, a man celebrated in the republic of letters, was born at Nancy,
, a man celebrated in the republic of letters, was born at Nancy, in Lorrain, in 161O.
He was very well descended, and his parents were people
of considerable rank and fortune. He was admitted into
the society of the Jesuits in 1626; but obliged afterwards
to quit it by the order of pope Innocent XI. in 1682, for
having asserted too boldly the authority of the Gallican
church against the court of Rome. Louis XIV. however,
made him sufficient amends for this disgrace by settling
on him a very honourable pension, with which he retired
into the abbey of St. Victor at Paris. Here he died in
1686, after having made a will by which it appears that
he was extremely dissatisfied with the Jesuits. Bayle has
given the substance of it, as far as relates to them, and
calls it a kind of a declaration of war. It sets forth, “That
a gentleman of Nancy, in Lorrain, had been educated and
settled in France from twelve years of age, and by that
means was become a very faithful and loyal subject of that
king; that he was now almost seventy-six years old that
his father and mother being very rich ha J founded a college for the Jesuits at Nancv., fifty years ago; and that for ten
years hefore this foundation they had supplied those fathers
with every thing they wanted. He declares, that they did
all this in consideration of his being admitted into that
order; and yet that now he was forcibly turned out of it.
he wills, therefore, by this testament, that all the lands,
possessions, &c. which the Jesuits received of his father
and mother, do devolve, at his decease, to the Carthusian
monastery near Nancy; affirming, that his parents would
never have conferred such large donations upon them,
but upon condition, that they would not banish their son
from the society, after they had once admitted him; and
that, therefore, since these conditions had been violated
on the part of the Jesuits, the possessions of his family
ought to return to him.
”