Guillaume François Berthier

Guillaume François Berthier (born April 7, 1704 in Issoudun , † December 15, 1782 in Bourges ) was a French Jesuit and publicist.

Life

He taught philosophy in Rennes and Rouen , then theology in Paris. From 1745 to 1762 he was editor of the Journal de Trévoux , the learned journal of the Jesuits. He led violent arguments with Voltaire and the encyclopedists . Voltaire let him die prematurely from the poison of his own writings in a satire. A book directed against Rousseau's Du Contrat social was not published until 1789; Berthier interrupted work on it when Rousseau's work was condemned anyway.

At the end of 1762, the heir to the throne appointed him librarian at the royal court library and tutor of his sons, the later kings Louis XVI. and Louis XVIII. When the property of the French Jesuits was confiscated in 1764, he settled in Offenburg . Ten years later he retired to Bourges .

From 1745 to 1749 he had written several volumes of a large-scale history of the French church ( Histoire de l'Église gallicane , vol. 13-18 covering the years 1320 to 1559). After his death, a psalm commentary, a work on the prophet Isaiah and Réflexions spiritual were published in five volumes from his estate .

Works

Histoire de l'Église gallicane , Vol. 13-18, Paris 1745-49. Google scan of vol. 18
Psaumes traduits en françois, avec des réflexions , 5 vols., Paris 1785.
Isaïe traduit en françois avec des notes et des réflexions , 5 vols., Paris 1788–89.
Observations sur le Contrat social de JJ Rousseau , Paris 1789. Google scan
Réflexions spirituelles , 5 vols., Paris 1790. Google scan of vol. 1 . A first edition appeared in 1750. The 4th vol. Partly in German as Reflections on Death , Munich 1839. Google scan

literature

Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz : Berthier, Guillaume-François. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 550. ( Article / beginning of article in the Internet archive )
Entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia

proof

^ Relation de la maladie, de la confession, de la mort, et de l'apparition du jésuite Berthier (“Report on the illness, confession, death and apparition of the Jesuit Berthier”), 1759, in: Voltaire, Facéties , Oevres complètes, t. 60 , Paris 1831, pp. 71-88

personal data
SURNAME	Berthier, Guillaume François
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	French Jesuit and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH	April 7, 1704
PLACE OF BIRTH	Issoudun
DATE OF DEATH	December 15, 1782
Place of death	Bourges

[1] Relation de la maladie, de la confession, de la mort, et de l'apparition du jésuite Berthier (“Report on the illness, confession, death and apparition of the Jesuit Berthier”), 1759, in: Voltaire, Facéties , Oevres complètes, t. 60 , Paris 1831, pp. 71-88