See Mirepoix, Ariege Denomination Roman Catholic | Nationality French Name Jean-Francois Boyer | |
Diocese Ancient Diocese of Mirepoix Elected Member, Academie francaise (1736)
Member, French Academy of Sciences (1738)
Member,
Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres (1741) Born March 12, 1675 ( 1675-03-12 ) Died August 20, 1755(1755-08-20) (aged 80) | ||
¿La legalización acabaría con el narcotráfico? - Jean François Boyer
Jean-Francois Boyer (March 12, 1675 in Paris – August 20, 1755 in Versailles), was a French bishop, best known for having been a vehement opponent of Jansenism and the Philosophe school.
Contents
Life
Boyer was a preacher, and the bishop of Mirepoix, Ariege from 1730 to 1736. In 1735 he was tutor to Louis, Dauphin of France, and in 1743 he was head chaplain to Maria Josepha of Saxony, Dauphine of France.
In 1736 he was elected a member of the Academie francaise, in 1738 to the French Academy of Sciences, and in 1741 to the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres.
He had several benefices by Royal appintment. According to Evelyne Lever, the favorite royal biographer, during the Jubilee Year of 1750 Pope Benedict XIV Boyer tried unsuccessfully to break the relationship between the King and the Marquise de Pompadour.
Boyer promulgated the "Statements of Confession" that the faithful must needs sign to show their compliance with Pope Clement XI's Unigenitus Bull, and to be entitled to receive the sacrament. This caused an outcry in Paris.
As Bishop of the Ancient Diocese of Mirepoix he also hounded the Philosophe school. In 1743, he plotted against Voltaire at the Academie francaise, when he ran for the seat vacated by Cardinal de Fleury.
In 1751, he set the King's mind against the editors of the Encyclopedie and his machinations caused their articles to be monitored and censored. But he failed in his goal of suppressing the undertaking completely.
Voltaire, who also commented on other matters in which Boyer was involved, wrote:
...on est oblige d’avouer ici, avec toute la France, combien il est triste et honteux que cet homme si borne ait succede aux Fenelon et aux Bossuet.
...I am obliged to confess here, with all of France, how sad it is and shameful that such a narrow-minded man has succeeded Fenelon and Bossuet.
But Boyer's eloquence was appreciated by some of his contemporaries, as Charles Le Beau recorded:
...il ne songe pas a charmer, mais a convertir ; au lieu de lui applaudir, on se condamne ; on l’oublie pour n’entendre que la voix de l’Evangile, dont il porte une forte teinture et dont il represente le naturel, le pathetique, l’insinuant, l’auguste et victorieuse simplicite
...he does not try to charm, but to convert, instead of applauding him, we should damn ourselves, in forgetting the word of the Gospel, with its natural, pathetic, and simple and august language.