Gaigny, John

, a French divine of the sixteenth century, was educated at Paris, where in 1526 he had taken the degree of bachelor, and held the appointment of attorney for the French nation in the university. He was afterwards lecturer in theology at the college of Navarre, and rector of the university. In 1531 he took his degree of D. D. and was chancellor of the university from 1546 till his death, in 1549. Gaigny was deeply read in the ancient languages, and highly esteemed as a Latin poet, and his sovereign Francis I. frequently consulted him on subjects of literature, and made him his first almoner. He was author of many works on subjects of theology, the most important of which are “Commentaries” upon the different books of the New Testament, hi which he explains the literal sense by a kind of paraphrase. Dupin says, “his notes will be found of admirable use to those who desire to read the text of the New Testament, and to comprehend the sense of it without stopping at any difficult places, and without having recourse to larger commentaries. His Scholia on the four evangelists, and on the Acts of the Apostles, are inserted in the” Biblia Magrra" of father John de la Haye. ²