, a voluminous French biographer,
was born at Bar-le-duc in 1688, and was soon noted for
learning and piety. He attached himself to the congregation of the Benedictines of St. Vanne and St. Hidulphe,
and after he took the habit of that order, was intrusted
with various business belonging to it, and became titular
prior of Flavigni. He died in 1761. He published “Histoire generale des auteurs sacres et ecclesiastiques,
” 1729
1763, 23 vols. 4to, containing their lives, a critical
account of their works, the history of councils, &c. This
compilation is accurate, rather more so, his countrymen
think, than that of Dupin; but he had not Dupin’s art of
arranging and compressing, nor, we suspect, his candour.
That it is diffuse heyond all patience appears from these
twenty-three volumes extending no farther than the time
of St. Bernard in the twelfth century. His numerous extracts and translations are, however, Useful to those who
cannot read the fathers in the original languages. In 1782
an index to this work was published at Paris, 2 vols. 4to,
a proof that the work still holds its reputation. His only
other publication was “Apologie de la Moraledes Peres
contre Barbeyrac,
” 1718, 4to, a learned treatise badly
written. Cellier was fond of retirement and study, and
conciliated the affections of hi-s brethren by his amiable
personal character.