Minard, Louis Guillaume

Minard, Louis Guillaume a French ecclesiastical writer, was born at Paris January 31, 1725. Educated at the College of France by the care of Rivard, with whom he was a favorite pupil, he joined the "Brothers of the Christian Doctrine," and was appointed while still young to some of the superior offices of his congregation. He entered the secular clergy and obtained the benefice of Bercy, near Paris. His tolerance and easy profession of religion brought upon him many admonitions from his superiors; finally, Christophe de Beaumont, archbishop of Paris, suspended him from his sacred functions- having been offended by a book that Minard had written, entitled Panengyrique de Saint Charles Borromee. Minard continued to dwell among his ex-parishioners, devoting all his time to study and to charity. In 1778 he refused the generalship offered him by the lay brethren. In 1795 he became a member of the Presbytery of Paris. He died, poor and infirm, at Paris, April 22, 1798. Besides the Panegyrique de Saint Charles Borromee, condemned by the Sorbonne and his provisor the archbishop of Paris, Minard wrote Avis aux fideles sur le schisme dont l'Eglise de France est menacee (Paris, 1795, 8vo). In this tract, written to establish peace with the Jansenists, he says that all parties should unite to establish harmony in the Church, and that the resistance of a part of the clergy to the laws is as injurious to the divine service as to the state. It was replied to by Bernard Lambert la Plaigne, a Dominican Jansenist, who, aided by Maultrot, wrote four Lettres aux ministres de la ci-devant eglise constitutionelle (1795-1796). Minard afterwards replied to these by a Supplemente to the Avis aux Fideles. See Nouvelles ecclesiastiques (Utrecht, 1798); Dict. historique, s.v.