BASTON, GUILLAUME-ANDRÉ-RENÉ. - French theologian and polemicist, b. at Rouen on 29 Nov. 1741, d. at St-Laurent on 26 Sept. 1825. He studied theology in Paris and at Angers, where he was ordained priest in 1766. Professor of theology at Rouen, in 1792 he was deported for refusing to take the oath to the Constitution. Having returned in 1803, he was appointed by the archbishop of Rouen, Cambacérès, vicar general and then dean of the chapter. An enthusiastic Gallican, he received from Napoleon, in 1813, appointment as bishop of Séez; but since Pius VII refused to confirm this appointment, he withdrew to St-Laurent, where he spent the last years of his life.
He wrote various works of theology, as well as many polemical pamphlets against the civil constitution of the clergy. Particularly worthy of mention are: Réponse au mémoire et à la consultation de M. Linguet, touchant l'indissolubilé du mariage (Paris 1772); Les entretiens du pape Ganganelli (Antwerp 1777); Voltairimeras, ou première journée de M. de Voltaire dans l'autre monde (Brussels 1779); Lectiones theologicae (10 vols., Rouen 1818), published in collaboration with Tuvache; Concordance des lois civiles et des lois ecclésiastiques touchant le mariage (Paris 1824).