Pierre Brugière
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Pierre Brugière (3 October 1730 – 7 November 1803) was a French priest and Jansenist, who supported the French Revolution and the reforms it sought to bring to bear on the Catholic Church.
Biography
Brugière was born at
Brugière gladly took the Constitutional Oath on the day fixed, 9 Jan., 1791, as required by the
Brugière's preaching placed him in the hands of the revolutionary tribunal, and it was while he was imprisoned he wrote to his followers the Lettre d'un cure du fond de sa prison à ses paroissiens (1793). Set at liberty, he continued his pastoral ministrations in spite of the charge of treasonable conduct, a dangerous thing in those days. But his ministrations were of a novel kind. Mass was said and the sacraments were administered by him in French, and in support of that singularity an appeal was made to the people, Appel au peuple francais (1798)
Brugière had rebuked the bishops who condemned the oath. He had likewise rebuked the priests who married. Now he was no less violent against the "Jurors" (those who had signed the oath) who began to retract. He attended the two councils of 1797 and 1801 which were trying hard to sustain the faltering Constitutional Church, and he founded a society for its protection: Société de philosophie chrétienne. Even after the promulgation of the Concordat of 1801 he clung to the then dead Constitutional Church. He died in Paris.
Works
Besides the works already mentioned, Brugière wrote a number of pamphlets and left many sermons which were published after his death: Instructions choisies (Paris, 1804). Two contemporaries, the Abbé Massy and the Christian Brother Renaud, wrote his life under the title Mémoire apologétique de Pierre Brugière (Paris, 1804).
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pierre Brugière". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.