Cabassut, Jean

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 first applied himself to the study of the 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 so dear that in 1660 he wanted him with him as conclavist for the Conclave in which Alexander VII was elected. In Rome on that occasion he stayed for eighteen months, deepening his study of the sources of law.

He wrote: Notitia Conciliorum Sanctae Ecclesiae... Lyons 1668, completely redone by the same author 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 valuable for its practical character and for its sound doctrine, which avoids the excesses of rigorism and of laxism; De Unura, at the invitation of Cardinal Grimaldi.