Pontas, John

, a celebrated casuist, was born December 2, 1638, at St. Hilaire de Harcourt, in the diocese of Avranches. He completed his studies at Paris, took holy orders at Toul in 1663, was admitted doctor of canon, and civil law three years after, and appointed vicar of St. Genevieve at Paris. After he had zealously discharged the duties of this situation for twenty-five years, he became sub-penitentiary of Paris, and died in that city, April 27, 1728, aged ninety, leaving a large “Dictionary of Cases of Conscience” the most complete edition of which is that of 1741, 3 yols. folio. M. Collet has published an abridgement of it in two volumes, 4to. His other works are, '“Scriptura sacra ubique sibi constans,” quarto; in which he reconciles the seeming contradictions in the Pentateuch “Les entretiens spirituels pour instruire, exhorter, et consoler les Malades” and a great number of other religious books, ²