BINET, ETIENNE. — Ascetical writer, born in Dijon in 1569, died in Paris in 1639. He entered the Society of Jesus in Italy at Novellara in 1590;
returning to France in 1603, he was rector in Rouen and Paris, and provincial three times. A friend of s. Francesco di Sales and of s. Giovanna Francesca di Chantal, who found his spirit “singularly conformed in solid devotion to that of the monsignore” of Geneva, he may be regarded among the Jesuits as the exemplar of the so-called “devout humanism.”
Of his numerous writings (more than 40), the following must be mentioned: La pratique solide du saint amour de Dieu (Mons 1623), L'entrée royale de Jésus-Christ au monde (Rouen 1631, and apparently as early as 1623, the same year as Bérulle’s masterpiece on the state and greatness of Christ), Des attraits tout puissants de Jésus-Christ (Paris 1631). He also wrote a series of lives of saints, models for the various classes of persons, and translated from Italian the famous Compedio intorno alla perfezione (Rouen 1620) by the Milanese Isabella Bellinzaga. The short treatise Quel est le meilleur gouvernement, le rigoureux ou le doux? (Paris 1636) is of a thoroughly Salesian inspiration. B. is distinguished by his optimism; he takes care to console and to present piety as the source of true happiness. Notable in him are his emotional outpourings, the abundance of biblical images and recollections, and his familiar, concrete tone.