Louis Maimbourg

Louis Maimbourg (Latin: Ludovicus Mamburgus; January 10, 1610, Nancy – August 13, 1686, Paris) was a French Jesuit and historian.

Biography

Born at Nancy, Maimbourg entered the Society of Jesus at the age of sixteen, and after studying at Rome became a classical master in the Jesuit college at Rouen. He afterwards devoted himself to preaching, but with only moderate success. After having taken some part in minor controversies he threw himself with energy into the dispute which had arisen as to the Gallican liberties; for his Traité historique de l'établissement et des prérogatives de l'Eglise de Rome et de ses évêques (1682) he was by command of Innocent XI expelled from the Society, but rewarded by Louis XIV with a residence at the abbey of St Victor, Paris, and a pension.

Works

His numerous works include histories of Arianism, the iconoclast controversy, the Great Schism of 1054, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, Calvinism, and of the pontificates of Leo I and Gregory I. These works are compilations, written in a very lively and attractive style, but noted for their inaccuracies. His work on the Crusades, Histoire des Croisades pour la délivrance de la Terre Sainte (1675), was a populist and royalist history of the Crusades from 1195 to 1220, and is regarded as the first use of the term "crusade". It was translated into English in 1684 by historian John Nalson. His Histoire du calvinisme (1682) agitated French Catholics against French Protestants, provoking a ferocious response from Pierre Jurieu (1683) and a calm demolition of his historical method by Pierre Bayle in his Critique général de l’histoire du calvinisme de Maimbourg (1682).

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Louis Maimbourg — French church historian, b. at Nancy, 10 January, 1610; d. at Paris, 13 August, 1686. In 1626 he entered the Society of Jesus, taught rhetoric and humanities for six years, and subsequently won considerable fame as a preacher. He is now known, however, more particularly as a prolific historical writer, an opponent of Jansenism and Protestantism, and a defender of "the Liberties of the GaIIican Church" against the Apostolic See. Owing to his defence of Gallicanism, Pope Innocent XI ordered his expulsion from the Society of Jesus (1681). When he left the order, in 1682, Louis XIV granted him a pension, and until his death he continued his literary pursuits in the Abbey of St. Victor, Paris. His works, remarkable for their elegant diction, are of little value, because somewhat untrustworthy. Among the most important of them are: (1) "Histoire de l'Arianisme" (Paris, 1673), (2) "Histoire de l'hérésie des Iconoclastes" (Paris, 1674); (3) "Histoire des Croisades" (Paris, 1675); (4) "Histoire du schisme des Grecs" (Paris, 1678). The following works by him were placed on the "Index of Forbidden Books": (1) "Histoire de la décadence de l'empire depuis Charlemagne" (Paris, 1676), (2) "Histoire du grand schisme d'Occident" (Paris, 1678); (3) "Histoire du Luthéranisme" (Paris, 1680); (4) "Traité historique de l'établissement et des prérogatives de l'église de Rome et de ses évêques" (Paris, 1685); (5) "Histoire du Pontificat de S. Grégoire le Grand" (Paris, 1686). He is the author of histories of Calvinism, of the League, and of Leo the Great. His collected historical works were published at Paris, 1686.

SOMMERVOGEL, Bibliotheque de la Compagnie de Jesus, V (Paris, 1894), 343-56; HUNTER in Kirchenlex. s. v.: CHALMERS, BiographicaI Dictionary, XXI (London, 1815), 143-45.

External links

• The History of the League 1684 by Louis Maimbourg, translated by John Dryden
• The History of Arianism translated (1728) Vol 1
• The History of Arianism translated (1728) Vol2
• Louis Maimbourg in the Historical Archives of the Pontifical Gregorian University