MAIMBOURG, LOUIS. - Jesuit, preacher and historian, b. at Nancy on 10 Jan. 1610, d. at Paris on 13 Aug. 1686. After 16 years of teaching literature, he devoted himself to preaching and above all to historical works, taking as his subject the schisms and heresies that developed over the course of the history of Christianity.
A bitter enemy of Jansenism and Protestantism from the pulpit and in several writings, in which he sought to prepare the return of the dissidents to the Catholic Church; he was led, instead, to the theory of the so-called "Gallican liberties," becoming their tenacious and lively defender; this earned him the condemnation of various works and the imposition by Innocent XI of leaving the Order (1681). Louis XIV then granted him a generous pension of 3000 francs and lodging in the ancient abbey of St. Victor in Paris, where he continued his works.
The condemned works are: Histoire du grand Schisme d'Occident (Paris 1678; decr. 23 May 1680), where, speaking of the Council of Constance, he defends those who were considered schismatics, shows himself quite 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; decr. 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; decr. 12 Dec. 1680), in which he wants to reduce the origin of the great heresy to the single question of indulgences; 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 it he maintains that Peter is bishop of Rome and the popes are his successors only in this bishopric; he contests the personal infallibility of the pope, demands for "decisive and definitive" judgments the intervention of the Council, advocates the autonomy of government of bishops in the face of the Holy See; Histoire du pontificat de St Grégoire le Grand (2 vols., ibid. 1686; brief of Innocent XI, 26 Feb. 1687), where he advocates the same Gallican theories with regard to 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 grace of style and liveliness, but sometimes the apologist or the stylist takes over from the historian to the detriment of truthfulness. Now, the multiplied critical and historical research has greatly reduced their value.
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