MASSOULIÈ, ANTOINE. - Dominican theologian, b. at Toulouse on 28 Oct. 1632, d. at Rome on 23 Jan. 1706. He entered religious life in his native city (1647), studied at Bordeaux and Toulouse, and taught at Carcassonne, Avignon, Perpignan, and Paris (1665). In 1686 the master general appointed him visitor of the convents of Alsace, and in September of the following year summoned him to Rome as his associate. Consultant to various Congregations, in 1697 he was charged with examining Fénelon’s Maximes des saints and gave an unfavorable judgment on II. In 1670 he became theologian of the Casanatense.
Works: Méditation de si Thomas sur les trois vies, purgative, illuminative et unitive pour les exercices des dix jours (Toulouse 1678; Italian trans., Venice 1746). His most important work is Divus Thomas sui interpres de divina motione et libertate creata (2 vols., Rome 1692-93), in which he deals with divine motion, advocating physical premotion, which he regards as the genuine doctrine of St. Thomas, and combating the theories of Jansenism. Against Quietism he wrote: Traité de la véritable oraison (Paris 1699; Italian trans. Venice 1723), in which he takes a clear position against Fénelon and Guyon, and Traité de l'amour de Dieu (Paris 1703; Italian trans. Venice 1721).