MÉRAULT DE BIZY, ATHANASE-RENÉ. - Apologist, b. in Paris in 1744 and d. in Orléans on 13 June 1835. Superior of the Oratory in Paris, in 1793, having refused to swear to the civil constitution of the clergy, he was imprisoned. Released in 1794 after the fall of Robespierre, he settled in Orléans, where, as vicar general and superior of the Seminary from 1805 to 1824, he rebuilt at his own expense the Seminary together with other charitable institutions.
The effectiveness and originality of his apologetic work derive from his refutation of error through the very words of the adversary. Worth recalling are: Les apologistes involontaires (Paris 1806, anonymous; ibid. 1820); Les apologistes ou la religion chrétienne prouvée par ses ennemis comme par ses amis (Orléans 1821 and 1829); Conspiration de l'impiété contre l'humanité (Paris 1822); Voltaire apologiste de la religion chrétienne (s. l. 1826); Preuves abrégées de la religion (Paris 1829).