COLBERT de CROISSY, CHARLES-JOACHIM. - Bishop of Montpellier, Jansenist, b. in Paris on 11 June 1667, d. in Montpellier on 8 Apr. 1738. He studied at the Sorbonne, and in 1696 was appointed bishop of Montpellier.
In 1702 he had the Oratorian F. A. Pouget publish the Catéchisme de Montpellier, translated into various languages and widely circulated; but it was then placed on the Index in 1721 because of Jansenist ideas. It subsequently appeared in numerous corrected editions, widely disseminated until the beginning of the 19th century. In 1711, when Louis XIV prohibited Quesnel’s Réflexions morales, C. openly joined the Jansenist camp. In the disputes raised by the bull Unigenitus (1713), he played a leading part, publishing instructions and pastoral letters that helped to embitter the struggle and were the object of severe condemnation by the Church (decree of 1743).