Selections from the Funeral Orations of Bossuet: Edited with an Introduction and Notes (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Selections From The Funeral Orations Of Bossuet: Edited With An Introduction And Notes

The foundation of Bossuet's character is reverence for order, for what is regular, accepted, for ideas confirmed by the Wisdom of generations. In these particulars he is an excellent representative of his age and nation. He stands as a supporter of the tenets formulated by the Church, as a partisan of abso lute mle in the state. Bossuet is the reverse of an individualist. He opposed the Protestants because they were separatists, antagonists of established dogmas in religion, enemies of the theory of the divine right of kings in politics. His belief that the world is best served by unity of creed and uniformity of government was based on his temperament and buttressed by his experience. This belief furnishes the explanation of Bos suet, missionary and sermonizer. Judaism having evolved into Christianity, the Jewish religion of modern times is contrary to nature, an anachronism. The Christianity of the first century, having been developed and expounded by the deliberations of the elect for many centuries, all efforts looking towards a return to this primitive faith necessarily result in factional strife, where each man interprets as he may desire and becomes a law to himself. F urthermore, since the growth of the monarchical idea had been contemporaneous with the growth of the idea of the Church, and because these two social phenomena had been closely connected, the enemies of kings were the foes of the Church. And it must be admitted that the history of Europe down to Bossuet's time had borne witness to the correctness of this reasoning. Hence Bossuet's failure to judge Charles I Louis XIV, Charles II and the Duke of Orleans (see pages 19, 21, 40, 138 etc.) as they are now judged. With him their per sonal interests were inextricably interwoven with the interests of the Church, and a blow which would reach them would fall on the Church also. Political liberty and religious anarchy were one and the same to Bossuet. We need not wonder, therefore, at his whole - heated espousal of the cause of princes against their subjects.

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