DÉODAT, MARIE de BASLY. - Franciscan theologian, one of the restorers of the Scotist school, born at Basly en Bessin (Calvados) on 11 Oct. 1862, died at Le Havre on 14 July 1937. He entered religious life in 1879, devoted himself to the apostolate, and held several offices in the Order; in 1897 he founded a convent at Le Havre, where he lived for 40 years and carried on his scholarly activity. In 1903 he founded the periodical La bonne parole, for the exposition and defense of Franciscan scholastic thought.
He wrote: Grandes thèses catholiques, I: Le Sacré Coeur (Paris-Lille 1900); II: Pourquoi Jésus Christ? (ibid. 1903); Capitalia opera Scoti (12 vols., of which two were published, Le Havre 1908 and 1911); Scotus docens (Paris-Le Havre 1934); La Christia française (2 vols., Paris 1927). Certain criticisms directed against this work and concerning the question de l'Assumptus Homo led the author to a series of noteworthy Christological studies, published in La France franciscaine and in Études franciscaines. Other minor articles appeared in La bonne parole, which he edited until 1912.