BINET, Etienne. – Ascetical writer, b. at Dijon in 1569, d. at Paris in 1639. He entered the Society of Jesus in Italy at Novellara in 1590; returning to France in 1603, he was rector at Rouen and Paris, and provincial three times. A friend of St. Francis de Sales and St. Jeanne Françoise de Chantal, who found his spirit “particularly in accord in solid devotion with that of the Bishop of Geneva,” he may be considered among the Jesuits as the type of the so-called “devout humanism.”
Of his numerous writings (over 40), mention must be made of *La pratique solide du saint amour de Dieu* (Mons 1623), *L’entrée royale de Jésus-Christ au monde* (Rouen 1631), and it seems already in 1623, the very year of Bérulle’s masterpiece on the state and greatnesses of Christ, *Des attraits tout puissants de Jésus-Christ* (Paris 1631). He also wrote a series of lives of saints, models for different classes of persons, and translated from the Italian the famous *Compendio intorno alla perfezione* (Rouen 1620) by the Milanese Isabella Bellinzaga. The little treatise *Quel est le meilleur gouvernement, le rigoureux ou le doux?* (Paris 1636) is distinctly Salesian in inspiration. B. is distinguished by his optimism; he takes care to console, to present piety as the source of true happiness; noteworthy in him are his affectionate effusions, the abundance of images and biblical reminiscences, and the familiar, concrete tone.