Jean-Baptiste Cotelier or Cotelerius (born December, 1629,

Nîmes Nîmes ( , ; ; Latin: ''Nemausus'') is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Gard Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region of Southern France. Located between the Med ...

; died 19 August 1686, Paris) was a

Patristic Patristics, also known as Patrology, is a branch of theological studies focused on the writings and teachings of the Church Fathers, between the 1st to 8th centuries CE. Scholars analyze texts from both orthodox and heretical authors. Patristics em ...

scholar and Catholic theologian.

Life

His early education was under the personal direction of his father, at one time a

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

minister, but later a convert to Catholicism. He was reportedly able to interpret the Bible in the original Hebrew and Greek before the

General Assembly of the French clergy The assembly of the French clergy (''assemblée du clergé de France'') was in its origins a representative meeting of the Catholic clergy of France, held every five years, for the purpose of apportioning the financial burdens laid upon the clergy ...

Mantes Mantes-la-Jolie (, often informally called Mantes) is a Communes of France, commune in the Yvelines Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region of north-central France. It is located to the west of Paris, f ...

(1641); he made such a favourable impression on the clergy that they increased his father's pension. During the period of his theological studies at Paris (1641–47), Cotelier's intellectual qualities procured for him an introduction to the king (1644). He graduated as bachelor in theology in 1647 at the Sorbonne, of which he became a member in 1648, though he never received priestly ordination. In 1654, he accompanied Georges d'Aubusson de la Feuillade,

Archbishop of Embrun The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Embrun was a Catholic jurisdiction located in southeastern France, in the mountains of the Maritime Alps, on a route that led from Gap by way of Briançon to Turin. It had as suffragans the Diocese of Digne, Di ...

, to his

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, and became his counsellor. He returned, in 1659, to Paris and again devoted himself to study. With the

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

Du Cange Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange (; December 18, 1610 in Amiens – October 23, 1688 in Paris, aged 77), also known simply as Charles Dufresne, was a distinguished French philologist and historian of the Middle Ages and Byzantium. Life Educate ...

he was commissioned in 1667 by Minister Colbert to investigate and catalogue the Greek manuscripts of the Royal Library. In 1676 he was appointed professor of the Greek language in the Collège Royal in Paris.

Works

The editions of ancient writings prepared by Cotelier were, in chronological order: #''Homiliæ quatuor in Psalmos et interpretatio prophetiæ Danielis, græce et latine'' (Paris, 1661). He attributed these unpublished

homilies A homily (from Greek ὁμιλία, ''homilía'') is a commentary that follows a reading of scripture, giving the "public explanation of a sacred doctrine" or text. The works of Origen and John Chrysostom (known as Paschal Homily) are considered e ...

John Chrysostom John Chrysostom (; ; – 14 September 407) was an important Church Father who served as archbishop of Constantinople. He is known for his preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and p ...

; other critics, owing to the diversity of style, have held a different opinion. #''SS. Patrum qui temporibus apostolicis floruerunt, Barnabæ, Clementis, Hermæ, Ignatii, Polycarpi opera edita et non edita, vera et supposita, græce et latine, cum notis'' (Paris, 1672). This is Cotelier's principal work. From its title was derived the designation of

Apostolic Fathers The Apostolic Fathers, also known as the Ante-Nicene Fathers, were core Christian theologians among the Church Fathers who lived in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD who are believed to have personally known some of the Twelve Apostles or to have be ...

for the earliest non-inspired Christian writers. Most of the copies of the work were consumed by a fire in the Collège Montaigu in Paris. Two revised editions were published by Jean Leclerc, one in

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(1698), the other in

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(1724). Reprints of this last edition are found in

Migne Jacques Paul Migne (; 25 October 1800 – 24 October 1875) was a French priest who published inexpensive and widely distributed editions of theological works, encyclopedias, and the texts of the Church Fathers, with the goal of providing a ...

, P. G., I, II, V. #''Ecclesiæ Græcæ Monumenta, græce et latine'' (Paris, 1677, 1681, 1686). The third volume of this series was published two days before the author's death. He had collected materials for a fourth volume which was edited (1688) by the

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Bernard de Montfaucon Dom Bernard de Montfaucon, O.S.B. (; 13 January 1655 – 21 December 1741) was a French Benedictine monk of the Congregation of Saint Maur. He was an astute scholar who founded the discipline of palaeography, as well as being an editor of w ...

, and Lopin, and is sometimes known as ''Analecta Græca''. Cotelier also left several volumes of manuscripts, mainly on Christian antiquities, that were preserved in the

Bibliothèque Nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

References

*BALUZE, ''Letter to Bigot'', in COTELIER-LECLERC, ''Patres Apostolici'' (Amsterdam, 1724). I, after the preface * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cotelier, J 1629 births 1686 deaths University of Paris alumni 17th-century French Catholic theologians