Liévin-Bonaventure Proyart
Liévin-Bonaventure Proyar (13 February 1743 – 23 March 1808) was a French Roman Catholic priest, historian and biographer.
Biography
Liévin-Bonaventure was born in Douchy-lès-Ayette, a village in the present-day canton of Croisilles, 14 kilometers from Arras. He studied at the school of Saint-Quentin and then at the seminary of Saint-Louis in Paris. He embraced the ecclesiastical state and devoted himself to teaching, becoming sub-principal of the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, delegated to the scholarship holders of Arras, where one of his pupil was Maximilien de Robespierre. From there, he moved to the college of Le Puy-en-Velay as principal; where he had for pupil the future Baron de Vitrolles, whose uncle, the Abbot de Pina, was vicar general of the diocese. Under Proyart direction, the Lycée of Puy became one of the most flourishing schools in the kingdom.
Recalled to the diocese of Arras by the Bishop, Louis-Hilaire de Conzié, he emigrated at the time of the Revolution, passing through Belgium and Germany. Residing with the Prince of Hohenlohe-Bartenstein, in Franconia, he became his ecclesiastical advisor.
Back in France under the Consulate, after the promulgation of the Concordat, he retired to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where he completed a work entitled: Louis XVI et ses vertus aux prises avec la perversité de son siècle, published in 1808, in which he expressed his attachment to Louis XVI and the Bourbon family and his abhorrence of the Revolution and the philosophes. The work was banned and its author imprisoned in Bicêtre. He remained there for a short time, before being taken to Arras, where he died, on his arrival, on March 23, 1808.[1]
In writing the biography of the Dauphin, son of Louis XV, and that of Stanislas Leszczynski, he intended to prove the truth of the Christian religion and the superiority of the monarchical system by the picture of the virtues of these two princes.[2]
In popular culture
In Robert Enrico's 1989 film The French Revolution, Abbot Proyart is portrayed by Jean-Claude Bourlat.
See also
Works
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- L'Écolier vertueux, ou Vie édifiante de Décalogne, écolier de l'université de Paris (1772)
- Le Modèle des jeunes gens, ou Vie de Souzi le Pelletier (1772)
- Histoire de Loango, Kakongo et autres royaumes d’Afrique (1776)
- Vie du Dauphin, père de Louis XVI (1777)
- De l'Éducation publique et des moyens d'en réaliser la réforme (1781)
- Vie du Dauphin, père de Louis XV (1782)
- Histoire de Stanislas, roi de Pologne, duc de Lorraine et de Bar (1784)
- Discours à lire au Conseil, en présence du Roi, par un ministre patriote, sur le projet d'accorder l'État Civil aux Protestants (comprenant les discours de Jacques-Julien Bonnaud, Alexandre Charles Anne Lenfant et Liévin-Bonaventure Proyart) (1787)
- Vie de M. de la Mothe d’Orléans, évêque d'Amiens (1788)
- Préservatif pour ma famille contre les dangers du schisme, Paris, Imprimerie de Laurens jeune (1792)
- Aux citoyens francais, assemblées en Convention-nationale a Paris (1792)
- Vie de la reine de France, Marie Lesksinska, princesse de Pologne (1794)
- Vie et crimes de Robespierre surnommé le Tyran, depuis sa naissance jusqu'à sa mort (sous le nom de Le Blond de Neuvéglise, colonel d'infanterie légère) (1795)
- Louis XVI détrôné avant d'être roi, ou Tableau des causes nécessitantes de la Révolution française et de l'ébranlement de tous les trônes ; faisant partie intégrante d'une Vie de Louis XVI qui suivra, Mannheim (1800)
- Louis XVI et ses vertus aux prises avec la perversité de son siècle (1808)
- Vie de Madame Louise de France : religieuse carmélite, fille de Louis XV (1808)
Translated into English
- The Life of John Mary Decalogne, Student in the University of Paris (1799)
- The Virtuous Scholar ; Or, Edifying Life of a Student in the University of Paris (1801)
- History of Loango, Kakongo, and Other Kingdoms in Africa (1804)
- The Model of the Young Men Or, Edifying Life of Claude Le Peletier de Sousi (1805)
- The Life of Madame Louise, a Carmelite Nun, and a Daughter of Louis XV, King of France (1807)
Notes
References
- G. L., "L'Abbe Proyart Emule et Contemporain de Barruel," Bulletin de la Societe Augustin Barruel, No. 8, pp. 14–20.
