Étienne Bauny (1564, Mouzon, Ardennes, France – 3 December 1649, Saint Pol de Léon) was a French Jesuit theologian.[1]

Life

He was admitted into the Society of Jesus, 20 July 1593, and after teaching humanities and rhetoric he was promoted to the chair of moral theology which he occupied for sixteen years.[2] He was for a time superior of the Jesuit residence at Pontoise. He had the confidence of the most distinguished prelates of his age, especially of François de La Rochefoucauld, who chose him as his spiritual director, and of René de Rieux, Bishop of Léon, who entrusted to him the settlement of the most delicate affairs of his episcopate.

Many of Bauny's Jansenist contemporaries criticized him as too lenient. Blaise Pascal cited Bauny as an example of lax Jesuit morality in his Provincial Letters, and Antoine Arnauld voiced similar accusations.

The Catholic Encyclopedia describes Bauny as "a man of extraordinary severity towards himself, a skilful guide of souls, full of charity towards sinners, prudent in the management of affairs." He died in the odour of sanctity, almost in the very exercise of his apostolic ministry, at the age of eighty-five.

Works

Bauny's published works are:

  1. "Constitutiones Synodales dioecesis Leonensis, a Renato de Rieux Episcopo Leonensi promulgatae Paulipoli in Leoniâ" (Paris, 1630)
  2. "Pratique du droit canonique au gouvernement de l'Eglise, correction des moeurs, et distribution des bénéfices, le tout au style et usage de France" (Paris, 1634)
  3. "De Sacramentis ac Personis Sacris, earumque dignitate, obligationibus ac jure, juxta sacrarum litterarum testimonia, SS. Patrum sententias Canonum ac Conciliorum sanctiones, cum summariis, indice duplice, uno tractatuum et quaestionum, rerum altero. Theologiae moralis pars prima" (Paris, 1640) in fol.
  4. "Tractatus de censuris ecclesiasticis" (Paris, 1642), in fol.
  5. "Nova beneficiorum praxisæ" (Paris, 1649).

The second and third of these works are on the Index.

References

  1. ↑ Jean Orcibal Les origines du Jansénisme 1947 "Étienne Bauny, né en 1564 à Mouzon (Ardennes), entra en 1593 au noviciat des Jésuites. Il professa onze ans les humanités et la rhétorique,- seize ans la théologie morale et fut supérieur de Pontoise."
  2. ↑ "Etienne Bauny". Catholic Encyclopedia.
  • Franklin, J., The Science of Conjecture: Evidence and Probability Before Pascal (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), 97–98, 288.
  • Guilhermy, Menologe de la c. de J., Assistance de France, II, 559
  • Hugo von Hurter, Nomenclator, I, 494
  • Sommervogel, Bibliothèque de la c. de J., I, col. 1058.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Barrett, Timothy B. (1907). "Etienne Bauny". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

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