LANGUET DE VILLENEUVE DE GERCY, JEAN-JOSEPH. - Archbishop of Sens, b. at Dijon on 24 Aug. 1677, d. at Sens on 11 May 1753. He was admitted to the Sorbonne in 1701; served as chaplain to the Duchess of Burgundy, vicar general of Autun (1709), superior of the Visitation nuns at Paray-le-Monial, bishop of Soissons (1715), archbishop of Sens (1731), and member of the French Academy (1721). From 1718 he became the most active opponent of the Jansenists, who secured from the Parliament the condemnation of one of his pamphlets; he forbade teaching to the Ursulines who had refused to accept his Catéchisme du diocèse de Sens, an action that sparked lively controversy.
He is the author of ascetical-doctrinal works that enjoyed wide circulation; however, particular importance attaches to his polemical writings, which were also translated into Latin, concerning the bull Unigenitus against the Appellants (v. GIANSENISM) and his own Catéchisme. His pastoral works were collected in five volumes (Paris 1752).