Patouillet, Louis

Patouillet, Louis a French Jesuit, was born at Dijon, March 31, 1699. His studies were finished in the College of Dijon, where he had father Oudin among his teachers. He was admitted into the Order of the Jesuits, taught philosophy at Laon, and devoted himself at the same time to preaching. After several years, being recalled to Paris, he retired to the monastery, and took an active part in the religious quarrels of the time. From 1734 to 1748 he was one of the principal editors of the Supplement aux Nouvelles ecclesiastiques, which the Jesuits opposed to the publication of the Gazette Janseniste. The most of the articles written by him upon the refusal of the sacraments or for the defense of his order appeared anonymously, and it is difficult to distinguish exactly those that belong to him. The ardor with which he espoused the cause of M. de Beaumont against the parliaments drew upon himself, in 1756, the order to leave Paris. He lived some time with M. de la Mothe, bishop of Amiens, then with M. Banyn, bishop of Usez, both strongly attached to his society, and finally retired to Avignon. Patouillet was, as well as father Nounotte, a butt to the continual sarcasms of Voltaire, which he had provoked by the unskillfulness and virulence of his attacks against the philosophers. He died at Avignon in 1779. We have of his works, Poesies sur le mariage du Roi (1725):Cartouche, ou le sceleratjustifie par la grace du P. Quesnel (La Haye, 1731, 8vo): — Vie de Pelage (1551, 12mo): — Dictionnaire des livres Jansenistes (by P. de Colonia), a new and enlarged edition (Antwerp, 1752, 4 vols. 12mo); this work, in which the accusation of Jansenism is carried to excess, was forbidden at Rome in 1754; father Rule has given a refutation of it: — La progres du Jansenisme (Quilva, 1753,. 12mo): — Histoire du Pelagianisme (Avignon, 1763 or 1767, 2 vols. 12mo), dedicated to pope Clement XIII. This Jesuit, charged with continuing the collection of Lettres edifiantes after the death of father Halde, published vols. 23, 24, 27, and 28; vol. 31, which he had prepared, was published by father Marchal.

Two brothers of the same name, natives of Salins, and also Jesuits, have distinguished themselves in the pulpit. The older, NICOLAS PATOUILLET, born in 1622, was for a long time superior of the French mission to London, and died at Besangon Nov. 1, 1710. He has left Sentiments d'une ame pour se recueillir a Dieu (1700, 12mo). The younger, ETIENNE PATOUILLET, was born in 1634, and became abbe of Acey (diocese of Besanion). See Lettres edifiantes, tom. vi (ed. Du J. Quesbeuf); Feller, Dict. Hist.; De Backer freres, Bibl. des Ecsriv. de la Coup. de Jesus.