BOUVIER, JEAN-BAPTISTE. — Bishop of Le Mans, theologian, born at St-Charles-la-Forêt (Mayenne) on 16 January 1783 into a poor family, died in Rome on 28 December 1854. He studied at the seminary of Angers; ordained priest in 1808, he first taught at the Château-Gontier college, then from 1811 to 1819 he was professor of philosophy, theology and rector at the seminary of Le Mans; vicar general of the diocese from 1820 to 1834 and finally bishop from 1834 to 1854.
He acquired considerable renown through his *Institutiones Theologicae* (15 editions between 1834 and 1880), which were almost universally adopted in France, the United States and Canada, though later judged rather severely for the traces of Gallicanism and Cartesianism found throughout. It may however be observed that he, like many other French prelates, was a Gallican not through personal conviction but through tradition, an almost unconscious expression of a certain innate French nationalist spirit, which in the religious sphere took the particular form of Gallicanism. Moreover, he repudiated it, accepting the revision of his work on this point by a Roman commission. As for the Cartesian philosophical system, to which he adhered, it may be said that under the influence of the times he submitted to it rather than embraced it after discussion and conviction, all the more so since he was better prepared for practice than for speculation. Indeed, the moral part of his work met with greater approval; in fact, he is credited with having contributed through it to the definitive defeat of Jansenist rigorism, thus preparing the new era of scholastic revival. His works, besides those mentioned, include: *Institutiones philosophicae* (Le Mans 1824; 12th ed., Paris 1858); *Traité dogmatique et pratique des indulgences, des confréries et du jubilé, à l'usage des ecclésiastiques* (Le Mans 1826; 10th ed., 11th ed., 11bis ed.); a reduced edition for the use of the faithful (ibid. 1826); *Dissertatio in sextum decalogi praeceptum* (17th ed., 18th ed.); *Catéchisme à l'usage du diocèse du Mans* (ibid. 1838); *Histoire abrégée de la philosophie à l'usage des séminaires et des collèges* (2 vols., ibid. 1841); *Précis historique et canonique sur les jugements ecclésiastiques* (ibid. 1852); *Statuta dioecesis conamenensis* (ibid. 1852); *Lettres pastorales*.