Bessin, Guillaume

Bessin, Guillaume a French Romanist theologian, was born at Glos-la-Ferte, in the diocese of Evreux, March 27, 1654. In 1674 he entered the order of Benedictines, and afterward taught philosophy and theology in the abbeys of Bee, Seez, and Fecamp. He was also made syndic of the monasteries of Normandy. He died at Rouen, October 18, 1736. He wrote Reflexions sur le nouveau systeme du R. P. Lami, who maintained that our Lord did not celebrate the Jewish Passover on the eve of his death. "He is, however, chiefly known by the Concilia Rotomagensis Provinciae, 1717, fol. It was first printed in 1677, and was the work of Dom Pommeraye. Dom Julien Bellaise undertook a new edition, which he greatly enlarged, but died before its completion, and Bessin finished it, added the preface, and published it under his own name." He was one of the editors of the works of Gregory the Great (1705, 4 vols. fol.). — Landon, Ecclesiastical Dictionary, 2, 224; Hoefer, Nouvelle Biographie Generale, 5, 819.