DU PIN, LOUIS ELLIES

A prolific and influential Gallican theologian. b. Paris, June 17, 1657; d. Paris, June 6, 1719. Du Pin was doctor of theology of the Faculty of Paris, July 1, 1684 and Professor of Philosophy (1693) at the Collège Royal. The first volumes of his Nouvelle Bibliothèque des Auteurs ecclésiastiques (some 60 vols, 1686–1719) were considered too critical of the early Christian centuries and aroused opposition, notably from J. B. Bossuet and R. Simon. He was censured by the Archbishop of Paris (1693), but continued writing the Bibliothèque, which was put on the Index in 1757. Banished from Paris in 1704 for alleged Jansenism, he was removed from his Regius Professorship, but remained a respected and influential member of the Faculty of Theology. He was involved in the religious affairs of his age, especially in opposition to the Bull Unigenitus. Interested in Christian reunion, he took part in two projects involving other members of the Faculty of Theology: a proposal for union between the Russian and French Churches, in 1717, and a correspondence with the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Wake (1718–1719).

Besides his historical writings, his main works are theological and biblical: De Antiqua Ecclesiæ Disciplina (1686), Traité de la doctrine chrétienne (1703), put on the Index in 1688 et 1704, and Prolégomènes sur la Bible (1699). He also edited the works of St Optatus of Milevis (1700) and J. Gerson (1706).

Bibliography: p. pierling, La Sorbonne et la Russie (Paris 1882). n. sykes, William Wake (Cambridge 1957). j. m. gresgayer, "Un théologien gallican, témoin de son temps: Louis Ellies Du Pin (1657–1719)," Revue d'Histoire de l'Église de France, 72 (1986), 67–121; Paris-Cantorbéry (1717–1720): Le Dossier d'un premier œcuménisme (Paris 1989); "Un théologien gallican et l'Écriture sainte: le 'Projet biblique' de L. Ellies Du Pin," in j. r. armogathe ed., Le Grand Siècle et la Bible (Paris 1989), 255–275; "Le gallicanisme de L. Ellies Du Pin," Lias 18 (1991), 37–82; Théologie et pouvoir en Sorbonne. La Faculté de Théologie de Paris et la bulle Unigenitus, 1714–1721 (Paris 1991). j. h. hayes, ed., Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation (Nashville 1999).

[j. m. gres-gayer]