Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

From Legacyview Dictionary of Biography

(1636-1711) famous French writer.

Of the four great writers of the golden age of French letters two-Boileau and Moliere (See) ,- were freethinkers in spite of the religious oppression. The King, against the fierce opposition of the clergy, made Boileau Royal Historiographer and compelled the Academy to admit him. He wrote a treatise to disarm the priests, On the Love of God-presumably he was a Deist-but he was persecuted all his life and the chief historian of French Literature, Lanson, shows by many quotations from his work that he was a freethinker.