, of the same family as the preceding, but descended from a catholic branch, was born October 30, 1683,
, of the same family
as the preceding, but descended from a catholic branch,
was born October 30, 1683, at Confolens, a small town in
Poictiers. He studied philosophy under the Jacobins at
Poictiers, but an escape from very imminent danger determined him to put on the Benedictine habit, which he
accordingly did at Marmoutier in 1704, and took his vows
therein 1705. In 1716 he was transferred to the monastery of St. Cyprian, and summoned to Paris the year following, to assist some other monks in compiling a history
of illustrious men of the Benedictine order; but this project failing, Rivet turned his thoughts entirely to the literary history of France, which he had before formed a
design of writing, and which employed the rest of his trfe,
He was-assisted in this work by three of his brethren, Joseph
Duclou, Maurice Poncet, and John Colomb, who were all
his particular friends, good critics, and accurate and industrious writers. In 1723 Rivet published at Amsterdam
“Le Necrologe de Port Royal des Champs,
” a work of
which he was very fond, and added to it a long historical
preface. This publication, joined to his warm opposition
to the bull Unrgenitus, from which he had appealed, obliged
him to retire -iiftb the abbey of St. Vincent at Mans, the
same year, where he laboured assiduously during more
than thirty years to complete his “Literary History of
France.
” >' He published the first volume in