Pierre de La Broue explained

Pierre de La Broue (8 February 1644, Toulouse - 20 September 1720, Mirepoix[1] was a French bishop. He was part of the 'Apellant' movement within Jansenism, which called for the summoning of a church council to discuss the anti-Jansenist papal bull Unigenitus.

Life

From a family of magistrates from Moissac, he chose a career in the church and around 24 went to study in Paris, where he became a doctor of theology. He was also a favourite preacher at the French royal court (according to Madame de Sévigné, he "preached once before the King", at Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 2 February 1679[2]) and heavily linked to Bossuet. He preached the funerary oration for Marie Anne Christine of Bavaria, wife of the dauphin.

In 1679 he was made bishop of Mirepoix and founded a large seminary at Mazères as well as smaller ones at Fanjeaux and Belpech. Whilst bishop he set up a confraternity of pity at Mirepoix and carried out several charitable works. He also aimed to be made deputy to the estates of Languedoc,[3] a request which was never granted. In 1694 he was elected 'mainteneur' of the Acadèmia dels Jòcs Florals, where as a young man he had been praised for a work entitled Adieu aux muses profanes.[4]

With the bishops of Senez (Jean Soanen), Montpellier (Charles-Joachim Colbert de Croissy) and Boulogne (Pierre de Langle), he opposed the bull Unigenitus.[5] [6] According to his wishes, La Broue was buried at the seminary in Mazères.

Works

Notes

  1. According to Pierre-François Labelle (see last note), he died at "Bellestat, a village in his diocese".
  2. [Louis Monmerqué]
  3. Letter 1764 from Bossuet on 30 August 1698, replying visibly to this request
  4. [Axel Duboul]
  5. François Labelle, Nécrologe des appelans et opposans à la bulle Unigenitus, de l'un et de l'autre sexe, avec des pratiques et des prières à chaque article, s.l., 1755, p. 579-597 : Online text.
  6. Picot, Michel Joseph, Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire ecclésiastique pendant le dix-huitième siècle, 1717