BERARDIER, DENIS. - Priest, b. in 1729, d. in 1794. Having completed his theological studies at the Sorbonne, he became rector of the college of Quimper, his native city, in 1762 and later, in 1778, of the Collège Louis-le-Grand in Paris. There Desmoulins and Robespierre, his pupils, were bound to him by ties of gratitude whose beneficial effects he was not slow to experience. Indeed, when the Revolution broke out, B., deputy to the Constituent Assembly, opposed the civil constitution of the clergy by his forceful speech and writings, proving himself one of the boldest defenders of the Catholic Church. Arrested, he escaped the massacre only through the intervention of his former pupils.
Among B.'s writings mention should be made of: Les principes de la foi sur le gouvernement de l'Église en opposition avec la Constitution civile du clergé (Paris 1791); L'Église constitutionnelle confondue par elle-même (ibid. 1792).
Gabriella de Stefano