, usually called the Abbe Paris, would not have deserved notice here unless
, usually called the Abbe Paris, would
not have deserved notice here unless for certain impostures
connected with his name, in which, however, he had no
hand. He was born at Paris, and was the eldest son of a
counsellor to the parliament, whom he was to have succeeded in that office; but he preferred the ecclesiastical
profession; and, when his parents were dead, resigned
the whole inheritance to his brother, only reserving to
himself the right of applying for necessaries. He was a
man, says the abb UAvocat, of the most devout temper,
and who to great candour of mind joined great gentleness
of manners. He catechized, during some time, in the
parish of St. Come; undertook the direction of the clergy,
and held conferences with them. Cardinal de Noailles, to
whose cause he was attached, wanted to make him curate
of that parish, but found many obstacles to his plan; and
M. Paris, after different asylums, where he had lived extremely retired, confined himself in a house in the fauxbourg St. Marcoul, where, sequestered from the world, he
devoted himself wholly to prayer, to the practice of the
most rigorous penitence, and to labouring with his hands,
having for that purpose learnt to weave stockings. He
was one of those who opposed the bull Unigenitus, and
was desirous also to be an author, and wrote “Explications
of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans,
” to the “Galatians,
”
and “An Analysis of the Epistle to the Hebrews;
” but
acquired no reputation by these. He died May I, Criterion.
”