BASTON, GUILLAUME-ANDRÉ-RENÉ. - French theologian and controversialist, born at Rouen on 29 Nov. 1741, died at St-Laurent on 26 Sept. 1825. He studied theology in Paris and 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 Civil Constitution. Returning in 1803, he was appointed by the archbishop of Rouen, Cambacérès, as vicar general and later dean of the chapter. An enthusiastic Gallican, in 1813 he was nominated by Napoleon as bishop of Séez; but since Pius VII refused to confirm the appointment, he retired to St-Laurent, where he spent the last years of his life.
He wrote various theological works, besides many polemical pamphlets against the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Of particular note are: Réponse au mémoire et à la consultation de M. Linguet, touchant l'indissolubilité du mariage (Paris 1772); Les entretiens du papage Ganganelli (Antwerp 1777); Voltairemeros, 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).