Charles de la Rue
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Charles de La Rue (3 August 1643, in Paris – 27 May 1725, in Paris), known in Latin as Carolus Ruaeus, was one of the great orators of the Society of Jesus in France in the seventeenth century.
Biography
He entered the novitiate on 7 September 1659, and being afterwards professor of the humanities and rhetoric, he attracted attention while still young by a poem on the victories of Louis XIV. Pierre Corneille translated it and offered it to the king, saying that his work did not equal the original of the young Jesuit.
After having several times refused to permit him to go to Canada, his superiors assigned him to preaching; as an orator he was much admired by the court and the king.
He preached missions among the Protestants of Languedoc for three years. During his last years he suffered from severe illness.
Publications
He wrote several tragedies, published an edition of Virgil, and wrote several Latin poems. His funeral orations on the Dukes of Burgundy and Luxemburg, and that on Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, his sermons on "Les Calamités publiques" and "The Dying Sinner" have been regarded as masterpieces by the greatest masters.
- Panégyriques, Oraisons funèbres et Sermons de morale; Paris 1719, in-8°; Lyon, in-12;
- A Carême and an Avent; 4 vol. in-12;
- Lettre; (Écrit destiné à défendre ce qu’il avait avancé en prêchant à Alençon en 1680; elle a été insérée par l’abbé Tilladet dans ses Dissertations sur diverses matières de religion et de philologie; vol. I)
- Panégyriques des saints et Oraisons funèbres; Paris, 1740, 3 vol.
See also
From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
Charles de La Rue, one of the great orators of the Society of Jesus in France in the seventeenth century, b. at Paris, 3 August, 1643; d. there, 27 May, 1725. He entered the novitiate on 7 September, 1659, and being afterwards professor of the humanities and rhetoric, he attracted attention while still young by a poem on the victories of Louis XIV. Corneille translated it and offered it to the king, saying that his work did not equal the original of the young Jesuit. He wrote several tragedies, brought out an edition of Virgil, and wrote several Latin poems. After having several times refused to permit him to go to Canada, his superiors assigned him to preaching; as an orator he was much admired by the court and the king. His funeral orations on the Dukes of Burgundy and Luxemburg, and that on Bossuet, his sermons on "Les Calamités publiques" and "The Dying Sinner" have been regarded as masterpieces by the greatest masters. He preached missions among the Protestants of Languedoc for three years. He was a most virtuous religious, and during his last years endured courageously great infirmities.
P. Vergilii Maronis opera, interpretatione et notia illustravit Carolua Ruæus Soc. Jesu, jussu Christianissimi Regis, ad usum Serenisnmi Delphini (Paris, 1675), frequently reprinted in France, England, Italy, Germany (latest Paris. 1864. 3 vols.). All the oratorical works in Migne, Coll. intégrale et univ. des Orateurs sacrés (1844-66), XXVIII, col. 199-1570; XXXIII, 1120-1214; Quaresimale del P. Carlo Della Rue (Milan, 1858); Conferenze tenute nell' avento (Milan, 1853); Nettement, Oraisons Funèbres de Bossuet, Bourdaloue, de La Rue (Paris, 1842); Eloge du P. de La Rue in Mercure de France, June, 1725, 1324-1332; Feller, Dict. hist., V (1839), 350; Sommervogel, Bibl. de la Compagnie de Jésus, VII, col. 290-307, contains a complete list of his works.
Abel Champon.
External links
- De La Rue's "Prose Summary of Vergil's Aeneid" at the Latin Library.
- Charles de La Rue on data.bnf.fr