FRAYSSINOUS, DENIS-LUC-ANTOINE. - Bishop and apologist, b. at Vayssière on 9 May 1765, and d. there on 12 Dec. 1841. Having entered the Society of St. Sulpice in Paris, he was ordained a priest in 1789. Professor of dogmatic theology at the Seminary of St. Sulpice in 1800, from 1801 onward, first in the church of the Carmelites and then at St. Sulpice, he gave his celebrated religious conferences, much attended by the French intellectual aristocracy. Forbidden by Napoleon in 1809, they were resumed in 1814. Interrupted again during the period of the "Hundred Days," they were 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 under the veil of a verbal deference summed up in the singular final appeal: We are Gallicans, but we are Catholics! He rapidly acquired honors and dignities, arousing protests. Appointed by the imperial government inspector of the Academy, during the Restoration he became vicar general of Paris, first chaplain of the king, bishop of Ermopoli, grand master of the University, academician, peer of France, minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs and of Public Instruction. On several occasions he proved unequal to his commitments: constrained by his political deference to reservations and hesitations, he had to lower his arms for fear of wounding the King in defending Christ. He remained hidden during the revolution of 1830; afterward, he spent two years in Rome, and then went to replace the Jesuits in Austria, as tutor to the duke of Bordeaux (1833-1858). Having then returned to his native country, he remained there until his death. To F. belongs the merit of the first sketch of that higher teaching imparted with so much splendor by the orators of the pulpit of Notre-Dame in Paris.