TABARAUDA, Mathieu-Mathurin. - Oratorian. Born in Limoges on 17 Apr. 1744, died there on 9 Jan. 1832. He studied under the Jesuits and the Sulpicians. He entered the Congregation of the Oratory in 1766 and taught theology, Greek, and Hebrew at Nantes, Arles, and Lyon.
At the outbreak of the Revolution he was superior of the house at Limoges. Initially favoring ecclesiastical reform, which in 1788 he set forth, at the request of Minister Necker, in a pamphlet (*Motifs de justes plaintes du clergé du second ordre*), he soon began a vigorous campaign of publications against the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and the priests who had taken the oath. Forced to flee from Limoges, he passed through Lyon, Paris, and Rouen, until in 1792 he emigrated to London, where he earned his living by contributing to periodicals and through translations. After the Concordat of 1801 he returned to France but declined an offer of a bishopric made to him by Bernier. In 1803 he published *De l'importance d'une religion de l'Etat* and *Principes sur la distinction du contrat et du sacrement de Mariage*, in which he argued for the validity of civil marriage without religious marriage. From 1811 to 1814 he served as a state censor, using this position to prevent the printing of works unfavorable to his Jansenist and Gallican ideas. Several of his writings bear witness to this mentality: *Essai historique et critique sur l'institution des évêques* (Paris 1811, against the papal institution of bishops); *Examen de l'opinion de M. le cardinal de la Luzerne sur la publication du Concordat* (ibid. 1821, against the Pope’s direct intervention in the government of the French Church); *Examen de deux propositions de lois qui doivent être faites aux Chambres sur la célébration du mariage et sur la tenue des registres de l'état civil* (Limoges-Paris 1824, a critique of legislative proposals favoring religious marriage before civil marriage). His *Histoire de Pierre de Bérulle* (2 vols., Paris 1817) remains valuable for the quantity of information it contains.