Jean-Joseph Languet de Gergy


Jean-Joseph Languet de Gergy was a Catholic French bishop and theologian. He was first bishop of Soissons and then archbishop of Sens. He was a member of the Académie française.

Biography

Son of the public prosecutor of the parlement of Bourgogne, Languet de Gercy was a protégé of Jacques Bénigne Bossuet. Bossuet introduced him to King Louis XIV of France who appointed him chaplain to his grandson's wife, Marie-Adélaïde of Savoy.
Languet de Gercy was the general vicar of the diocese of Autun, which includes the parish of Paray-le-Monial where Saint Marguerite Marie Alacoque is buried. Ordered to investigate the miracles that were said to have occurred at her hand, he wrote a biography of Alacoque in 1729.
Languet de Gercy was named bishop of Soissons in 1715, and elected member of l'Académie française in 1721. He was also named archbishop of Sens in 1730 and a member of the Conseil d'État in 1747.
Languet de Gergy's work on the life of Alacoque was violently attacked by the Jansenists opposed to the Catholic devotion of the Sacred Heart. Also defender of the papal bull Unigenitus, he participated in numerous political-religious controversies, and was equally known for both the content of his pamphlets, and their number. He belonged to the parti des dévots opposed to the philosophies of the Age of Enlightenment and fought fiercely against the candidacies of Montesquieu and Voltaire to l'Académie française.
In addition to his treatises and religious pamphlets, Languet de Gergy was the author of books on the Divine Office, catechism, and of pastoral letters.

Publications

  • Du Véritable esprit de l'Église dans l'usage de ses cérémonies, ou Réfutation du traité de D. Cl. de Vert intitulé : « Explication simple et historique des cérémonies de l'Église »
  • Traité de la confiance en la miséricorde de Dieu, augmenté d'un Traité du faux bonheur des gens du monde et du vrai bonheur de la vie chrétienne. Online Text, in French:
  • La Vie de la vénérable Mère Marguerite-Marie, religieuse de la Visitation Sainte Marie du monastère de Paray-le-Monial en Charolais, morte en odeur de sainteté en 1690
  • Traité sur les moyens de connaître la vérité dans l'Église
  • Recueil d’écrits polémiques
  • Mémoires inédits de Languet de Gergy, archevêque de Sens. In La Famille d'Aubigné et l'enfance de Madame de Maintenon by Théophile Lavallée.