VERON (VERONIUS) FRANÇOIS. - Controversialist and preacher, b. in Paris in 1575, d. at Charenton on 6 Dec. 1694.
He entered the Jesuits in 1595 and, having been ordained priest, left the Society in 1620 in order to devote himself more freely to the conversion of Protestants through preaching and writings, in which he was highly accomplished, obtaining excellent results even among the educated classes. On 19 March 1622 he also received from the King permission to preach in public squares and, with the consent of the clergy, debated with anyone who came forward. He was appointed parish priest at St-Brice and at Charenton, where he died.
The work Méthode de traiter des controverses de religion par la seule Escriture saincte alléguée en termes express ou exposée par les saincts Pères... (definitive ed., 3 vols., Paris 1638–39) enjoyed wide circulation. His other work was likewise famous: Règle générale de la foy catholique séparée de toutes autres doctrines... (ibid. 1646; reprinted several times thereafter, translated into Latin by the Jesuits of Ingolstadt and into other languages). In 1646 he also published a French version of the New Testament which gave rise to some controversy. He also polemicized against Jansenism: In Jansenii praetensum Augustinum (Paris 1647). He also wrote on the Mass, Purgatory, and the Pope; but in 1641 the work De la primauté en l'Eglise ou de la hiérarchie d'icelle, which he had composed against Blondel, was placed on the Index.