Charles René Billuart
Charles René Billuart OP (Latin: Carolus Renatus Billuart; 8 January 1685 – 20 January 1757), was a French Roman Catholic priest and theologian.
Biography
Charles René Billuart was born in Revin (Ardennes). When he was about sixteen years old, he presented himself and was accepted by the Jesuits of Charleville where he had done his humanities. On his way to the novitiate in Pont-à-Mousson, he went to see the rector of the college in Sedan, who received him coldly.
He therefore changed his mind and returned to his region, took the Dominican habit in 1701 and made his novitiate in Lille, his profession of faith in Revin, on November 7, 1702, and then his course in philosophy and theology.
From then on, he decided that instead of being a Molinist, he would be a Thomist.
In 1710, he was appointed to teach philosophy at the college of Saint Thomas in Douai. The following year he moved to Revin, where he taught theology until 1715, when he was appointed master of students in Douai. He became second regent of studies in 1718.
After having governed his community of Revin, as prior, from 1721 to 1725, he was named first regent of the college of Douai. He was elected provincial of the Dominicans on October 15, 1728, a promotion renewed in 1741 and 1752. He became a doctor of theology in 1729.
In November 1733, he returned to Revin where he served as prior until 1741, a position he refused to accept in 1749. In 1736, Louis of Orléans, territorial lord of Revin, called him to Paris. He came back with important financial means which allowed him to build the infirmary, the hospice and the library of the convent of Revin.
He preached in Liège in 1718, 1719 and 1732. He gave a speech and debated with the Protestant pastors in Maastricht in 1729. Of a gentle and peaceful character, he was lively and tenacious in argument; and he showed this in his discussions with Antoine Lengrand (?–1758) and the Belgian Augustinian Joseph Maugis (1711–1780).
Buried in the church of Notre-Dame de Revin. His motto "LABORE ET ARTE" appears on his funeral plaque.
Works
- De mente ecclesiœ catholicœ circa accidentia eucharistiœ dissertatio unica, adversus Antonium Lengrand, S.T.L., et philosophiœ Cartesianœ professorem in academiâ Duacensi (1715)[1]
- Le Thomisme vengé de sa prétendue condamnation par la constitution Unigenitus, adressé en forme de lettre à un abbé ; par un religieux de l'ordre de Saint-Dominique (1720)
- Lettre du R.P.C.R. Billuart aux docteurs de la Faculté de théologie de Douai, avec des réflexions sur les notes calomnieuses qu'ils ont attachées à leurcensure du 22 août 1722, contre les RR. PP. Massouillé et Contenson de l'ordre des FF. Prêcheurs (1723)[2]
- Examen critique des Réflexions (d'un anonyme) sur le bref de N.S.P. le pape Benoît XIII (1724).[3]
- Le Thomisme triomphant par le bref Demissas preces de Benoît XIII, ou justification de l'Examen critique des réflexions sur ce bref, contre une lettre anonyme adressée à l'auteur de l'Examen; par un théologien de l'ordre de Saint-Dominique (n/d).[4]
- Réponse de l'auteur du Thomisme triomphant à M. Stievenard, au sujet de son Apologie pour Fénelon (n/d).
- Avis d'un ecclésiastique de Paris à M. Stievenard sur sa seconde apologie pour Fénelon (n/d).[5]
- Justification de l'Avis d'un Ecclésiastique de Paris à M. Stievenard sur sa seconde apologie pour Fénelon (n/d).[6]
- Réponse à l'auteur d'un libelle imprimé cette année 1734, à Rotterdam, intitulé: La Créance des églises réformées touchant la sainte Vierge, où l'on fait voir les impostures grossières et les calomnies atroces, les paralogismes et les inepties dont cet ouvrage est rempli (n/d).
- Apologie du RP. Pierre Soto, dominicain, et des anciennes censures de Louvain et de Douai, contre l'Histoire du Baïanisme, composée par le Père du Chesne jésuite, et condamnée à Rome le 17 de mars 1734 (1738; under The pen name Louis de Lomanise).[7]
- Summa S. Thomœ hodiernis academiarum moribus accommodata ; sive cursus theologiæ juxta mentem, et, in quantum licuit, juxta ordinem et litteram D. Thomœ in suâ summâ: insertis pro re natâ digressionibus in Historiam ecclesiasticam. Ad usum scholarum Thomistarum (1746–1751; 19 volumes; reprinted in 1778).
- Ulterior elucidatio quœstionis theologiae de relatione operum in Deum (1753)
- Quœstio theologica de Relatione operum in Deum adversùs opusculum, sub nomine R.D. Hagen (Leodii éditum anno 1752) vindicata (1762).[8]
- Epistola expostulatoria, et apologctica Ludovici Franc ad R. Patron Josephum Maugis, super dissertationem ejus se cundam de relatione operum in Deum (n/d).[9]
- Sermons du R.P. C.-R. Billuart, publiés d'après les manuscrits autographes, par M. l'abbé Lelièvre (1846)
- Des différentes luxures (1929)
Notes
- ↑ According to Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Boulliot, in it Billuart vivaciously supports the sentiment of the Peripateticians against that of René Descartes, and makes it almost an article of faith. The work of Antoine Lengrand that he attacked is entitled Dissertatio de accidentibus absolutis, Duaci (1711).
- ↑ Bouillot indicates that the doctors of Douai did not reply to this letter because they could not answer it: they had been grossly mistaken about the account of the two famous Dominicans; and their censure was condemned in Rome by an apostolic decree of 18 July 1729.
- ↑ Boulliot indicates that the brief in question, Dimissas preces, is addressed to all the Dominicans against the calumnies aimed at the doctrine of Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas.
- ↑ Boulliot indicates that it is a response to anonymous insulting letters that followed the publication of the Examen critique.
- ↑ Boulliot specifies that it is a response to Abbé Simon Pierre Stiévenard who had published a second apology of François Fénelon in which he reproached Billuart for having borrowed his objections from the Jansenists.
- ↑ According to Boulliot, it is a writing in which, in response to Stiévenard's reply, he attacks the latter without much care and which put an end to this dispute.
- ↑ According to Boulliot, he shows the orthodoxy of Pierre Soto and that of Josse Ravestein de Tileto and the Molinism of Ruard Tapper and discovers the infidelities, the slanders and the blunders of Jean-Baptiste Du Chesne.
- ↑ Boulliot indicates that, in this dissertation on the true motive of human actions, Billuart proves, against the feeling of some rigorists of Louvain, that it is sufficient that an action, in order not to be imputed as a sin to the one who does it, is good in itself and in its circumstances.
- ↑ Boulliot indicates that it is a reply to the Dissertatio de relatione operum ab objectis vindicata Lovann (1755), by Joseph Maugis and that Father Maugis replied with Vindiciœ dissertationis de relatione operum in Deum (1757). This pamphlet which appeared shortly after the death of Billuart.
References
- Agostini, Igor Agostini and Ilaria Coluccia (2017). "La Summa S. Thomæ di Charles René Billuart e la Critica alle Prove Cartesiane dell'esistenza di Dio," Divus Thomas, Vol. CXX, No. 1, pp. 183–213.
- Anon. (1828). "Théologie de Billuart", L'Ami de la Religion, Vol. LV, pp. 129–134.
- De Franceschi, Sylvio Hermann (2016). "L'Exténuation de la Querelle de la Grâce au Miroir de la Somme de Théologie; Le Cursus theologiae (1746-1751) du P. Billuart et l'Opposition entre Thomistes et Molinistes," Revue des Sciences Philosophiques et Théologiques, Vol. C, No. 3, pp. 353–83.
- Boulliot, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph (1830). "Billuart (Charles René)." In: Biographie Ardennaise ou Histoire des Ardennais, 1. Paris, pp. 110–19.
- Bourgeois, Georges (1929). "Les Souvenirs de P. Billuart à Revin," Nouvelle revue de Champagne et de Brie, pp. 145–53.
