BOISGELIN, JEAN-DE-DIEU-RAYMOND DE CUCÉ de. - Cardinal, b. 27 Feb. 1732 at Rennes, d. 22 Aug. 1804 at Angervilliers. In 1765 bishop of Lavaur, in 1770 archbishop of Aix, where, in addition to governing the diocese, he also had to attend to the administration of the province, which in fact owed him 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 clerical property, the suppression of religious Orders, and the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Having refused the constitutional oath, he was obliged to take refuge in London, whence he returned after the signing of the Napoleonic Concordat.
When Pius VII asked the former bishops to resign, in implementation of the Concordat, 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 exertion that his life was shortened thereby.