ANTOINE, PAUL-GABRIEL. - French theologian, b. at Lunéville on 19 Jan. 1678, d. at Pont-à-Mousson on 22 Jan. 1743. Having entered the Society of Jesus at a very young age, he was professor of philosophy and theology at the college of Pont-à-Mousson, of which he was later appointed rector. He was afterward also instructor of the fathers of the third probation and superior of the professed house of Nancy.
In 1723 he published a Theologia universa speculativa et dogmatica ad usum theologiae candidaturum (several reprints), intended to combat Jansenist propositions, but somewhat indulgent toward the reigning Gallicanism. There followed in 1726 the celebrated treatise: Theologia moralis universa complectens omnia morum praecepta et principia, decisiones omnium casuum conscientiae, which had many editions and was greatly esteemed by St. Alphonsus Liguori, although he found it rather rigid. The Conventual Franciscan Filippo da Carbignano prepared several reprints of it (1750, 1757, 1760) with additions and appendices for the use of missionaries.
The A. was also a good ascetical author. He wrote: Lectures chrétiennes sous forme de méditations, Nancy 1736, afterward abridged into: Méditations pour tous les jours de l'année, ibid. 1737; Les moyens d'acquérir la perfection chrétienne, ibid. 1738; Démonstration de la vérité chrétienne et catholique, ibid. 1739. In spirituality, his ideas are very close to those of Fr. de Caussade, whose anonymous work the A. published: Instructions spirituelles sous forme de dialogues sur les divers états d'oraison, Perpignan 1741.
Bibliography7 works
Edmondo Lamalle