Bahier, John

, a French Latin poet, was born at Chatillon in the Lower Maine, and became a priest of the Oratory at Paris, in 1659. He had considerable genius, and was much addicted to study, so that he soon became one of the best scholars and best poets of his order. When M. Fouquet, superintendant of finances, was arrested, he published a Latin poem, entitled “Fuquetius in vinculis,” which was much applauded. He published another poem at Troyes in 1668, the title of which was, “In tabellas excellentissiim pictoris du Wernier, ad nobilem et eximium virum Eustachium Quinot, apud quern illae visuntur Trecis, carmen.” Father Bahier translated this production afterwards into French verse, under the title of “Peinture poctique des tableaux de mignature de M. Quinot, faits par Joseph de Werner.” At the time he taught rhetoric at Marseilles, in 1670, he delivered and published an oration on Henrietta of England, duchess of Orleans, and the same year printed a Latin poem of six hundred verses in praise of Toussaint Fourbin de Janson, bishop of Marseilles. He wrote some other pieces, which were less known; such was | Uis reputation, however, that he was chosen secretary of the Oratory, an office which he filled with great credit for thirty years his latter days were distinguished by many acts of ciiarity, and it was during his attendance on a dying friend that he caught a disorder, which proved fatal in the month of April 1707. ¹