FLEURY, CLAUDE. – French jurist and historian, born in Paris on 6 December 1640, died there on 17 July 1723. Advocate at the Parliament (1658). Following his contacts with Bossuet and Bourdaloue, he studied theology and in 1672 took Holy Orders. In the same year he was appointed tutor to the princes of Condé, companions at court of the Dauphin, and in 1680 to the count of Vermandois, natural son of Louis XIV. In 1685 he worked with Fénelon in the mission to Saintonge and Poitou for the conversion of the Huguenots. He subsequently served as deputy tutor to the sons of the dukes of Burgundy, Berry, and Anjou (1689), became a member of the Académie française (1696), and confessor to the young Louis XV (1716).
His principal work was the Histoire ecclésiastique, carried down to 1414, which earned him a seat in the Académie française (20 vols., Paris 1691–1720). It was broad in scope, rich in critical acumen and original dissertations, well documented, independent in its judgments, and written in an excellent style; this explains its numerous editions and translations. It was not, however, free of Gallican tendencies, which prompted calm and at times even captious criticism. Other noteworthy works include: Institutions au droit ecclésiastique (Paris 1687; placed on the Index, 21 April 1693). The same work, translated into Latin and annotated by Boehmer (Institutiones iuris ecclesiastici, Frankfurt 1723), was placed on the Index by decree of 17 January 1729; Histoire de droit français (Paris 1674); Cathéchisme historique (there 1679; prohibited “donc corrigatur” on 5 April 1728; the Avignon edition of 1859 permitted by decree of 7 July 1859).