François-Marie Coger
François-Marie Coger (Latin: Franciscus-Maria Coger; 1723 – 18 May 1780) was a French Roman Catholic priest, educator and man of letters.
Contents
Biography
François-Marie Coger was born in Paris. A graduate in theology, Coger was professor of humanities and eloquence at Mazarin College, and later rector of the University of Paris.
Initially known in a rather advantageous way through a few pieces of Latin verse, his reputation would never have spread beyond the small number of people who were keen on Latin poetry, had it not been for the jokes and sarcasms directed against him by Voltaire on the occasion of a critique of Marmontel's Bélisaire which he had published in 1767. He had already published a Critique de l'Éloge du dauphin, by Thomas, the previous year, but that of Bélisaire, in which Voltaire and the other philosophes were attacked mercilessly, earned him the enmity of the patriarch of Ferney, who treated him very badly. In letters to his friends, and even in public writings, the latter referred to him only as "Cage pecus", with various insulting epithets. Coger took his revenge by proposing, in the year of his rectorship, as the subject for the Latin eloquence prize, the question: Nùm magis Deo quàm regibus infensa sit isla quod vocalur hodiè philosophia? where the word 'magis', instead of 'minus', forms an equivocation that Voltaire skilfully seized upon to make the rector laugh at his expense, translating the text with this sentence: 'This, which today is called philosophy, is no more an enemy of God than of kings'.
According to Michaud, Coger's qualities were far superior to his talents. He fulfilled the duties of his position with exact probity, showed himself to be full of zeal for the progress of his pupils, and, although not very well off, supported, through his generosity, several of them who showed promise, but whose lack of wealth would have forced them to give up their studies otherwise.[1]
He left an Oraison funèbre of Louis XV and Latin poems, published separately from 1742 to 1767, most of which relate to historical events. The style of these pieces is pure, but they lack warmth and poetry.
Works
- Examen d’un discours de M. Thomas qui a pour titre Éloge de Louis, dauphin de France (1766)
- Examen du Bélisaire de Marmontel (1767)
- Dictionnaire anti-philosophique (1767; with Louis-Mayeul Chaudon)
Notes
- ↑ Michaud, Joseph-Francois; Louis Gabriel Michaud (1813). Biographie universelle, ancienne et moderne, Vol. 9. Paris: Michaud frères, p. 186.
