AFFORTY, CHARLES-FRANÇOIS. – Dean of the Sorbonne and canon of the church of St.-Ricul de Senlis, b. in 1706, d. in 1786. He was one of Moreau’s most active collaborators in the search for documents relating to the history of France. Twenty-five folio volumes by him, still in manuscript, remain in the municipal library of Senlis; they constitute a collection of documents valuable for French history.
BIBL.: M. Rouziès, s. V. in DHG, I, col.
680. Benedetto Gioia AFFRE, DENIS-AUGUSTE
Archbishop of Paris, b. at Saint-Romme-de-Tarn on 28 Sept. 1793, d. in Paris on 26 June 1848. Ordained a priest on 16 May 1818, he joined the Sulpicians and in 1819 was entrusted with teaching theology at the seminary of Paris. Chaplain of the maternity hospital (1810), in 1821 he founded the periodical La France chrétienne, in which he began the campaign concerning the rights and interests of the clergy and the need for a reform of ecclesiastical discipline that was to establish the lines of his constant activity in the episcopate: first as vicar of the dioceses of Luçon (1822), Amiens (1822), and Paris (1834), then as coadjutor to the bishop of Strasbourg (1839), and finally as archbishop of Paris (consecrated on 6 Aug. 1840). At such a difficult moment in the political life of France, A. succeeded in maintaining a tone of complete independence from the State. But his activity on behalf of the diocese was cut short by the tragic death he met while carrying out peace efforts between the opposing sides during the disturbances of June 1848.Among his writings: Traité de l'administration temporelle des paroisses (Amiens 1826); Essai historique et critique sur la suprématie temporelle des Papes (ibid. 1829), against Lamennais; Introduction philosophique à l'étude du christianisme (Paris 1844); De l'appel comme d'abus, son origine, ses progrès et son état présent (Paris 1845).
BIBL.: P. M. Cruce, Vie de D. A. A., archevêque de Paris, Paris 1849; L. Alzard, D. A. A., archevêque de Paris, Paris 1905; P. Pisani, s. V. in DHG, I, cols. 684–98. Mario Nicolò