Jean-François Boyer

Jean-François Boyer, born March 12, 1675 in Paris and died August 20, 1755 in Versailles, was a French bishop, best known for having been the bitter opponent of the Jansenists and philosophers.

He was a preacher, bishop of Mirepoix from 1730 to 1736, tutor to the dauphin, son of Louis XV and Louis XVI's father in 1735 and grand chaplain of the Dauphine Marie-Josephe in 1743.

He was elected member of the Académie française in 1736, the French Academy of Sciences in 1738 and the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres in 1741.

He was appointed by the king leaves the Holder Benefits giving it power over the allocation of religious offices. If you believe Evelyne Lever, the favorite royal biographer, during the Holy Year (1750) Pope Benedict XIV load in vain to break the relationship between the king and the Marquise de Pompadour.

Foe of the Jansenists, he invented the "Notes of confession" that the faithful must be signed by a priest to show their respect Unigenitus of Pope Clement XI and without which they will no longer entitled to the sacraments. This case presents such an outcry in Paris that the parliament will soon put its foot down. The Bishop of Mirepoix also hounded against the philosophers. In 1743 he plot to rule Voltaire of the Académie française, when it ran for the seat vacated by Cardinal de Fleury. In 1751, he warned he king against the editors of the Encyclopaedia and maneuvering for their articles to be monitored and censored. But it fails in its purpose, which is to completely eliminate this major undertaking.

Voltaire, who also commented on other matters to which the bishop is involved, writes: "... we are obliged to confess here, with all of France, how he is sad and shameful that this man has succeeded in so limited Fenelon and Bossuet [1]. The eloquence of Jean-François Boyer had nonetheless been appreciated by some of his contemporaries, as evidenced by Charles Le Beau writes: "... he does not think of charm, but to convert, instead of applaud him, it is condemned, we forget to hear the voice of the Gospel, which bears a strong tincture which represents the natural, pathetic, insinuating, and winning the August simplicity . "