DEFORIS, JEAN-PIERRE. – Benedictine of S. Mauro, critic and apologist, born at Montbrison (Loire) in 1732, died at S. Mauro on 25 June 1794.
He was one of the first entrusted with the critical edition of the Concilia Galliae, of which only one volume was published (Paris 1789). He prepared the critical edition of all Bossuet’s works, including the unpublished ones, which was to comprise about thirty volumes. The first 15 were accompanied by notes and prefaces that provoked much criticism, so that they had to be omitted from the subsequent volumes; the edition nevertheless remained incomplete (18 vols., Paris 1772–88). At the same time he composed numerous apologetic and polemical works, such as La réfutation d'un nouvel ouvrage de J.-J. Rousseau intitulé Emile ou de l'éducation (Paris 1762); La divinité de la religion vénée des sophismes de J.-J. Rousseau (2 vols., there 1763); Préservatif pour les fidèles contre les sophismes et les impietés des incrédules (2 vols., there 1764); L'importance et l'étendue des obligations de la vie monastique (2 vols., there 1768); Plan de réforme motivé, présenté aux Etats Généraux (3 vols., there 1787–89).
Having come under suspicion of having supported the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, he defended himself publicly, rejecting that malicious insinuation in a printed letter that cost him his life: he was guillotined on 25 June 1794.