BOUVIER, JEAN-BAPTISTE. - Bishop of Le Mans, theologian, b. at St-Charles-la-Forêt (Mayenne) on 16 Jan. 1783 to a poor family, d. in Rome on 28 Dec. 1854. He studied at the seminary of Angers; ordained a priest in 1808, he was first a professor at the college of Château-Gontier, then from 1811 to 1819, successively, 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.
His Institutiones Theologicae (15 editions between 1834 and 1880) brought him great renown; they were adopted almost universally in France, the United States and Canada, but were later judged rather severely for the traces of Gallicanism and Cartesianism found diffused throughout them. It may be observed, however, that he, like so many other French prelates, was Gallican not out of personal conviction, but out of a tradition, almost unconscious, of a certain innate French nationalist spirit, which took concrete form, in the religious sphere, in the particular shape of Gallicanism. Moreover, he repudiated it, accepting the revision that, in this regard, was carried out on his work by a Roman commission. As for the Cartesian philosophical system, to which he adheres, it may be said that, under the influence of the times, rather than embracing it after discussion out of conviction, he submitted to it, all the more so since he was better prepared for practice than for speculation. In fact, the moral part of his work met with greater approval; indeed, 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 cited: 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., ibid. 1855); an abridged edition for the use of the faithful (ibid. 1826); Dissertatio in sextum decalogi praeceptum (17th ed., ibid. 1854); 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 cenomanensis (ibid. 1852); Lettres pastorales.
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