not to suffer himself to be withdrawn by the love of praise, or the persuasions of others, from that studious, humble, and retired life which was fitting for his age. Bossuet heard and heeded, and we hear of no more such displays of oratory.
In 1648 he took his bachelor's degree; after which he resided at Metz for two years, to be near his family, while studying for the theological license. In 1650 he commenced his license at the college of Navarre. During the Lent of 1652 he took priest's orders, having previously made a retreat at the college of St. Lazare, under the direction of St. Vincent de Paul. He conceived an earnest and affectionate admiration for his director, and nearly fifty years later, in 1700, took an active part in promoting his canonization at Rome. In May he obtained the license of doctor in theology, coming second on the list, the abbé de Rancé being the first. The founder of the austere order of La Trappe was at this time plunged in the vanities and dissipations of the world, and no tie of sympathy seemed possible between him and the serious studious Bossuet. But events were so strangely ruled, that the grave student came to be the trusted and familiar inmate of the most magnificent court of Europe, while the brilliant de Rancé, flying from his remorse to a frightful solitude, expiated for long years in penitential austerities the errors and follies of his youth. Under these altered circumstances, the two men met again, as we shall see.
At this period, when the formal preparation for life was completed, Bossuet had to decide what course to take. He was urged to stay in Paris; he had powerful friends and patrons at court; and such powers as his must insure a successful career. On the other hand, Cornet, the grand-master of the college of Navarre, wished to resign in his favour, and pressed Bossuet to consent to be nominated. But lastly, he was a canon, and now archdeacon, of the cathedral of Metz; and here a plain path of duty presented itself. Bossuet did not hesitate; he went to Metz, and resided there for six years. During this period he added largely to those stores of learning which he afterwards so ably employed. Among the fathers, St. Augustine was his great oracle; he read and re-read him, and completely penetrated himself with the modes of thought of the fervid African. But more than all he studied the New Testament, a copy of which he had always about him. He lived on friendly terms with the minister of the Calvinists at Metz, M. Paul Ferri, and it was with him that he commenced the long series of his controversial writings, by publishing, in 1654, a refutation of the catechism of Paul Ferri. The fame of his preaching gradually spread, and he was so often invited to preach in Paris, that at the end of 1658 he transferred his residence to the metropolis, taking up his abode at the deanery of St. Thomas du Louvre. For the next ten years he lived at Paris, preaching constantly, gaining the friendship of good men by his purity of life and uprightness of character, and causing the ascendancy of his genius to be daily more felt. In 1661 he preached for the first time before Louis XIV. In 1667 the great Turenne made to him his abjuration of protestantism, after reading the manuscript of his "Exposition de la foi Catholique." His recognized moderation and fairness of mind caused him to be employed by M. Péréfixe, archbishop of Paris, with much success as a mediator between Arnauld and the party of Port Royal, and their assailants. A great number of the sermons which he preached at this time are to be found in the collective editions of his works. In lucidity of arrangement and correctness he is said to yield to Bourdaloue, and in the musical flow of his periods to Massillon; the ruggedness as well as the fervour of St. Augustine hangs about his style; but for comprehensiveness of view, for grandeur of conception, for that enthusiastic eloquence which springs from deep personal conviction, Bossuet's sermons have perhaps never been equalled in modern times.
In September, 1669, he was nominated to the bishopric of Condom; and in the following year, the king, whose admiration and regard for him had gone on augmenting, appointed him preceptor to the dauphin. During the next ten years, therefore, Bossuet lived at court, for he resigned the bishopric of Condom a few months after receiving the above appointment. His labours during this period, whether in the field of controversy, or in that of biblical commentary, or of tutorial instruction, were unceasing. His famous conference with the minister Claude in 1678 we shall speak of presently. His commentaries on the Psalms were the result of a long series of conversational promenades in the Allée des Philosophes in the park at Versailles, where Bossuet was of course the presiding genius, but which the greatest intellects of France—Fenelon, Fleury, Pelisson, La Bruyere, &c., delighted to attend, for theological, philosophical, and literary discussion. The MS. of the chief part of the commentaries produced at this time was never printed, and has unfortunately been lost. Those who were present at these meetings used always to dine with Bossuet, who gave, according to the abbé de Longuerue, fort mauvaise chére. His pupil, the dauphin, was a youth of very ordinary abilities, and but little sympathy seems ever to have been established between him and Bossuet. It was for the instruction of this prince, nominally at least, that the celebrated delphin editions of the classics were composed, and that Bossuet wrote his "Discours sur l'Histoire Universelle," than which none of his works bears a clearer impress of his lofty mind. But we should do scanty justice to Bossuet's immense activity, did we suppose that his life at court was engrossed by literary pursuits, however varied. By him, in 1674, the weak purpose of Mme. de la Vallière, long struggling between her awakened conscience and her splendid temptations, was strengthened and sustained; and in the following year he preached one of his most celebrated sermons at her solemn profession in a Carmelite monastery. By him, in a great measure, in the same year, the guilty connection of Louis XIV. with madame de Montespan was for a time broken through. Turenne in 1675, and the duc de Rochefoucauld, author of the Maximes, in 1680, dying in his arms, received from him the last succours of religion. He wrote also at this period several letters to the king, while with the army in Flanders, in one of which he strongly urges him to exert himself to relieve the distress among the people. Bossuet's eagle eye detected the weak spot in the apparent greatness and magnificence of France; and had his advice been honestly followed, perhaps the revolutionary ruin of the succeeding century might have been averted. In 1680 the education of the dauphin being over, Bossuet was made first almoner to the dauphiness. For the space of a year he had no other definite employment, until in May, 1681, he was nominated by the king to the vacant see of Meaux. He was about to prepare himself for his new duties by a retreat at La Trappe, when his design was frustrated by the pressure of weighty business connected with the approaching assembly of the French clergy at Paris, to consider the question of the régale. Our limits will not permit us to attempt anything like a regular narrative of the proceedings of this celebrated assembly. Suffice it to say, that Bossuet was the life and soul of a body which contained all the most distinguished ornaments of the church of France—a church never at any time more richly adorned by the virtues and talents of her clergy than then. He was chosen to preach the opening sermon on the 9th November, 1681; and the line of conduct which he traced out in this discourse, was exactly that which by incredible labour and patience, and by the full exertion of all his matchless powers, he finally induced the entire assembly to pursue. After the affair of the régale was settled, the assembly proceeded to deliberate on the general questions of the relation of the spiritual to the temporal power, and of the papacy to the church. The result was the declaration of the Gallican church, dated March 19th, 1682, contained in four articles composed by Bossuet. The most important points of this declaration are, first, the assertion of the radical distinction between the spiritual and temporal powers, and of the independence of the latter on the former; secondly, the declaration, in conformity with the council of Constance, that the decision of a pope, even in questions of faith, is not irreformable, "nisi ecclesiæ consensus accesserit."
After the breaking up of the assembly in June, 1682, Bossuet immediately proceeded to Meaux, the see of which he administered for the remaining twenty-two years of his life; and at this point we shall collect together such notices as our space will permit us to record concerning his manner of life in his diocese, and in his own household. He now carried out his suspended project of visiting the monastery of La Trappe, the superior and founder of which, the abbot de Rancé, he cordially loved and admired. During this retreat, he edified the monks of that ascetic order by the strict fidelity with which he conformed to all the observances prescribed by the rule. He visited La Trappe eight different times in the course of his episcopate, and used to say that he was never happier than when there. Upon his return to Meaux, he zealously applied himself to the discharge of the duties of the episcopate, bringing to bear upon the guidance of the souls committed to him all the immense
