THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
professor in Konigsberg, thereafter becoming associate professor of church history at Kiel. In 1899 he returned in a similar capacity to Greifswald. Became first librarian in the Kaiser Wilhelm Library at Posen. 1909. He has written Prolegomena z\i einer Geschichte des Bcgriffcs " Nachfolge Christi " (Berlin, 1895).
BOSSUET, bes"su"e', JACQUES BENIGNE : Bishop of Meaux (about 27 m. e.n.e. of Paris); b. at Dijon Sept. 27, 1627; d. in Paris Apr. 12, 1704. He began his studies in the Jesuit school of Dijon, and finished at the College de Navarre, Paris. He became priest and doctor of theology, 1052; after some time spent in retirement at St. Lazare, he went to Metz, where he was canon and archdeacon, acquired great fame as a preacher, and engaged in controversy with representatives of the Reformed Churches. At the request of his bishop he published his first work (1655), a Refutation of the catechism of Paul Ferry (q.v.). In 1669 he was made bishop of Condom, Gascony, but resigned this office after he was appointed tutor to the dauphin (1670). When the education of his pupil was finished, in 1681, he was made bishop of Meaux. Bossuet adopted the Cartesian philosophy, to which he added the Thomist theology and a great admiration for Augustine. He is generally considered the foremost of French preachers; and, in so far as the art of eloquence is concerned, his six Oraisons funebres (best collected eds., by Lequeux, Paris, 1762, and, with notes, etc., by A. Gaste, 1883) must be ranked among the finest -specimens of Christian oratory, though they reflect the splendor and greatness of Louis Quatorze
- more vividly than the power and humility of the Gospel. As tutor to the dauphin he wrote De la connaissance de Dieu et de soi-meme (1722; better ed., 1741) and Discours sur I'histoire universelle depuisle commencement du mondc jusqu'a I 'empire de Charlemagne (1681; 5th ed., enlarged, 1703; the continuation to 1661, published 1806, was printed from his notes), the latter of which is a strikingly original attempt to construct a Christian philosophy of history on the principle that the destinies of nations are controlled by providence in the interest of the Roman Catholic Church. Among his controversial writings
- against the Protestants, the two most remarkable are Exposition de la doctrine de VEglise catholique sur les motieres de controverse (1671) and Histoire des variations des Eglises protestantes (2 vols., 1688; best ed., 4 vols., 1689). The latter was sharply criticized by Jurieu and Basnage, and involved its author in a long and vehement controversy. He characterized the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) as " le plus bel usage de l'autorite," but he was no ultramontanist. He presided in 1682 over
- the assembly of the French clergy which the king had convened to defend the royal prerogatives and the liberties of the Gallican Church against the claims of the pope. Nor was he in the least tainted by mysticism. His attacks on Fdnelon and the Quietists approached very near to persecution. He was one of the greatest of the many distinguished men who lent brilliancy to the century of Louis XIV, but he was a representative of his time, and his ideas of church polity corresponded to,
if they were not dictated by, the king's " l'6tat,
c'est moi."
Bibliography: There have been many editions of his works; the basis of most of them is that prepared by the Abbi* PeYau, at government expense, 20 vols., Paris, 1743- 1750; three volumes of (Euvres posthumes, ed. by C. F. Leroy were published in 17.53; the best edition is the (Euvres completes, by F. Lechat and others, 31 vols., 1862-66; with appendix of (Euvres inidites, 2 vols., 1881- 1883. Besides many single sermons accessible in English translation, the following works may be mentioned: Select Sermons and Funeral Orations, 1801; A Survey of Universal History, 1819; A Conference [between Bossuet and J. Claude, Mar. 1, 1679] on the Authority of the Church, London, 1841; An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholic Faith, 1S41; Elevations to God, 1850; The History of the Variations of the Protestant Churches, 2 vols., Dublin, 1836; Meditations, London, 1901.
For a bibliography consult H. M. Bourseaud, Histoire et description des MSS. et des editions originates des ouvrages de Bossuet, Paris 1898 (includes translations).
For his life and writings and his relations to Fenelon, Jansenism, Quietism, etc., consult: L. F. de Bausset, Histoire de Jacques Benigne Bossuet, 4 vols., Paris, "814, Besangon, 1846; M. M. Tabaraud, Supplement aux histoires de Bossuet . compose par . . de Bausset, Paris,
1822; F. le Dieu (his secretary), Memoires et journal sur la vie et les ouvrages de Bossuet, 4 vols., ib. 1856-57; A. Reaume, Histoire de J.-B. Bossuet et de ses muvres, 3 vols., ib. 1869; Mrs. H. L. (Farrer) Lear, Bossuet and his Contemporaries, London, 1874; C. A. Sainte-Beuve, Essays on Men and Women, ib. 1890; R. de la Broise, Be suet et la Bible, Paris, 1891; G. Lanson, Bossuet, ib. 1- (a study of the writings); A. Re'belliau, Bossuet, histo,,en du protestantisme, ib. 1891; Sir J. F. Stephen, Hora Sabbatical, vol. ii, London, 1892; C. E. Freppel, Bossuet et I'eloquence sacree au xvii. siecle, Paris, 1893; J. Denis, Querelle de Bossuet et de Fenelon, ib. 1894; L. Crousle, Fenelon et Bossuet. Etudes morales et litteraires, 2 vols., ib. 1894-95; A. M. P. Ingod, Bossuet et jansenisme, ib 1897.
BOST, PAUL AMI ISAAC DAVID : Swiss evangelist; b. at Geneva June 10, 1790; d. at La Force (6 m. w. of Bergerac), France, Dec. 14, 1874. He devoted four years to theology at the University of Geneva, but gained little spiritual profit from his studies, and was ordained in 1814 in a spirit of empty formalism. In 1816 he accepted a call as assistant pastor at Moutiers-Granval in the Canton of Bern, where he remained two years, ascribing to this period his firm belief in the doctrines of grace and justification. A parish proved too small for his energies, however, and in 1818, under the auspices of the " London Continental Society," he began the missionary journeys which were to occupy almost thirty-five years of his life. After the first of these trips, he withdrew from the Church of Geneva, and in the following year was in Colmar. He was expelled from France, however, and began a roving life, oppressed by poverty and burdened with a large family, yet preaching in Offenbach, Frankfort, Hanau, Friedrichsdorf, and Carlsruhc.
In 1825-26 Bost was in Geneva as the pastor of the free church of Bourg-de-Four. In answer to the attacks of the State Church, he published his Defense de ceux des fideles de Geneve qui se sont constitues en eglises ind&pendantes (Geneva, 1825), charging the national Church with abandoning the Gospel and adopting Arianism. He was accordingly tried for slander, but was acquitted, although he was fined 500 francs for his libelous statements regarding the " Compagnie des pasteurs." Despite the fact that this trial marked a union of the divergent elements of the Free Church, Bost resigned