Maupertuy (or Maupertuis), Jean-baptiste Drouet De

Maupertuy (or Maupertuis), Jean-Baptiste Drouet De a French ecclesiastical writer, was born at Paris in 1650. He was educated at the Jesuit college of Louis-le-Grand, and for a time dedicated himself to poetry and literature. In spite of his talents he did not achieve anything, owing to the life of dissipation which he led, and which cost him not only his fortune but the best part of his life. At the age of forty he renounced the joys of this world and led a retired life. In 1692 he retired to the abbey of SeptFonts, and five years later was made a priest by the archbishop of Vienne. He returned to Paris, and died at St. Germain-en-Laye, March 10, 1736. He wrote, Pensees Chretiennes et Morales (1703): — Histoire de la Reforme de l'Abbaye des Sept-Fonts (1702): — Les Sentiments d'un Cihrtien Touched d'un Veritable Amour de Dieu (1716): — L'Histoire de la Sainte Eglise de Vienne. Besides, he translated into French the Institutions of Lactantius; Salvianus's treatise on Providence, etc. See Lichtenberger, Encyclop. des Sciences Religieuses, s.v. (B.P.)