BÉRAULT-BERCASTEL, ANTOINE

BÉRAULT-BERCASTEL, ANTOINE - HENRI. — Church historian, among the most widely read in his time. Born in Briey in 1720, according to some in 1722, and died around 1794, amid the fury of the French Revolution. First a Jesuit and later a secularized parish priest of Ormeville, he made himself known as a poet and novelist, neither outstanding nor among the most decorous. He subsequently found his vocation in history and published, in no fewer than 24 volumes, a Histoire de l'Eglise (Paris 1777–90), also issued in the following century and translated into several languages; it was commended for its colorful and lively style. Inferior to the much-celebrated Fleury, he nevertheless remained far more distant than Fleury from the Gallican tendencies prevailing at the time when he wrote.