Michel Le Quien
Encyclopedia
Michel Le Quien was a French historian and theologian. He studied at Plessis College, Paris, and at twenty entered the Benedictine
Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés
, where he made his profession
in 1682. Excepting occasional short absences he never left Paris. At the time of his death he was librarian of the convent in Rue Saint-Honoré, a position which he had filled almost all his life, lending assistance to those who sought information on theology and ecclesiastical antiquity. Under the supervision of Père Marsollier he mastered the classical languages, Arabic, and Hebrew, to the detriment, it seems, of his mother-tongue.
His chief works, in chronological order, are:
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés
The Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, just beyond the outskirts of early medieval Paris, was the burial place of Merovingian kings of Neustria...
, where he made his profession
Profession (religious)
The term religious profession is defined in the 1983 Code of Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church in relation to members of religious institutes as follows:By religious profession members make a public vow to observe the three evangelical counsels...
in 1682. Excepting occasional short absences he never left Paris. At the time of his death he was librarian of the convent in Rue Saint-Honoré, a position which he had filled almost all his life, lending assistance to those who sought information on theology and ecclesiastical antiquity. Under the supervision of Père Marsollier he mastered the classical languages, Arabic, and Hebrew, to the detriment, it seems, of his mother-tongue.
His chief works, in chronological order, are:
- Défense du texte hébreu et de la version vulgate (Paris, 1690), reprinted in MigneMignéMigné is a commune in the Indre department in central France.-References:*...
, Scripturae Sacrae Cursus, III (Paris 1861), 1525-84. It is an answer to L'antiquité des temps rétablie by the Cistercian Paul Pezron (1638–1706), who took the text of the Septuagint as sole basis for his chronology. Pezron replied, and was again answered by Le Quien. - Johannis DamasceniJohn of DamascusSaint John of Damascus was a Syrian monk and priest...
opera omnia Greek text with Latin translation (2 vols. fol., Paris, 1712) in Migne Patrologia Graeca, XCIV-VI. To this fundamental edition he added excellent dissertations; a third volume, which was to have contained other works of the great Damascene and various studies on him, was never completed. - Panoplia contra schisma Graecorum, under the pseudonym of Stephanus de Altimura Ponticencis (Paris, 1718), a refutation of the Peri arches tou Papa of Patriarch Nectarius of Jerusalem, Le Quien maintained, with historical proofs derived chiefly from the Orient, the primacy of the pope.
- La nullité des ordinations anglicanes (2 vols., Paris, 1725), and La nullité des ordinationes anglicanes démontrée de nouveau (2 vols., Paris, 1730), against Pierre François le CourayerPierre François le CourayerPierre François le Courayer was a French Catholic theological writer, for many years an expatriate in England.-Life:Pierre François le Courayer was born at Rouen...
's apology for Anglican Orders. - Various articles on archaeology and ecclesiastical history, published by Desmolets (Paris, 1726-31).
- Oriens christianus in quatuor patriarchatus digestus, in quo exhibentur Ecclesiae patriarchae caeterique praesules totius Orientis, published posthumously (3 vols., Paris, 1740). Le Quien contemplated issuing this work as early as 1722, and had made a contract with the printer Simart (Revue de l'Orient latinRevue de l'Orient LatinThe Revue de l'Orient latin is a 12-volume set of medieval documents which was published from 1893-1911. It was a continuation of the Archives de l'Orient latin, two volumes of which were published from 1881 - 1884. Various medieval documents and letters are often cited in other scholarly works...
, 1894, II, 190). In editing it, he used the notes of the Benedictine Sainte-Marthes, who had projected an "Orbis Christianus", and had obligingly handed him over their notes on the Orient and Africa. The "Oriens Christianus", as projected by Le Quien, was to comprise not only the hierarchy of the four Greek and Latin patriarchates of ConstantinopleConstantinopleConstantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
, AlexandriaAlexandriaAlexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
, AntiochAntiochAntioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...
, and Jerusalem, and that of the JacobiteSyriac Orthodox ChurchThe Syriac Orthodox Church; is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church based in the Eastern Mediterranean, with members spread throughout the world. The Syriac Orthodox Church claims to derive its origin from one of the first Christian communities, established in Antioch by the Apostle St....
, MelkiteMelkiteThe term Melkite, also written Melchite, refers to various Byzantine Rite Christian churches and their members originating in the Middle East. The word comes from the Syriac word malkāyā , and the Arabic word Malakī...
, Nestorian, Maronite, and Armenian patriarchPatriarchOriginally a patriarch was a man who exercised autocratic authority as a pater familias over an extended family. The system of such rule of families by senior males is called patriarchy. This is a Greek word, a compound of πατριά , "lineage, descent", esp...
ates, but also the Greek and Latin texts of the various Notitiae episcopatuumNotitiae EpiscopatuumThe Notitiae Episcopatuum are official documents that furnish Eastern countries the list and hierarchical rank of the metropolitan and suffragan bishoprics of a church....
, a catalogue of the Eastern and African monasteries, and also the hierarchy of the African Church. The last three parts of this gigantic project were set aside by Le Quien's literary heirs. His notes on Christian Africa and its monasteries have never been used at least in their entirety. - "Abrégé de l'histoire de Boulogne-sur-Mer et ses comtes" in Desmolets, "Mémoires de littérature", X (Paris, 1749), 36-112.