Noir, John Le

, canon and theologal of Seez, the son of John le Noir, counsellor to the presidial of Alenon, was a celebrated preacher at Paris, and in the provinces, about the middle of the seventeenth century; but, having had a quarrel afterwards with M. de Mendavi, his bishop, in consequence of the boldness with which he censured not only the doctrine, but the conduct of his superiors, he was banished in 1663, confined in the Bastille in 1683, and condemned April 24, 1684, to make amende honorable before the metropolitan church at Paris, and to the gallies for life. This punishment, however, being changed to perpetual imprisonment, M. le Noir was afterwards carried to St. Malo, then to the prisons of Brest, and, lastly, to those of Nantes, where he died April 22, 1692, leaving several works, which are curious, but full of intemperate abuse. The principal are, A collection of his Requests and Factums, folio; a translation of “L’Echelle du Clottre” “Les Avantages incontestable de PEglise sur les Calvinistes,” 8vo “L‘Herésie de la Domination Episcopate qu’on etablit en France,” 12mo “Les nouvelles Lumieres politiques pour le Gouvernement de l’Eglise, ou TEvangile nouveau du cardinal Palavicini dans son Histoiredu Concile de Trente,” Holl. 1676, 12mo. This work occasioned the French translation of cardinal Palavicini’s history to be suppressed. ²