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Jean Baptiste Massillon

 
French Literature Companion: Jean-Baptiste Massillon

Massillon, Jean-Baptiste (1663-1742). French Oratorian and preacher much appreciated at Versailles (he preached an Advent series in 1699 and Lent series in 1701 and 1704, along with important funeral orations including that of Louis XIV himself). It was in 1718 that he preached, in the presence of Louis XV, the ten sermons entitled the Petit Carême, which became the most highly regarded model of pulpit eloquence of the century (and beyond). Though he was strongly marked by the Christian rationalism of the 17th c., he also exemplified that emergent current of religious sensibility which typifies the 18th c. As the ‘Racine de la chaire’, he disengaged from the austere pulpit erudition of a Bourdaloue and from the stark appeals to dogma and theology of a Bossuet and, meditating on the infinite sadness of suffering humanity, approached the same emotional regions as a century which was fast becoming secularized. His general concern for mankind, expressed with limpid classical purity, earned for him the admiration of the philosophes (e.g. Voltaire, d'Alembert, and Marmontel). In fact, he was doubly a priest after their own hearts: having become, despite his Jansenist leanings, bishop of Clermont-Ferrand in 1717, he was for over 20 years a model divine, constantly devoted in all Christian charity to his flock and his episcopal duties.

[John Renwick]

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Columbia Encyclopedia: Jean Baptiste Massillon
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Massillon, Jean Baptiste (zhäN bätēst' mäsēyôN'), 1663-1742, French clergyman, bishop of Clermont from 1717. He was celebrated for his preaching, especially at the courts of Louis XIV and Louis XV. Collections of sermons include a series for Advent and a series for Lent.
Wikipedia: Jean Baptiste Massillon
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Jean-Baptiste Massillon
Statue of JB Massillon on the Fountain of the Four Bishops, Place Saint-Sulpice, Paris

Jean Baptiste Massillon (24 June 1663 - 28 September 1742) was a French Catholic bishop and famous preacher, Bishop of Clermont from 1717 until his death.

Contents

Biography

Early years

Massillon was born at Hyères in Provence where his father was a royal notary. At the age of eighteen he joined the Congregation of the Oratory of Jesus and taught for a time in the colleges of his order at Pézenas, and Montbrison and at the Seminary of Vienne. On the death of Henri de Villars, Archbishop of Vienne, in 1693, he was commissioned to deliver a funeral oration, and this was the beginning of his fame. In obedience to Cardinal de Noailles, Archbishop of Paris, he left the Cistercian abbey of Sept-Fonds, to which he had retired, and settled in Paris, where he was placed at the head of the famous seminary of Saint Magloire.

Career

Massillon soon gained a wide reputation as a preacher and was selected to be the Advent preacher at the court of Versailles in 1699. He was made Bishop of Clermont in 1717, and two years later was elected a member of the Académie française. The last years of his life were spent in the faithful discharge of his episcopal duties; his death took place at Clermont on September 18 1742. Massillon enjoyed in the 18th century a reputation equal to that of Bossuet and of Bourdaloue, and has been much praised for his eloquence by Voltaire, D'Alembert and kindred spirits among the Encyclopaedists.

His popularity was probably because in his sermons he lays little stress on dogmatic questions, but treats generally of moral subjects, in which the secrets of the human heart and the processes of man's reason are described with poetical feeling. He has usually been contrasted with his predecessor Bourdaloue, the latter having the credit of vigorous denunciation, Massillon that of gentle persuasiveness. Besides the Petit Carême, a sermon which he delivered before the young king Louis XV of France in 1718, his sermons on the Prodigal Son, on the small number of the elect, on death, for Christmas Day, and for the Fourth Sunday in Advent, may be perhaps cited as his masterpieces. His funeral oration on King Louis XIV of France is only noted now for the opening sentence: "Dieu seul est grand." (Only God is great.) But, in truth, Massillon is singularly free from inequality. His great literary power, his reputation for benevolence, and his known toleration and dislike of doctrinal disputes caused him to be much more favourably regarded than most churchmen by the philosophers of the 18th century.

The first edition of Massillon's complete works was published by his nephew, also an Oratorian (Paris, 1745-1748), and upon this, in the absence of manuscripts, succeeding reprints were based. The best modern edition is that of the Abbé Blampignon (Paris, 1865-1868, 4 vols.; new ed. 1886).

References

This article incorporates information from the revision as of January 2009 of the equivalent article on the French Wikipedia.

 
 

 

Copyrights:

French Literature Companion. The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. Copyright © 1995, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Jean Baptiste Massillon" Read more