FRAYSSINOUS, DENIS-LUC-ANTOINE. — Bishop and apologist, born at Vayssière on 9 May 1765, and died there on 12 December 1841. Having entered the Society of S. Sulpice in Paris, he was ordained a priest in 1789. Professor of dogmatic theology at the Seminary of S. Sulpice in 1800, from 1801 onward—first in the Carmelite church and then at S. Sulpice—he delivered his celebrated religious conferences, which were very well attended by the French intellectual aristocracy. Banned by Napoleon in 1809, they were resumed in 1814. Interrupted once again during the period of the « Hundred Days », they continued until 1822 and were published in 1825 under the title Défense du christianisme.
In 1818 he had published Vraie principes de l'Église gallicane, in which error concealed its inconsistencies beneath the veil of a verbal deference summarized in the singular final appeal: We are Gallicans, but we are Catholics! He rapidly acquired honours and dignities, provoking protests. Appointed inspector of an Academy by the imperial government, during the Restoration he became vicar general of Paris, first chaplain to the king, bishop of Hermopolis, grand master of the University, member of the Academy, peer of France, and minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs and Public Education. On several occasions he proved unequal to his responsibilities: compelled by his political deference to make reservations and hesitate, he had to lay down his arms for fear of wounding the King while defending Christ. He remained in hiding during the revolution of 1830; afterwards, he spent two years in Rome, and then went to replace the Jesuits in Austria as tutor to the Duke of Bordeaux (1833-1858). He later returned to his native land, where he remained until his death. F. deserves credit for the first outline of that higher instruction delivered with such splendour by the preachers of the pulpit of Notre-Dame in Paris.