Amable Bourzeis

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Amable Bourzeis (also: Bourzeys, Bourzeix, Bourzé, Bourzéis, Bourzeïs ) (born April 3, 1606 in Volvic , † August 2, 1672 in Paris ) was a French scholar and man of letters who served as an advisor to Richelieu , Mazarin and Colbert .

Life

Origin and early years

Bourzeis came from a middle-class family from Riom . His first name Amable is the name of the patron saint of Riom, to whom the local basilica is also dedicated. The name Bourzeis has 14 spelling variants. Bourzeis was a page of the governor of Auvergne, Jean-Louis de Rochechouart, Marquis de Chandenier (1582-1635). In 1624 he accompanied a relative, the Jesuit Jean Arnoux (1576–1636), former confessor of King Louis XIII. , to Rome. Already able to speak Latin and Greek, he studied theology there with Johannes de Lugo (Juan de Lugo y de Quiroga, 1583–1660), as well as oriental languages. On his return he stayed in Paris with Roger du Plessis, duc de Liancourt , on whose initiative the king gave him the benefice of the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Martin in Cure (in Domecy-sur-Cure , now gone).

Richelieu. Académie française

From 1634 at the latest, Bourzeis was a member of Cardinal Richelieu's advisory staff. Voltaire even claimed, against the opinion of all historians, that Bourzeis was the author of the Testament politique (which was not published until 1688) , which at best should be understood in a purely editorial sense. From 1634 Bourzeis belonged to the Académie française (seat no. 26), which was in the founding phase . He was one of the members personally selected by the official founder, Richelieu, and added to the original circle of friends.

Génie des langues. Querelle du Cid

On February 12, 1635, he gave a programmatic speech (the second ever) in the Academy on the aims of the Academy and the different genius of languages ​​( Sur le dessein de l'Académie et le différent génie des langues ), which shows that the academy was an instrument of Richelieu's language policy in the service of the expansion of France, but also contains the enlightenment thought that every language has its own strengths (and weaknesses). In contrast to an academy project formulated by Nicolas Faret , in which the French language was already presented as superior to all others, this resulted in the task of perfecting French for the academy so that it could achieve a superiority in terms of foreign policy.

In the Querelle du Cid , Bourzeis was one of the three chosen authors (with Jean Chapelain and Desmarets ) who drew up the Academy's opinion in 1637 ( Les sentiments de l'Académie Française touchant les observations faites sur la tragi-comédie du Cid ).

Mazarin. The Jansenist. Liancourt affair

In 1640 Bourzeis was ordained a priest after he had previously preached. In April 1646 he published the sermon ( Discours à Monseigneur le prince palatin pour l'exhorter à entrer dans la communion de l'Église catholique ), with which in November 1645 he converted the Calvinist Eduard von der Pfalz (since April secret husband of the Anna Gonzaga ) to the Catholic faith. Noro believes the publication was in the service of Mazarin's foreign policy.

In the Jansenist dispute, Bourzeis published numerous polemical texts in French from 1648 to 1652 in defense of Jansenism . He was considered the patriarch of the Jansenists. Other Jansenists were Antoine Arnauld , Guillaume Le Roy (1610–1684), Noël de La Lane (1618–1673) Gilbert Mauguin (? –1674) and Joseph Desmares (1603–1687). On the opposite side of the polemic stood the anti-Jansenists (sorted by date of death) François Véron (1575–1649), Denis Pétau (1583–1652), Nicolas Forest Duchesne (1595–1656), Alphonse Le Moyne (? –1659), Pierre de Saint-Joseph (1594–1662), Nicolas Dolebeau (1605–1668?), Claude Morel (1608? –1679), Étienne Agard Dechamps (1613–1711) and Léonard de Marandé (? -?).

In 1652 Bourzeis entered the immediate service of Mazarin. It was supposed to mediate between the two camps, the Jansenist and the much larger anti-Jansenist, but was used by Mazarin to better combat the Jansenist opposition (including Cardinal de Retz ). His mediation proposals were rejected by the majority of French bishops (who supported the Pope). When Mazarin traveled to Sedan and Bouillon from August 1652 to February 1653 , Bourzeis was with him.

From 1652 Bourzeis did not write any more pro-Jansenist writings, but was considered a well-known Jansenist who belonged to the Liancourt house. This affiliation was the motive for the refusal of absolution to the Duke of Liancourt on February 1, 1655, an affair that sparked Pascal's famous Lettres provinciales . Liancourt therefore forced him to move out in 1655. Although publicly labeled as a Jansenist, Bourzeis remained in the service of Mazarin, who valued him. He increasingly turned away from a militant stance and signed (after Mazarin's death in March 1661) on November 4, 1661 (to the surprise of the Jansenists) the famous form condemning Jansenism, which the French bishops had formulated in obedience to Pope Alexander VII and that was to be signed by all believers.

Colbert. The Little Academy. Latin vs French. War propaganda. death

After Mazarin's death, Bourzeis switched to the service of Colbert, who had known him from his time at Mazarin. When Colbert founded the "Small Academy" on February 3, 1663 as a propaganda instrument for the king, from which the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres later emerged, it initially consisted of four members, including Jean Chapelain , Jacques Cassagne and François Charpentier also belonged to Bourzeis. Another role in the founding was played by Colbert employee Charles Perrault , who later told the founding story from his own experience, but could not officially be a member because he only belonged to the Académie française from 1671.

In the Small Academy there was a dispute between Bourzeis and Charpentier about which language, Latin or French, the inscriptions on the triumphal arches should be written in. Charpentier's preference for French was developed by him in two books, whereas Bourzeis' prolatein argument can only be found in Charpentier's paper. The world's first scientific journal, the Journal des Savants , which grew out of the Small Academy, also had Bourzeis on its staff from January 5 to March 29, 1665 under the direction of Denis de Sallo .

In 1667 three propaganda pamphlets appeared (with translations in several languages) to support the claims of France during the war of devolution . These writings had been prepared for a long time in Colbert's advisory staff. These are collective fonts. You are wrongly attributed to Bourzeis as the sole author. To prepare these writings, Bourzeis traveled to Portugal in late 1665 / early 1666 to look for documents. Against the French propaganda writings Franz von Lisola published a well-founded refutation in July 1667 under the title Bouclier d'Etat et de justice . Bourzeis, who had meanwhile been sidelined by his trip, achieved his reintegration into the collective that was now preparing an anti-Lisola. Its publication did not come about because the peace of Aachen had meanwhile been concluded.

On January 5, 1672, an extensive collection of his sermons appeared; he died in August of the same year at the age of 66. His successor in the Académie française was Jean Gallois . The Japanese novelist Yasushi Noro (* 1970) dedicated a thesis supervised by Dominique Descotes (* 1948 ) to Bourzeis at the University of Blaise Pascal Clermont-Ferrand II , which appeared in print in 2018 and in 2019 received the Prix ​​Régional de la Francophonie 2019 .

Works

  • Discours à Monseigneur le prince palatin pour l'exhorter à entrer dans la communion de l'Église catholique . Vve de H. Blageart, Paris 1646, 1655.
  • L'Excellence de l'Eglise et les raisons qui nous obligent à ne nous en séparer jamais . Louis de Heuqueville, Paris 1648, 1655.
  • (anonymous) Propositiones de gratia , in Sorbonae facultate propediem examinandae. Without location 1649.
  • (anonymous) Quinque propositionum de gratia quas Facultati theologicae Parisiensi M. Nicolaus Cornet subdole exhibuit prima julii anni 1649. vera & catholica expositio juxta mentem discipulorum sancti Augustini. Without location 1649 or 1651.
  • (anonymous) Lettre d'un abbé à un évesque, sur la conformité de saint Augustin avec le Concile de Trente dans la doctrine de la Grace . Without location 1649.
  • (anonymous) Lettre d'un abbé à un abbé sur la conformité de S. Augustin avec le concile de Trente, touchant la possibilité des commandements divins . Without location 1649.
  • (anonymous) Lettre d'un abbé à un président, sur la conformité de sainct Augustin avec le Concile de Trente, touchant la manière dont les justes peuvent délaisser Dieu, & estre en suite délaissez de luy . Without location 1649.
  • (anonymous) Apologie du Concile de Trente et de Sainct Augustin , contre les nouvelles opinions du censeur latin de la Lettre française d'un abbé à un évesque; où est réfutée also dans une préface une autre censure latine de la préface françoise de la Lettre d'un abbé à un président. Without location 1650.
  • (anonymous) Conférences de deux theologiens molinistes , sur un libelle faussement intitulé "Les sentimens de sainct Augustin, & de toute l'Eglise". Without place 1650. (Against Dom P. de Saint Joseph, feuillant)
  • (pseudonym) Contre l'adversaire du Concile de Trente et de Sainct Augustin . Dialogue premier: où l'on découvre la confusion et les contradictions estranges des Dogmes théologiques du P. Petau, et où l'on réfute un libelle du mesme Père intitulé insolemment, Dispute contre l'Hétérodoxe, c'est à dire, contre l 'Heretique. Où est alsi réfuté par occasion un petit libelle de M. Morel dont le titre est, Defense de la confession de la foy catholique alleguée, & c. Par Amable de Volvic. Without location 1650.
  • (anonymous) Saint Augustin victorieux de Calvin et de Molina , ou Réfutation d'un livre intitulé: "Le Secret du jansénisme, etc" ... Paris 1652.
  • (with others) Traité des droits de la Reyne tres-chrétienne , sur divers Etats de la monarchie d'Espagne. Imprimerie royale, Paris 1667. (Latin, Spanish and German translations, all 1667)
  • Dialogue sur les droits de la Reyne tres-chrestienne (with others) . 1667. (Italian and Flemish translation, also an English translation not known Noro under the title A Dialogue Concerning the Rights of Her Most Christian Majesty )
  • Sermons on various mystères de la religion et plusieurs fêtes des saints, preschez dans Paris par l'abbé Amable de Bourzeis. Pierre Le Petit, Paris 1672.

literature

  • James Dryhurst: Le discours sur le dessein de l'Académie et sur le different génie des langues, de Bourzeys . In: Journal for French Language and Literature 81, 1971, pp. 225–242.
  • Yasushi Noro: Une vie à la trace. Amable Bourzeis, Écrivain (1606-1672) . Classiques Garnier, Paris 2018.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://books.google.fr/books/about/A_Dialogue_Concerning_the_Rights_of_Her.html?id=0jdbvgEACAAJ&redir_esc=y
personal data
SURNAME Bourzeis, Amable
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bourzeys, Amable; Bourzeix, Amable; Boursé, Amable; Bourzéis, Amable; Bourzeïs, Amable
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French scholar and man of letters, assistant to Richelieu, Mazarin and Colbert
DATE OF BIRTH April 3, 1606
PLACE OF BIRTH Volvic
DATE OF DEATH August 2, 1672
Place of death Paris