Eusebius Renaudot

An apologetical writer and Orientalist, b. at Paris, 22 July, 1648; d. there, 1 Sept., 1720. He was educated by the Jesuits, and joined the Oratorians in 1666, but owing partly to ill-health, forthwith left them and never received more than minor orders. His extraordinary native talent and love of study enabled him to become an able liturgical writer, one of the greatest Orientalists of his time, and a trustworthy political advisor. One of the prominent men of the reign of Louis XIV, he enjoyed the friendship of numerous literary and political celebrities, among others Bossuet, whom he supported in the controversies with Richard Simon, Fénelon and the Jesuits. Towards the last he assumed the unfriendly attitude of the Gallican and Jansenist. Numerous high distinctions were conferred upon him, among them membership in the French Academy (1689), the Academy of Inscriptions (1691), and the Accademia della Crusca of Florence. Most of his writings were prepared not merely for the extension of scientific knowledge, but also in defence of the Catholic Church. Among them are contributions to "Perpétuité de la foi", a work published by Nicole and Antoine Arnauld against the Calvinists, the fourth and fifth volumes of which are entirely due to Renaudot's pen (Paris, 1711, 1713). He published, moreover, "Défense de la perpétuité de la foi" (Paris, 1708); "Gennadii Patriarchae Constantinopolitani Homiliae de Eucharistia" (Paris, 1709); "Historia Patriarcharum Alexandrinorum" (Paris, 1713); "Liturgiarum orientalium collectio" (Paris, 1715-16); "Anciennes relations des Indes et de la Chine" (Paris, 1718). His opinion of Bayle's "Dictionnaire" was published by Jurieu (Rotterdam, 1697).