Poulard, Thomas-just

Poulard, Thomas-Just a French prelate, was born at Dieppe Sept. 1, 1754. He was ordained priest, and enjoyed an early renown as a preacher. His talents were rewarded by the Church with several prebendships, and a curacy in the diocese of Lisieux. Attached to the clergy of Saint-Roch, he submitted in 1791 to the law that exacted the oath to the civil constitution, and became episcopal vicar of the Orne. On the 27th Brumaire, an. 2 (Nov. 17, 1793), he renounced the Catholic faith in the presence of the Convention, but in spite of this abjuration he was, after the Reign of Terror, appointed constitutional curate of the parish of Aubervilliers, near Paris, and took his seat as a deputy of the Haute-Marne in the council held at Paris in 1797. The Constitutionals made him bishop of Sa6neet-Loire June 14, 1801, but he lost his see by the Concordat, and retired to Paris. Shortly before the Revolution of July he published a pamphlet under the title Moyen de nationaliser le. Clerge de France (Paris, 1830, 8vo). At that same epoch he conferred orders on two young men, and on three in 1831. Poulard persevered in his opinions, and chose to die un vrai constitutionne. He declined the assistance of the curate of his parish, and his body was carried directly to the cemetery. Poulard died at Paris March 9, 1833. The two following books have been most plausibly attributed to his authorship: Ephemerides religieuses pour servir a 'Histoire ecclesiastique de la Fin du dix-huitieme Siecle et du Commencement du dix-neuvieme: — Sur l'Etat actuel de la Religion en France. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Géneralé, s.v.