Conzie, Louis Francois Marc Hilaire De

Conzie, Louis Francois Marc Hilaire de a French prelate, was born at Poncin, in Bugey, January 13, 1732. He served first as an officer of dragoons, but was soon made bishop of Arras.

He proved himself one of the most violent adversaries of the Revolution. He refused to sit at the states-general, and in a riot came near losing his life in return for his devotion. An indictment being decreed in 1792, he took refuge in England and attached himself to the count of Artois. He exercised great influence in private, and directed the affairs of the royalist party. He became the centre of the intercourse and intrigue which fed the civil war in France. For many years his name was found in nearly all the projects of political insurrections. He is especially memorable as one of the. directors of the plot of the machine infernale, December 24, 1800. He died in London in December 1804. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.; Biog. Universelle, s.v.