MIGNOT, EUDOXE-IRÉNÉE. – Archbishop, born at Brancourt (Aisne) on 20 September 1842, died at Albi on 18 March 1918. Ordained a priest in 1864, he became bishop of Fréjus in 1890, and then archbishop of Albi in 1899.
In France he was one of the most active and effective advocates of bringing ecclesiastical studies into line with the ideas of the times. In 1897 he published in the Correspondant: L'évolutionnisme religieux, in refutation of Sabatier’s work Esquisse d'une philosophie de la religion, acknowledging that “what he lacked was being Christian.”
In 1900 he addressed to his clergy in Albi a notable series of Lettres sur les études ecclésiastiques, followed on 13 November 1901 by a speech on La méthode de la théologie, which attracted wide attention. His specialized field of learning was biblical studies, and at Vigouroux’s invitation he wrote the preface to the Dictionnaire de la Bible (1893) and to the Bible polyglotte (1899). A shared interest in scholarship and critical tendencies led him to support the literary activity of Alfredo Loisy, to such an extent that it was said that he had been one of the two guardian angels who watched over his career. The other was Baron Federico von Hügel, with whom M. was bound by friendship and correspondence. Appreciating Loisy’s learning, M. hoped to keep him on the right path and, during the last years of Leo XIII, worked to avert a condemnation that was already being announced, when, in November 1902 and October 1903, Loisy published the two polemical booklets L'Evangile et l'Eglise and Autour d'un petit livre; together with von Hügel, M. still hoped for Loisy’s Catholicism and assured readers in the Correspondant on 10 January 1904 that Loisy would accept the judgment of ecclesiastical authority, and he worked with Pius X to prevent a severe judgment against him; for this reason he was targeted, together with Fr. Lagrange, by anti-Modernist theologians (1903–1904). After the condemnation of Modernism, M., in two successive studies, Lettres sur les études ecclésiastiques (Paris 1908) and L'Eglise et la critique (ibid. 1910), set out to show how that condemnation provided a new reason for devoting oneself to scientific study.