Paul Pelisson-Fontanier

Paul Pelisson-Fontanier

French writer, born at Béziers in 1624 of Protestant parents; died at Versailles, 7 February, 1693. He finished his classical studies at the age of eleven at Castres, studied philosophy at Montauban, law at Toulouse, and, when only nineteen years old, published a Latin translation of, and a commentary on, the first book of Justinian's "Institutes". In 1653 he wrote his "Histoire de l'Académie française", which procured his election to that body. He became secretary to Superintendent Fouquet in 1652, master of accounts at Montpellier in 1659, counsellor of the king in 1660. When Fouquet was discharged, Pelisson stood faithfully by him and was imprisoned in the Bastille (1661), where he remained four years. There he wrote his three "Mémoires" in defence of Fouquet. Liberated in 1666, he was named royal historian by Louis XIV. In 1670 he abjured the Protestant religion, received minor orders and subdiaconate, was given the Abbey of Guieont, and made administrator of divers benefices and disburser of the money destined for needy converts. The charge that he refused the last sacraments on his deathbed is false; he attended to his religious duties to the last. His works include: "Histoire de Louis XIV" (published by Lemascrier, 1749); "Réflexions sur les différends en matière de religion" (1686), against Jurieu and Leibnitz; "Traité de l'Euchariste" (Paris, 1694), these two works are in Migne, "Démonstrations évangéliques", III; "Prières au Saint-Sacrement" (1734); "Prières sur les épîtres et les évangiles de l'année (1734).

GEORGE M. SAUVAGE