MAIMBOURG, LOUIS. — Jesuit, preacher, and historiographer, b. at Nancy on 10 January 1610, d. in Paris on 13 August 1686. After sixteen years of literary teaching, he devoted himself to preaching and above all to historical works, taking as his subject the schisms and heresies that developed throughout the history of Christianity.
An ardent enemy of Jansenism and Protestantism from the pulpit and in several writings, in which he sought to prepare the return of dissidents to the Catholic Church, he instead adhered to the theory of the so-called « Gallican liberties », becoming its tenacious and vigorous defender. This earned him the condemnation of several works and the order from Innocent XI to leave the Order (1681). Louis XIV then granted him a generous pension of 3,000 francs and lodgings in the former abbey of S. Vittore in Paris, where he continued his work.
The condemned works are: Histoire du grand Schisme d'Occident (Paris 1678; decree of 23 May 1680), in which, speaking of the Council of Constance, he defends those who were considered schismatics, shows himself strongly opposed to the actions of Urban VI and to the exclusivity of a Roman or Italian pope; Histoire de la décadence de l'Empire après Charlemagne (ibid. 1679; decree of 23 May 1680), in which, among other things, he upholds the rights of kings over the temporalities of the Church; Histoire du luthéranisme (ibid. 1680; decree of 12 December 1680), in which he seeks to reduce the origin of the great heresy to the question of indulgences alone; Traité historique de l'établissement et des prérogatives de l'Eglise de Rome et de ses évêques (ibid. 1685; brief of Innocent XI, 4 June 1685), in which he maintains that Peter is bishop of Rome and that the popes are his successors only in this bishopric; he contests the personal infallibility of the pope, demands the intervention of the Council for « decisive and definitive » judgments, and advocates the autonomy of the bishops' government vis-à-vis the Holy See; Histoire du pontificat de St Grégoire le Grand (2 vols., ibid. 1686; brief of Innocent XI, 26 February 1687), in which he advocates the same Gallican theories concerning the question of investitures. Other works: Histoire de l'artianisme (ibid. 1673); Histoire de l'hérésie des iconoclastes (ibid. 1674); Histoire des Croisades (ibid. 1675), Histoire du schisme des Grecs (ibid. 1678).
All the works had numerous readers and translators, because they were written with elegance of style and vivacity; but at times the apologist or stylist gets the better of the historian, to the detriment of truthfulness. Today, the multiplied critical and historical investigations have greatly diminished their value.
VIII, cols. 506-507; J. Carreyre, s. V. in DThC, IX, II, cols. 1656-1661.