Moreau, Gabriel Francois

Moreau, Gabriel Francois a French prelate, was born at Paris September 24, 1721. Descended from a lawyer's family, he became council scribe in the Parliament of Paris, and was in 1737 provided with a sinecure canonship in the metropolitan church, but rapidly rose to distinction, and in 1759 was made bishop of Vence. In 1763 he was transferred to the see of Macon. After the concordat of 1801 he obtained the bishopric of Autun, where he died, September 8, 1802. The first consul (Napoleon Bonaparte) esteemed him highly, and demanded from the pope the cardinal's hat for him. His literary remains, however, are scanty, consisting mainly of a few funeral sermons on distinguished individuals, viz. Oraison funebre de Ferdinand VI et Marie de Portugal, roi et reine d'Espagne (1760), and Oraison funebre de M. le Duc de Bourgogne (1761). See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 36:479.