BOUDON, HENRI-MARIE. - Ascetical writer, b. at La Fère (Aisne) on 14 Oct. 1624, d. at Evreux on 31 Aug. 1702. Archdeacon of Evreux from 1654, he soon began to remedy the many abuses in the diocese; he restored divine worship, obliged the parish priests to catechize, and refused benefices to unworthy priests. Hence arose lively opposition and shameful calumnies, exploited by the Jansenists, which led to his being deposed from office. Boudon bore all this patiently until, his innocence being proved, he was rehabilitated. He spent his last years preaching missions in Lorraine, Belgium, and Flanders.
Of his works he himself gives an account in a letter (Lettres de H.-M. B., I [Paris 1785], lett. 28, pp. 132 ff.); but he does not list them all, and he composed others later; some are even doubted as to their authenticity. All exercised a strong and deep influence. The principal ones are: *Dieu seul ou l’association pour l’intérêt de Dieu seul* (Paris 1662), placed on the Index (decr. 9 Sept. 1688) after the condemnation of Molinos, because of the abuses made of it by the Quietists; *Le saint esclavage de l’admirable Mère de Dieu* (ibid. 1674), disapproved at Rome but not forbidden, in order to remove certain abuses (P. Pourrat, pp. 152-53); *La vie cachée avec Jésus en Dieu* (ibid. 1676); *L’homme intérieur* (ibid. 1684).
The dominant idea of Boudon is “pure love,” untainted by any motive of self-interest, “God alone,” which in practice is realized through love of the Cross, self-denial, and passivity; hence a tinge of Quietism, fostered also by some infelicitous formulae.