURING HIS LIFE IN THE ENGLISH CHURCH. With
a brief Autobiography. Edited, at Cardinal Newman's request, by
Anne Mozley. 2 vols. Crown Svo. ys.
PAROCHIAL AND PLAIN SERMONS. Eight Vols. Crown Svo.
3s. bd. each.
SELECTION, ADAPTED TO THE SEASONS OF THE ECCLE
SIASTICAL YEAR, from the ' Parochial and Plain Sermons.' Crown
Svo. 3s. bd.
FIFTEEN SERMONS PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY
OF OXFORD. Crown Svo. 3s. bd.
SERMONS BEARING UPON SUBJECTS OF THE DAY. Crown
Svo. 3s. bd.
LECTURES ON THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION. Crown
Svo. 3s. 6d.
V* A Complete List of Cardinal Newman's Works can be had on Application.

1 8 * A SELECTION OF WORKS
Osborne. — Works by Edward Osborne, Mission Priest of the
Society of St. John the Evangelist, Cowley, Oxford.
THE CHILDREN'S SAVIOUR. Instructions to Children on the Life
of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Illustrated. i6mo. zs. net.
THE SAVIOUR KING. Instructions to Children on Old Testament
Types and Illustrations of the Life of Christ. Illustrated. i6mo. zs.net.
THE CHILDREN'S FAITH. Instructions to Children on the Apostles'
Creed. Illustrated, ibmo. as. net.
Ottley— ASPECTS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT: being the
Bampton Lectures for 1897. By Robert Lawrence Ottley, M.A.,
Vicar of Winterbourne Bassett, Wilts ; sometime Principal of the
Pusey House. Svo. ys. 6d.
Oxford (The) Library of Practical Theology.— Edited by the
Rev. W. C. E. Newbolt, M.A., Canon and Chancellor of St. Paul's,
and the Rev. Darwell Stone, M.A., Principal of the Missionary
College, Dorchester. Crown Svo. ss- each.
RELIGION. By the Rev. W. C. E. Newbolt, M.A., Canon and
Chancellor of St. Paul's.
HOLY BAPTISM. By the Rev. Darwell Stone, M.A., Principal of
the Missionary College, Dorchester.
CONFIRMATION. By the Right Rev. A. C. A. Hall, D.D., Bishop
of Vermont.
THE HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. By
the Rev. Leighton Pullan, M.A., Fellow of St. John Baptist's
Oxford.
HOLY MATRIMONY. By the Rev. W. J. Knox Little, M.A.,
Canon of Worcester.
THE INCARNATION. By the Rev. H. V. S. Eck, M.A., St.
Andrew's, Bethnal Green.
FOREIGN MISSIONS. By the Right Rev. E. T. Churton, D.D,
formerly Bishop of Nassau.
PRAYER. By the Rev. Arthur John Worlledge, M.A., Canon and
Chancellor of Truro.
SUNDAY. By the Rev. W. B. Trevelyan, M.A., Vicar of St.
Matthew's, Westminster.
THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION. By the Rev. Leighton Pullan,
M.A., Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford.
BOOKS OF DEVOTION. By the Rev. Charles Bodington, Canon
and Precentor of Lichfield.
HOLY ORDERS. By the Rev. A. R. Whitham, M.A., Principal of
Culham College, Abingdon.
THE HOLY COMMUNION. By the Rev. Darwell Stone, M.A.,
Toint Editor of the Series. [In preparation.[continued.

IN THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 19
Oxford (The) Library of Practical Theology.— continued.
THE CHURCH CATECHISM THE CHRISTIAN'S MANUAL.
By the Rev. W. C. E. Newbolt, M.A., Joint Editor of the Series.
[In preparation.
RELIGIOUS CEREMONIAL. By the Rev. Walter Howard
Frere, M.A., Superior of the Community of the Resurrection,
Examining Chaplain to the Bishop of Rochester. [In preparation.
VISITATION OF THE SICK. By the Rev. E. F. Russell, M.A.,
St. Alban's, Holborn. [In preparation.
CHURCH WORK. By the Rev. Bernard Reynolds, M.A.,
Prebendary of St. Paul's. [In preparation.
OLD TESTAMENT CRITICISM. By the Rev. Henry Wace, D.D.,
Prebendary of St. Paul's Cathedral. [In preparation.
NEW TESTAMENT CRITICISM. By the Rev. R. J. Knowling,
D. D. , Professor of New Testament Exegesis at King's College, London.
[In preparation.
Paget.— Works by Francis Paget, D.D., Bishop of Oxford.
CHRIST THE WAY : Four Addresses given at a Meeting of School
masters and others at Haileybury. Crown Svo. is. bd. net.
STUDIES IN THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER : Sermons. With an
Introductory Essay. Crown Svo. 41. net.
THE SPIRIT OF DISCIPLINE : Sermons. Crown Svo. 41. net.
FACULTIES AND DIFFICULTIES FOR BELIEF AND DIS
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THE HALLOWING OF WORK. Addresses given at Eton, January
16-18, 1888. Small Svo. zs.
THE REDEMPTION OF WAR : Sermons. Crown Svo. as. net.
Passmore.— Works by the Rev. T. H. PASSMORE, M.A.
THE THINGS BEYOND THE TOMB IN A CATHOLIC LIGHT.
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LEISURABLE STUDIES. Crown Svo. 41. net.
Contents.— The 'Religious Woman '—Preachments— Silly Ritual— The Tyr
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Percival.— THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS. Treated Theo
logically and Historically. By Henry R. Percival, M.A., D.D.
Crown Svo. Ss-
Powell —CHORALl A : a Handy-Book for Parochial Precentors
and Choirmasters. By the Rev. James Baden Powell, M.A.,
Precentor of St. Paul's, Knightsbridge. Crown Svo. 4s. bd. net.
Practical Reflections. By a Clergyman. With Preface by
H. P. Liddon, D.D., D.C.L., and the Lord Bishop of Lincoln.
Crown Svo.
The Book of Genesis. 41. U. The Minor Prophets. 41. 6d.
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Isaiah 41 6d Acts to Revelation, bs.

20 A SELECTION OF WORKS
Preparatio ; or, Notes of Preparation for Holy Communion,
founded on the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel for Every Sunday in the
Year. With Preface by the Rev. George Congre ve, S. S. J . E. Crown
Svo. bs. net.
Priest's Prayer Book (The). Containing Private Prayers and
Intercessions ; Occasional, School, and Parochial Offices ; Offices for
the Visitation of the Sick, with Notes, Readings, Collects, Hymns,
Litanies, etc. With a br-ief Pontifical. By the late Rev. R. F.
Littledale, LL.D., D.C.L., and Rev. J. Edward Vaux, M.A.,
F.S.A. Post Svo. bs.bd.
Pullan.— Works by the Rev. Leighton Pullan, M.A., Fellow
of St. John Baptist's College.
LECTURES ON RELIGION. Crown Svo. bs.
THE HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. Crown
Svo. ss- (The Oxford Library of Practical Theology.)
Puller.— THE PRIMITIVE SAINTS AND THE SEE OF
ROME. By F. W. Puller, of the Society of St. John the Evan
gelist, Cowley. With an Introduction by Edward, Lord Bishop of
Lincoln. Third Edition, Revised and Enlarged. Svo. lbs. net.
Pusey.— Works by the Rev. E. B. Pusey, D.D.
PRIVATE PRAYERS. With Preface by H. P. Liddon, D.D.,
late Chancellor and Canon of St. Paul's. Royal 3zmo. is.
SPIRITUAL LETTERS OF EDWARD BOUVERIE PUSEY,
D.D. Edited and prepared for publication by the Rev. J. O.
Johnston, M.A., Principal of the Theological College, Cuddesdon ;
and the Rev. W. C. E. Newbolt, M.A., Canon and Chancellor of St.
Paul's. New and cheaper Edition. With Index. Crown Svo. s1- nel'
Pusey.— THE STORY OF THE LIFE OF DR. PUSEY.
By the Author of ' Charles Lowder. ' With Frontispiece. Crown Svo.
ys. bd. net.
Randolph. — Works by B. W. Randolph, D.D., Principal of the
Theological College and Hon. Canon of Ely.
THE EXAMPLE OF THE PASSION: being Addresses given in St.
Paul's Cathedral at the Mid-Day Service on Monday, Tuesday, Wed
nesday, and Thursday in Holy Week, and at the Three Hours' Service
on Good Friday, 1897. Small Svo. zs. net.
MEDITATIONS ON THE OLD TESTAMENT for Every Day in
the Year. Crown Svo. ss- ne^
MEDITATIONS ON THE NEW TESTAMENT for Every Day in
the Year. Crown Svo. $s- net-
THE THRESHOLD OF THE SANCTUARY : being Short Chapters
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IN THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE.

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22 A SELECTION OF WORKS
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DIFFERENT CONCEPTIONS OF PRIESTHOOD AND SACRI
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THE CHURCH AND THE BIBLE. Crown Svo. 31. bd.
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IN THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 23
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24 A SELECTION OF THEOLOGICAL WORKS.
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