Bourges, the see of a Roman archbishop in France. Bourges was one of the earliest episcopal sees of France. A metropolitan of Bourges is mentioned for the first time at the beginning of the sixth century. A university was established there in 1463. Councils (Concilia Bituricensia) were held at Bourges in 1031, 1225, 1276, 1286, 1336, with regard to church discipline; another, the most importantof all, in 1438 [see Bourges, Pragmatic Sanction of]; and the last, in 1528, against Luther and the Reformation. — Wiltsch, Geogr. anil Statist, of the Chunk.
Bourges, Pragmatic Sanction of, a settle- ment drawn up at the Synod of Bourges, 1438 (con- voked by Charles VII, and to which Pope Eugene IV and the fathers of the Council of Basle sent legates), for the purpose of remedying abuses in the matter of election to bishoprics. The French clergy had sent petitions on this point to the Council of Basle (q. v.), which in return sent several decrees to the King of France on the subject. These decrees form the basis
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of the " Pragmatic Sanction." It is styled by some j writers the rampart of the Galilean Church, and takes . from the popes very nearly the whole of the power they possessed of presenting to benefices and of judg- ing ecclesiastical causes within the kingdom. They form part of the "fundamental law" of the French state and of the Galilean Church. In 1-13'.) the most impor- tant of them were also accepted by a German Diet at Mayence. Twenty-three articles of the Pragmatic Sanction were founded upon the decrees of the Coun- cil of Basle, and hence the papal sanction of those 'de- crees also approved twenty-one of these articles. Art. 1. Relates to the authority of oecumenical councils; 2. Relates to the power and authority of the Council of Basle ; 3. Relates to elections, and enjoins freedom of election, etc. ; 4. Abolishes all reservations of bene- fices, etc. ; 5. Relates to collations and benefices, and forbids expective graces, etc. ; 6. Relates to judgment and causes; orders that all causes [except the greater causes] which happen at places more than four days' journey from Rome shall be decided on the spot ; 7. Relates to frivolous appeals, and confirms the decree of the 20th September of Basle ; 8. Confirms the de- cree of the 21st session of Basle, "de pacificis posses- soribus ;" 9. Limits the number of cardinals (twenty- third decree of Basle) ; 10. Relates to the annates ; 11. Contains regulations relating to divine service, and enjoins that the laudable customs of particular churches in France shall be observed ; 12-19. Relate to the econ- omy of Cathedral churches ; 20. Relates to concubinary clerks; 21. Relates to excommunications; 22. Treats of interdicts ; 23. Concerns the pope's bulls and let- ters. These articles were" confirmed by the French Parliament July 13th, 1139. The popes made vigor- ous attacks upon the Pragmatic Sanction, which were as vigorously resisted by the king, the Parliament, and the bishops. Louis XI (successor of Charles) consent- ed to its abolition, but the Parliament resisted it. It was repealed by the Lateran Council, 1512, and re- nounced by Francis I in his Concordat (q. v.) of 1516, with the understanding that the Concordat guarded the rights of the French government on the points in ques- tion.— Landon, Manual of Councils, p. 85.
Bourignonists, the followers of a visionary in France called Antoinette Bourijnion, who was born at Lille 1610, and died at Franeker 1680. She taught that man is perfectly free to resist or receive divine grace ; that there is no such thing as foreknowledge or elec- tion; that God is ever unchangeable love toward all his creatures, and does not inflict any arbitrary punish- ment, but that the evils they suffer are the natural consequences of sin ; that religion consists not in out- ward forms of worship nor systems of faith, but in an entire resignation to the will of God, and those inward feelings which arise from communion with God. She held many extravagant notions, such as the follow- ing: that Adam, before the fall, possessed the nature of both sexes ; that, when she was in an ecstasy, God represented Adam to her mind in his original state; as also the beauty of the first world, and how he had drawn it from the chaos ; and that every thing was bright, transparent, and darted forth life and ineffable glory ; that Christ has a twofold manhood, one formed of Adam before the creation of Eve, and another taken from the Virgin Mary ; that this human nature was corrupted with the principle of rebellion against ( iod's will. Her works were collected and published under the title Toufes les oeuvres de Millie. A . Bourigrwn (Amst. 1679-1684, 19 vols. 12mo), by her disciple Poiret, who also wrote her life (2 vols. 12mo, 1679). Many of her writings have been translated and published in Eng- land. She had more disciples in Scotland than in any other country, and in 1701 the General Assembly con- demned her writings as "freighted with damnable doctrines." See Apology for M. A id. Bourignon (Lond. 1699, 8vo) ; The Light of the World | Lond. 1696, 8vo); The Academy of Learned Divines (Lond. 1708, 8vo);
Confusion of the Builders of Babel (Lond. 170S, 8vo). — Mosheim, Eccl. Hist, iii, 480, 481 ; Stowell, Work of the Spirit, 268 sq ; Landon, Eccl. Diet, ii, 359;