LANGUET DE VILLENEUVE DE GERCY, JEAN-JOSEPH. - Archbishop of Sens, born at Digione on 24 Aug. 1677, died at Sens on 11 May 1753. He received his doctorate at the Sorbonne in 1701; he was chaplain to the Duchess of Burgundy, vicar general of Autun (1709), superior of the Visitandines of Paray-Le-Monial, bishop of Soissons (1715), archbishop of Sens (1731), and member of the French Academy (1721). From 1718 onward he became the most active opponent of the Jansenists, who obtained from Parliament the condemnation of one of his pamphlets; he forbade the teaching of the Ursulines, who had refused to accept his Catéchisme du diocèse de Sens, the source of lively controversies.
He was the author of ascetical and doctrinal works that enjoyed wide circulation; of particular importance, however, were his polemical works, also translated into Latin, concerning the bull Unigenitus against the Appellants (v. GIANSENISMO) and his own Catéchisme. His pastoral works were collected in five volumes (Parigi 1752).