BELIN, ALBERT. - Benedictine bishop and writer, born at Besançon, according to others at Dôle, around 1610, and died at Belley on 29 April 1677. Having taken religious vows at the abbey of Faverney in 1630 and subsequently transferred to Cluny, Charité-sur-Loire, and Nevers, he was then assigned to Paris, where, owing to his reputation as an accomplished preacher, he entered the circle of Colbert’s friends, through whose good offices he was consecrated bishop of Belley in 1666. He devoted himself, strangely enough, to the study of alchemy and astrology in order the more easily to refute them; but he also concerned himself with philosophy and positive polemical theology, particularly upholding the perfect harmony between the principles of faith and reason.
Among his works are: Les emblèmes eucharistiques ou octave du Saint Sacrement (Paris 1647); Les solides pensées de l'âme pour la porter à son devoir (ibid. 1648); Poudre de projection démontrée (ibid. 1653); Pierre philosophale (ibid. 1653); Preuves convaincantes des vérités du christianisme (ibid. 1658, 1666); Aventures du philosophe inconnu (ibid. 1664, 1674); Traité des talismanes ou figures extraites (ibid. 1671); Poudre de sympathie justifiée (ibid. 1709). If, moreover, he is to be identified with Alfonso Belin, Benedictine prior of Charité-sur-Loire, the following must also be attributed to him: La vérité de la religion catholique et la fausseté de la religion prétendue réformée (Nevers 1683).