The Histoire des variations des églises protestantes (History of the Variations of the Protestant Churches)
1848. Jacques-Bénigne Lignel Bossuet (French: 27 September 1627 – 12 April 1704) was a French bishop and theologian. Renowned for his sermons, addresses and literary works, he is regarded as a brilliant orator and literary stylist of the French language.rnBy the early 1660s, Bossuet was preaching regularly before the court of King Louis XIV at Versailles. He was appointed tutor to the Dauphin in 1670 and elected to the Académie Française a year later. In 1681, he was appointed Bishop of Meaux, a position he held until his death. rnThe Histoire des variations des églises protestantes (History of the Variations of the Protestant Churches) attributes to Protestant reliance on individual liberty of conscience a disunity amounting to near anarchy. Bossuet naturally regarded heresy and sedition as twinned evils; and in his orations on Henrietta Maria and Henrietta Anne (widow and daughter of Charles I), he adduces the recent revolution in England to prove his contention that social equality is an impious chimera.rnBossuet earns his place in history above all as a public figure, "the eagle of Meaux." In the grand siècle Bossuet was the church, just as Louis was the state.rn