BAIL, LOUIS. - Theologian and ascetical writer, b. at Abbeville in 1610, d. at Paris in 1669. A doctor of the Sorbonne in 1628, curate at Montmartre, he was elected in 1661 superior of the two monasteries of Port-Royal de Paris and Port-Royal des Champs, though he was received by the nuns with hostile distrust. He immediately undertook the official visitation, subjecting the religious to very severe interrogations concerning their doctrines, and concluding with a favorable testimony as to their orthodoxy and regularity.
The work that brought him great fame is La Théologie affective en s. Thomas en méditations (4 vols., Paris 1638-50; many reprints; the last, revised, annotated and updated, in 12 vols., Montrejeau 1903-1906), in which, following the Summa of St. Thomas, he sets out its articles in the form of affective meditations. This corresponded to the sentiment of the devout persons of the 15th-16th centuries, who, weary of the scholastic aridity of the time, desired a theological Summa such as would fill souls with more affections and make them know Jesus Christ with piety and unction. Of the several other works, the following deserve mention: Les consolations du coeur affligé tant par les peines corporelles que par les peines spirituelles (Paris 1661), which are 36 consolations suited to as many trials of life; original is the 18th, on children who died without Baptism, for whom one must not grieve as though they were damned to hell; the 19th, on the thorns of marriage; the 20th, on girls who find no husband, because many of those married must "put a good face on bad fortune"; De Beneficio Crucis (ibid. 1653) against Jansenism; Sapientia foris praedicans (ibid. 1666), a collection of passages from various orators up to the 17th century, accompanied by notices on each; Summa Conciliorum (2 vols., ibid. 1645).
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