Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
1627 CE–1704 CE · Modern · Dijon
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627–1704) was a French Catholic bishop, theologian, and the preeminent orator of the grand siècle, renowned for funeral orations that stand as masterworks of French prose. As tutor to the Dauphin, son of Louis XIV, he composed the Discourse on Universal History, an ambitious synthesis of sacred and secular history organized around divine providence. He served as Bishop of Condom (consecrated 1670, though he never resided there) and then of Meaux, from which he directed the religious life of one of France's most important dioceses while engaging in polemics against Protestantism and Quietism. A leading champion of Gallicanism, he was a principal drafter of the Declaration of the Clergy of France (1682), which asserted the independence of the French church from direct papal authority in temporal matters. His vast correspondence, sermons, and doctrinal writings made him the defining voice of French Catholic orthodoxy in the age of Louis XIV.
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DijonFrance
What they did here
Born 27 September 1627 (some sources: 25 September) to a family of magistrates; educated at the Collège des Godrans run by the Jesuits in Dijon, where he gained a reputation for scholarly diligence.
About Dijon
Dijon, the capital of Burgundy in eastern France, an ancient see. Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, the great preacher and bishop, was born there in 1627.
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