BOUIX, MARIE-DOMINIQUE

BOUIX, MARIE-DOMINIQUE. — Canonist, born at Bagnères-de-Bigorre on 15 May 1808, died on 26 December 1870 at Montech (Tarn-et-Garonne). A Jesuit, he was professor in several colleges of the Order, which he left in 1842 for reasons of health. From 1842 until 1849 he was in Paris as vicar at the church of S. Vincenzo de' Pali, devoting his free time to study and, from 1840, to journalism in Migne’s journal Voix de la vérité. He was subsequently appointed a member of the commission for education together with Msgr. Parisiè and de Montalembert. Toward the end of 1848 he was appointed a member of the commission for religious communities and director of the Maria Theresa infirmary. Since the celebration of provincial councils had resumed at that time, he took part by defending the obligation of pontifical approval of councils, thereby arousing opposition from the Gallican-leaning clergy. At the request of the nuncio Fornari, B. published his opinion on the matter in Univers (September 1849) and, pursuing the subject further, wrote his work Du concile provincial. On 20 October 1850 he again wrote an article on this subject in Univers. Having thereby fallen into disagreement with Archbishop Sibour, he left Paris for Rome, where he remained for four years, and where, on 1 April 1851, Pius IX had him awarded the degree of retroque iure honoris causa at the Sapienza. He returned to Paris in 1855, and in 1860 founded at Arras, with the support of Msgr. Parisiè and Cardinal Gousset, the Revue des sciences ecclésiastiques. From that time his full activity as a canonist began, with the publication of various treatises written in sober and correct Latin according to a scholastic method, summarizing the doctrine of the classical canonists. The subjects treated by B. encompass the whole of canon law except marriage and censures.