DESGABETS, ROBERT. - Benedictine theologian and philosopher, born at Ancomt (diocese of Verdun) in 1620 and died at Breuil on 13 March 1678. He became a monk at Hautvillers (Reims) in 1636, taught theology at St-Eve de Toul, was prior at S. Leopoldo in Nancy and at S. Arnoldo in Mèretz, visitor of the Benedictine Congregation of St-Vannes, procurator general in Paris, and was in contact with the leading thinkers of his time.
Enthused by the new philosophical theories of Descartes, his physico-mathematical mentality sought to extend to every field, including the dogmatic. Rather eclectic, he attempted to reconcile the philosophical thought of Descartes with that of Gassendi, following the latter’s criteria in the distinction between soul and body, along with a contempt for Aristotelianism and Scholasticism. The area where he caused the greatest stir was in applying Cartesian physico-mathematical theories to explain the Eucharistic mystery. Rejecting the possibility of the existence of absolute accidents and positing the nature of corporeal substance in local actual extension, he attempted a natural and scientific—hence rationalist—explanation of the mystery, declaring the mode of Christ’s being in the Eucharist as informing the matter of the bread with His soul, in a manner almost analogous to the mode of being and operation of the two essential elements in the human composite in their various modifications. However, criticized by Pascal, Bossuet, the Cartesians, the Jansenists, and Catholics, he agreed not to treat the contentious subject further.
His vast output, almost entirely unpublished, concerns predominantly the Eucharist and is distributed among the National Library and the Arsenal Library in Paris and those of Epinal, Chartres, and Metz. Among his printed works are: *Critique de la critique de la recherche de la vérité*, Paris 1675; *Considérations sur l'état présent de la controverse touchant le très S. Sacrement de l'autel* (Holland, n.d.).