Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/799

 BOUVENS

723

BOXJVIER

Strj'pe. and others. On the other hand, Cardinal Allen describes the bishops, in his reply to Burghley. as hav- ing been " vexed, spoiled, tormented, and slain; . . . whose martyrdom", he says, "is before God as glori- ous, as if they had by a speedy violent death been despatched". The same in fact is affirmed by the other CathoHc writers of the time. In aU the hsts of sufferers, drawn up by these. Bishop Bourne is named amongst those dead for the Faith in prison, whilst Bridgewater says expressly that "he died in chains a martjT". Moreover, he is one of those "Eleven Bishops", a picture of whose prison was allowed bj' Oregon,' XIII to be erected in the Eng- lish College church at Rome, amongst pictures of the English Saints and MartjTs. with an inscription declaring that they "died for their confession of the Roman See and Cathohc faith, worn out by the miseries of their long imprisonment".

Bridgett, Queen Elizabeth and the Catholic Hierarchy (London. 1889); Phillips. Extinction of the Ancient Hier- archy (London. 1905): Gairdner. English Historical Review (April. 1906) 377; .\llen. Defence of Catholics (Ingolstadt. 1584); Sanders, Report to Card. Morone. 1561 (Cath. Record Society. 1905). I; Sanders. De Visibili Monorchia (Louvain. 1571); Rishto.v-Sanders, Rise of Anglican Schism Continued, tr. Lewls (London, 1877); Bridgewater, Concertatio (August. Trev. 1588); Godwin, Catalogus Episcoporum Bathon, et Wellen, (1594), in MS. Trin. Coll. Camb.

G. E. Phillips.

Bouvens, Charles de, French pulpit orator, b. at Bourg in 1750; d. in 1830. At an early age he embraced the ecclesiastical state and became vicar- general to his fellow-townsman, Monseigneur de Con- zi^. Archbishop of Tours. When the Revolution broke out, he refused to take the required oaths, and followed his archbi.shop to Germany. The latter having died in the vicinity of Frankfort, de Bouvens went to London, where the Bishop of Arras, brother of Archbishop Conzi6 was minister to the Comte d'Artois, later Charles X. Here he delivered, either in the church of St. Patrick or in the chapel built by the Sulpician Bourret in King Street, several funeral orations in the presence of Louis XVIII and the Comte d'Artois. The best known of these orations are: the one on Marie-Josephine-Louise of Savoy, wife of Louis XVIII; that on the Due d'Enghien (1804), and the one on the Abb6 Henry Allen Edge- worth de Firmont, confessor of Louis XVI. These eulogies were printed at Paris for the first time in 1814, being issued separately. A complete edition in one volume appeared at Paris in 1824 under the title: "Oraisons funebres". The volume contains, besides the addresses mentioned above, a funeral oration on Louis XVIII. At the time of the Restora- tion (1815), he returned to France and was named chaplain to Louis XVIII. In 1828 the infirmities of age forced him to resign, but he retained the title of Honorarj- Chaplain. The Revolution of 18.30 drove him from Paris, and he died shortly afterwards.

(^uerard. La France liueraire (Paris, 1827), I; Michaud, Biog. univ., s. V.

A. FOURN'ET.

Bouvet, Joachim, Jesuit missionary, b. at Le Mans, France (date unknown); d. at Peking, China, 28 June, 1732. He was one of the first six Jesuits selected by Louis XIV for the mi.ssion in China. Before setting out for their destination, he and his associates were admitted to the .\cad6mie des Sciences and were commissioned by that learned body to carry on astronomical observations, to de- termine the geographical positions of the various places they were to visit, and to collect various scientific data. The little band, after being provided by order of the King with all neccssarj' scientific instruments, sailed from Brest, 3 March, 168.5, with Father Fontaney as Superior, .\fter spending some time in Siam. they finally arrived in Peking, 7 Febru- ary, 1688. They were favourably received by the

emperor the famous Khang-hi, who retained Father Bouvet, together with Father Gerbillon, near his person and made them his instructors in mathema- tics. While engaged in this work, the two fathers wrote several mathematical treatises in the Tartar language, which the emperor caused to be translated into Chinese, adding the prefaces himself. So far did they win his esteem and confidence that he gave them a site within the palace enclosure for a church and residence which were finally completed in 1702. In 1679 he sent Father Bouvet back to France to obtain new missionaries and made him the bearer of a gift of forty-nine volumes in Chinese for the king. These were deposited in the Royal Library, and Louis XI\, in turn, commissioned Father Bouvet to present to the emperor a magnificently bound col- lection of engravings.

In 1699 Father Bouvet arrived a second time in China, accompanied by ten missionaries, among them men of great abihty, such as Fathers de Pre- mare, R6gis, and Parrenin. Khang-hi honoured him further with the title of interpreter to his son, the heir-apparent. In 1700, with four of his fellow missionaries, he presented a memorial to the emperor, asking for a decision as to the meaning attached to the various ceremonies of the Chinese in honour of Confucius and their ancestors. The emperor, who had taken a keen interest in the controversy regarding the ceremonies, replied that they were simply civil usages, having no religious significance whatever. The memorial, together with the emperor's reply, was pubhshed in the " Gazette de Pekin", but failed to allay the excitement then raging in Europe over the question. From 1708 to 1715 Father Bouvet was engaged in a survey of the empire and the prepa^ ration of maps of the various provinces. He was a man of great energj' and abihty, and of simple, unselfish piety. For nearly fifty years he shared all the labours of the missionaries and was engaged from time to time in various scientific works. During tliis long period, chiefly on account of his services to the emperor and the favour he enjoyed with him, he did much to advance the interests of Christianity and to facilitate the entrance and the labours of his fellow-missionaries. His Chinese name was Petsin. Besides his works on mathematics, Father Bouvet was the author of "Etat prfeent de la Chine, en figures gravees par P. Giffart sur les dessins apport^ au roi par le P. J. Bouvet" (Paris, 1697); "Portrait historique de I'empereur de la Chine" (Paris, 1697). The Ubrary at Le Mans contains a collection of his manuscripts including a Cliinese dictionarj'.

De Backer. Bibliothique des icrivains de la c. de Jesus (Paris, 1869), I; illcHAUD, Biographic Vnivfrselle. V.

Henry M. Brock.

Bouvier, Je.in-B.\ptiste, Bishop of Le Mans, theologian, b. at St. Charles-la-Foret, Mayenne, 16 January, 1783; d. at Rome, 28 December, 1854. Having received merely an elementary education, he learned his father's trade of carpentrj', but he gave his spare time to the study of the classics under the direction of the parish priest. In 1805 he entered the seminary of Angers, where he made rapid progress. He was ordained priest in 1808 and appointed pro- fessor of philosophy at the College of Chateau Oon- thier. In 1811 he' was transferred to the .seminary of Le Mans, where he taught philosophy and moral theology. In 1819 he was made superior of that institution and vicar-general of the diocese, a position which he held until 1834, when he was raised to the episcopal see of Le Mans. The influence exerted by his "Iiistitutiones Theologies" (in fifteen editions), which was in use in almost all the seminaries of France, as well as in the United States and Canada, gives Bishop Bou\-ier a unique and honourable position in the history of theology during the nineteenth century. His compendium had the distinction of