Lenoir, John

Lenoir, John a French Jansenist priest, was born at Alencon in 1622. He became theological canon of Seez in 1652, and acquired great reputation as a preacher both in Normandy and at Paris. He was accused of Jansenism, and by his quarrelsome disposition was made the subject of many annoyances. Rouxel de Medavy, bishop of Seez, who had issued a charge for the publication of the Formulary, accused him of various errors, namely, of having permitted the publication of a work entitled Le Chretien Champetre by a layman, who said expressly that "there are four divine persons who are to be worshipped by the faithful, namely, Jesus Christ, St. Joseph, St. Anna, and St. Joachim; and that our Lord is present in the sacrament of the altar like a chicken in an egg-shell." Lenoir presented then a petition to Louis XIV, together with an attack on some propositions which he considered as heretical. His writings on these subjects were exceedingly violent: he attacked Rouxel de Medavy, who was then archbishop of Roueni, and even De Harlay, the archbishop of Paris. A commission was appointed to judge him, and he was condemned, April 24,1684, to make a public apology in front of the cathedral at Paris, and to work for life on the galleys. The sentence was not fully carried out; but he remained a prisoner successively in the prisons of St. Malo, Brest, and Nantes until his death, April 22, 1692. He wrote, Avantages incontestables de l'Eglise sur les Calvinsistes (Paris and Sens, 1673, 12mo): — Nouvelles Lumieres politiques, ou l'Evangile nouveau (1676 and 1687, 12mo: this work arrested the publication of a French translation of the History of the Council of Trent by Pallavicini, and went through a third edition under the title of Politique et Intrigues de la cour de Rome [1696, 12mo]): — L'eveque de cour oppose a l'eveque epostolique (Cologne, 1682, 2 vols, 12mo): — Lettre a Mme la duchesse de Guise sur la domination piscopale, etc. (1679,12mo). See Supplem. au Necrolog. de Port Royal, 1735; Dict. hist. des auteurs eccles.; Feller, Dict. hist.; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Genesis 38:203. (J. N. P.)