BOISEGELIN, JEAN-DE-DIEU-RAYMOND DE CUCÉ de. - Cardinal, born 27 Feb. 1732 at Rennes, died 22 Aug. 1804 at Angervilliers. In 1765 bishop of Lavaur, in 1770 archbishop of Aix, where, besides governing the diocese, he also had to oversee the administration of the province, for which he introduced new systems of taxation, bridges, roads, and canals. As president of the estates of Provence, he secured the restoration of local autonomies; as deputy of the clergy to the Estates-General of 1789, he firmly defended the rights of the Church against the nationalization of ecclesiastical property, the suppression of religious orders, and the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Having refused the constitutional oath, he was forced to take refuge in London, from where he returned after the signing of the Napoleonic Concordat.
At the request for resignations addressed by Pius VII, in execution of the Concordat, to the former bishops, B. advised submission for the good of religion and set the example himself. Napoleon appointed him archbishop of Tours (1802) and obtained the cardinalate for him (1803). At Tours he devoted himself to restoring religion with such zeal that it shortened his life.