BAILLY, LOUIS. - Theologian, b. in France, near Beaune in 1730 and d. in 1808. He was a canon of Dijon and professor of dogmatic theology in the seminary until the Revolution. Afterwards he moved to Switzerland, where he devoted himself to his studies. Having returned to his homeland, he refused any dignity in order to dedicate himself solely to the service of the great hospice of Beaune.
The following works by him are known: Theologia dogmatica et moralis (8 vols., 3rd ed., Dijon 1810), a work of value, used for decades as a school manual in various seminaries of France, but which met with condemnation by the Index in 1852 "donec corrigatur," on account of the excessive rigorism professed by the author; Tractatus de vera religione (6th ed., ibid. 1758), Tractatus de Ecclesia (2 vols., ibid. 1780), in which the principles of the Gallican declaration of 1682, drawn up by Bossuet, known under the name of the Gallican Articles, are defended; I principi della fede cattolica, a work composed during his stay in Switzerland.
BIBL: Hurter, II, col. 507 ff.; R. F. Rohrbacher, Storia universale della Chiesa cattolica, XIV, Turin 1904, p. 748; E. Dublanchy, s. v. in DTHC, II, col. 37.
Luigi Ciappi