Pierre Parisot

Pierre Parisot (born February 9, 1703 in Bar-le-Duc , † July 28, 1769 in Commercy ) was a French clergyman and missionary in India. Actually Pierre Curel-Parisot, he was also known as Norbert de Bar-le-Duc, Norbert of Lorraine, and Père Norbert. He became known for his sharp attacks against the Jesuits.

Parisot was the son of a craftsman and first attended the Jesuit college in Bar-le-Duc, but then became a novice with the Capuchins of St. Mihiel. 1729 he received in Nancy the priesthood . In 1733/34 he traveled to Rome as the secretary of his provincial superior to attend the meeting of the general chapter . In 1736 he was appointed procurator of the foreign missions of France. In December 1736 he traveled to Pondichéry in French India , where he served in the mission for three years . There he soon got into a dispute with the Jesuits over jurisdiction and rite issues , which he attacked violently in a variety of writings. In 1741 he traveled to Rome again. Even after an audience with Pope Benedict , he continued to publish his views on the Jesuits. Although he thus became the protégé of anti-Jesuit cardinals, his writings came on the index in 1745 .

In the same year he was given permission to live outside the convent . He then lived in Italy, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, England and Switzerland, although he did not always change his place of residence voluntarily. He went bankrupt in England and was expelled from Holland and Neuchâtel . In Holland he is said to have temporarily joined a Masonic lodge .

In 1759 Parisot was laicized and subordinated to the Bishop of Toul . From August 1760 to May 1763 he worked in Lisbon as an assistant to the Portuguese Prime Minister Pombal , who had dissolved the Jesuit order in Portugal and Brazil in 1759 . During these years Parisot began a new edition of his work in seven volumes. It is unclear whether he was also involved in some of the many anti-Jesuit writings published in Portugal during this period. From 1763 he lived in seclusion in Paris and Lorraine . He died in Commercy on July 28, 1769.

His main work, “ Mémoires historiques sur les missions des Indes orientales ”, published in many different editions and editions, was widely read and made known despite multiple indexing .

source

This article is based on the short biography in the BBKL:

• Walter Troxler:  Pierre Parisot. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 6, Bautz, Herzberg 1993, ISBN 3-88309-044-1 , Sp. 1537-1540.