Longuerue, Louis Du Four

Longuerue, Louis Du Four abbe de, an eminent, learned French ecclesiastic, born at Charleville January 6, 1652, was the son of a Norman nobleman. When but four years old he was generally known as a learned prodigy. At fourteen he understood several Oriental languages, and undertook to get a complete knowledge of the holy Scriptures by making diligent study of the fathers and of the Jewish and Christian commentators. The Sorbonne, which he sometimes visited, only gave him a distaste for scholastic theology; he preferred to reconstruct positive theology from the original, after the manner of P. Petau, where he found more exactness and stability. In 1674 he was provided with the abbotship of St. Jean-du-jard, near Melun, and in 1684 with that of Sept-Fontaines, in the diocese of Rheims. After receiving orders he entered the Seminary of St. Magloire, and shut himself up there in complete solitude for fifteen years. When he re-entered the world he opened his house to learned men, and kept up with them a regular correspondence, and manifested a great eagerness to instruct those who consulted him. Longuerue consecrated his whole life to labor; he knew no other rest except that of change of occupation. No part of the domain of learning was strange to him, but he much preferred history. His constitution and memory were good. In conversation he was lively, satirical, critical, humorous, and cynical. He took no part in religious controversy. He died in 1732. Among his works of interest to us are Traite d'un auteur de la communion Romaine touchant la transubstantiation, ou il fitit voir que selon les principes de sont Eglise ce dogme ne peut etre un article de foi (London, 1686): — Dissertations touchant les Antiquites des Chaldeans et des Egyptiens (in the Lettres choisies of Richard Simon): — Dissertation sur le passage de Flavius Josephe en feaveur de Jesus Christ (in the Bibl. ancienne et moderne of Le Clerc, 7:237-288): — Remarques sur la vie du cardinal Wolsey contraires a ceux qui ont ecrit contre sa reputation (in the Memoire de Litterat. of P. Desmolets). See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.; Thomas, Dict. of Biogr. and Mythol. s.v.; General Biographical Dictionary, s.v.