Eusèbe Renaudot (French pronunciation:[øzɛbʁənodo]; 20 July 1646 – 1 September 1720) was a Frenchtheologian andOrientalist.[1]
Renaudot was born inParis, and brought up and educated for a career in the church. After being educated by the Jesuits, and joining the Oratorians in 1666, he was in poor health, left his order, and never took more thanminor orders.[2] Despite his interest intheology and his title ofabbé, much of his life was spent at the French court, where he attracted the notice ofColbert and was often employed in confidential affairs.[3]
He was a prominent supporter ofJacques-Bénigne Bossuet, in the controversies withRichard Simon,François Fénelon and the Jesuits. In later life his attitudes becameGallican andJansenist. He became a member of theAcadémie française (1689), theAcademy of Inscriptions (1691), and theAccademia della Crusca of Florence.[2]
The learning in Eastern languages which he acquired in his youth and maintained amid the distractions of court life did not bear fruit until he was sixty-two.[3]
Renaudot's best-known books areHistoria Patriarcharum Alexandrinorum (Paris, 1713 which is translation of original work bySeverus Ibn al-Muqaffa) andLiturgiarum orientalium collectio (2 vols., 1715–16). The latter argued for continuous Christian belief in thesacraments, the topic on which most of his theological writings turned, and which was then, in consequence of the controversies attaching toAntoine Arnauld'sPerpétuité de la foy de l'Église, a major matter of debate between FrenchCatholics andProtestants.[3]
Other works wereGennadii Patriarchae Constantinopolitani Homiliae de Eucharistia (Paris, 1709) andAnciennes relations des Indes et de la Chine (Paris, 1718,see fr).[2]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Renaudot, Eusèbe".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 96.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Eusebius Renaudot".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.