“When it is our duty to speak, it is a crime to remain silent.”

Bossuet or “The Eagle of Meaux”
(1627-1704)
Bishop of Meaux, famous orator and writer

“The image that Rigaud gives us of Bossuet is one that we would like to keep; in his portrait Bossuet is an invincible prelate, enveloped in a cyclone of hanging folds and the pleats of his mantle, treading underfoot a pile of folios from which he draws his fire, his right hand placed on an open book, the gage of his certitude, and his left hand holding his beretta against his thigh, an emblem of his greatness. Unfortunately the erudite scholars have scratched the surface of this rock and found faults in it. They remind us of a letter by Antoine Arnauld (1690) which declares that along with all the merits attributed to Bossuet “there is always a verumtamen, a yes, but…” which puts a damper on all his praise. Even amongst all the “yes, but…” concerning Bossuet, there remains one thing sure: his genius. […] In whatever he undertakes, Bossuet lets his fighter’s instinct come out. Under his rochet and camail he has the muscles of one of the heroes of Michelangelo. Just as Corneille pulverized all French drama written before his time, likewise Bossuet pulverized all French eloquence that came before him, and he dispersed the barrage of pillaging preachers who received 600 pounds for preaching at Saint-Sulpice during Lent. (…) Vincent de Paul taught him that an orator of the sacred doesn’t speak from the pulpit in order to spout nonsense. He is the voice of God, come to wake the sleepy, to warm the tepid, to strengthen the weak. Mr. Vincent fulfilled his mission with the mischief of a peasant from the Landes, savory as goose confit. As for Bossuet, he gives the Lord’s words the force of a pipe organ, and of thunder. It’s God with a XVIIth century accent, and the Burgundian rolling of the “r”.”

Paul Guth (1910-1997)
Novelist and essayist