Terrasson, Gaspard

Terrasson, Gaspard brother of the preceding, was born at Lyons, Oct. 5, 1680, and was sent, at the age of eighteen, to the house of the Oratory at Paris. He resided afterwards in different houses of his order, chiefly at Troyes, where he delivered a funeral oration for the dauphin, son of Louis XIV. For some time he, employed himself in delivering exhortations in the seminaries, but after Andre's death he accepted solicitations to preach, and soon acquired a reputation superior to that of his brother. He preached in Paris during five years; but Various circumstances, particularly his attachment to the Jansenists, obliged him to leave both the Congregation of the Oratory and the pulpit at the same time. He was appointed curate of Treigny in 1735; but, persecution still following him, he was sent to the Bastile, which he, left in 1744 to be confined with the Minims at Argenteuil. He was at length set at liberty, and died in Paris, Jan. 2, 1752, leaving Sermons (4 vols. 12mo), and an anonymous book, Lettres sur la Justice Chretienne, which was censured by the Sorbonne.