DESGABETS, ROBERT. - Benedictine theologian and philosopher, b. at Ancemont (diocese of Verdun) in 1620 and d. at Breuil on 13 March 1678. A monk at Hautvillers (Reims) in 1636, teacher of theology at St-Evre de Toul, prior at St. Leopold of Nancy and at St. Arnold of Metz, visitor of the Benedictine Congregation of St-Vannes, procurator general in Paris, he was in contact with the leading thinkers of his time.

Having become enthusiastic about the new philosophical theories of Descartes, his physico-mathematical mentality sought to extend itself to every field, including that of dogma. Rather eclectic, he attempted to reconcile the philosophical thought of Descartes with that of Gassendi, whose criteria, along with a contempt for Aristotelianism and Scholasticism, he followed in the distinction between soul and body. It was in the application of Cartesian physico-mathematical theories to the explanation of the Eucharistic mystery that he aroused the greatest stir. Having rejected the possibility of the existence of absolute accidents and having placed the nature of corporeal substance in actual local extension, he attempted a natural and scientific, and therefore rationalist, explanation of the mystery, declaring the mode of Christ's being in the Eucharist to be one in which He informs the matter of the bread with His soul, along the lines, or nearly so, of the mode of being and operating of the two essential elements in the human composite in their various modifications. But, criticized by Pascal, by Bossuet, by the Cartesians, by the Jansenists and by Catholics, he consented to treat no further of the burning subject. His very extensive output, almost completely unpublished, concerns predominantly the Eucharist and remains distributed among the National and Arsenal libraries of Paris and those of Epinal, Chartres, Metz. Of the printed works, the following are remembered: 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, no date).

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: A. Hennequin, Les oeuvres philosophiques du card. de Retz, Paris 1842; F. Bouillier, Histoire de la philosophie cartésienne, I, Paris 1854, pp. 321-30; P. Lemaire, Dom R. D., son système, son influence et son école, Paris 1902; C. De Kirwan, Le Cartésianisme chez les Bénédictins, in Revue thomiste, 11 (1903), p. 379 ff.; U. Berlière, Bulletin d'histoire bénédictine, in Revue bénédictine, 20 (1903), pp. 267-68; B. Heurtebize, s. v. in DThC, IV, coll. 622-24.

Vito Zolini

@incollection{ec4_desgabets_robert, author = {Zollini, Vito}, title = {Desgabets, robert}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IV}, pages = {1472--1473}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/desgabets-robert} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

Desgabets, Robert

About this entry