BOSS RULE

Amer. term for a corrupt system of national and munic. politics, formerly very prevalent, in which party leader or bo organizes and manipulates elections by every kind of dubious means, and rewards his subordinates, ordained 1652; came to Paris, 1659, and became famous as a preacher, especially for his Or a is ons funebres (funeral sermons); tutor to the dauphin, s. of Louis XAIV., 1670. B. was a man of keen intellect, but entirely opposed to disorder and anarchy, and therefore a firm believer in absolutism in Church and State, which he defended in his Discours therefore, the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. But he defended the liberties of the Fr. Church against the Papacy in involved in a bitter controversy with Fénelon. B. is one of the greatest figures of the monarchy of Louis XIV.