BAUSSET, LOUIS-FRANÇOIS DE

BAUSSET, LOUIS-FRANÇOIS de. — Cardinal, b. at Pondichéry in India of a French family on 14 Dec. 1748; he pursued his studies in France with the Jesuits. Ordained priest in 1773, he became vicar general at Aix, administrator at Digne, and was named bishop of Alais (now Alès) in 1778. When the diocese was suppressed by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790), Bausset vigorously defended the rights of the Church. Forced to flee, he returned to France in 1792 and survived the dangers of the Terror and the Directory. At the time of the Concordat he promptly resigned his see and devoted himself to literary work. In 1808 he published in three volumes a *Histoire de Fénelon*, and in 1814 a *Histoire de J. B. Bossuet*, both of which were later reprinted; in the latter work he praised and defended the declaration of the Gallican clergy in 1682. Bausset was showered with honors by Louis XVIII; he was elected to the Academy in 1816 and created cardinal on 28 July 1817. He died on 21 July 1824. In 1821 he published, among other biographies, that of Cardinal A. de Talleyrand-Périgord, archbishop of Paris, and of Abbé Emery.