CABASSUT, JEAN. - Oratorian, b. at Aix-en-Provence in 1605, d. there on 25 Sept. 1685. He entered the Congregation of the Oratory in 1626. Having initially devoted himself to the study of Oriental languages, he later abandoned them in order to devote himself to Canon Law. Cardinal Grimaldi, Archbishop of Aix, often availed himself of his advice and held him in such esteem that in 1660 he wished him to accompany him as conclavist to the Conclave in which Alessandro VII was elected. On that occasion he remained in Rome for eighteen months, deepening his study of the sources of law.
He wrote: Notitia Conciliorum Sanctae Ecclesiae... Lyons 1668, completely reworked by the author himself in 1680 under the title: Notitia Ecclesiastica historiarum Conciliorum et Canonum..., an orderly exposition of councils and canons from the earliest times of the Church; Theoria et Praxis Iuris Canonici, Lyons 1660, a work notable for its practical character and sound doctrine, avoiding the excesses of rigorism and laxism; De Unura, at the invitation of Cardinal Grimaldi.