BAINVEL, VINCENT. - French Jesuit, theologian and ascetical writer, b. at Plougoumelen (Morbihan) on 4 Aug. 1858, d. at Paris on 29 Jan. 1937. Having entered religious life in 1877, he taught his young confreres first rhetoric, then, once his theological studies were completed, fundamental and moral theology at the College of Jersey. In 1900 he was called to the Catholic Institute of Paris to the chair of fundamental theology, which he held until 1925; for many years he was also dean of the faculty. Tried at the end of his life by the loss of his memory, he spent the last ten years in the obscurity of a pious retirement.
As a professor and writer he took part in the anti-modernist struggle and founded the collection Bibliothèque de Théologie historique. He collaborated on the Dictionnaire d'Apologétique, on the DDC and on the DThC. His literary output comprises first of all a series of manuals of fundamental theology: De magisterio vivo et traditione (Paris 1805); De Scriptura Sacra (ibid. 1910); De vera religione et apologetica (ibid. 1914); De Ecclesia Christi (ibid. 1925). Of broad theological popularization are the studies: La foi et l'acte de foi (ibid. 1898: 2nd ed. ibid. 1908); Nature et surnaturel; élévation, déchéance, état présent de l'humanité (ibid. 1903); and the pamphlet: Hors de l'Eglise, point de salut; dogme et théologie (ibid. 1913). In Mariology the thesis of Mary as co-redemptrix and mediatrix was dear to him: Marie, Mère de Dieu, intercession universelle (ibid. 1919); and with Fr. de la Broise: Marie, Mère de grâce (ibid. 1922). Of a different kind is the well-known witty little work: Les contremens bibliques des prédicateurs (4th ed., ibid. 1924; Italian trans. by A. Alfieri, Siena 1899).
B.'s principal gifts as a theologian — sureness of doctrine, a judgment rich in nuances, a certain restrained and unaffected unction — likewise assured his authority as an ascetical writer. They had various reprints and translations: La dévotion au S. Coeur de Jésus - Doctrine et histoire (Paris 1906; Italian trans., Milan 1917); Le Saint Coeur de Marie - Vie intime de la S. te Vierge (Paris 1918; Italian trans., Vicenza 1921). He wrote a long theological introduction, much appreciated, for the 10th ed. of the work Les grâces d'oraison by Fr. A. Poulain (Paris 1922). His love for his native land led him to become attached to another writer, Fr. V. Huby (d. 1693), whose Ecrits spirituels he edited in a reprint (2 vols., Paris 1931-32), after that of the biography written by Fr. P. Champion: Vie des Fondateurs des maisons de retraites, M. de Kerlivio, Le p. Vincent Huby, M. lle de Francheville (ibid. 1929). And finally the brief but dense essay: La vie intime du catholique (4th ed., Paris 1916; Italian trans. by V. Bortolaso, Turin 1936).
Edmondo Lamalle