Pierre Thomas, sieur du Fossé (1634–1698) was a French scholar and author, and was the son of a master of accounts at

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

. He was sent as a child to be educated to the

Jansenist Jansenism was a 17th- and 18th-century theological movement within Roman Catholicism, primarily active in France, which arose as an attempt to reconcile the theological concepts of free will and divine grace in response to certain development ...

s at

Port-Royal des Champs Port-Royal-des-Champs () was an abbey of Cistercian nuns in Magny-les-Hameaux, in the Vallée de Chevreuse southwest of Paris that launched a number of culturally important institutions. History The abbey was established in 1204, but became ...

. There he received his bent towards the life of a recluse, and even of a hermit, which drew him to establish himself in the neighborhood of

. There he associated with

Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont (30 November 163710 January 1698) was a French ecclesiastical historian. Life He was born in Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, l ...

, Antoine Singlin,

Robert Arnauld d'Andilly Robert Arnauld d’Andilly (28 May 1589 – 27 September 1674, abbaye de Port-Royal-des-Champs)Jean Lesaulnier et Anthony McKenna dir., ''Dictionnaire de Port-Royal'', Paris, Honoré Champion, 2004, notice "Robert Arnauld d’Andilly", p. 108. w ...

and

Antoine Le Maistre Antoine Le Maistre (2 May 1608 – 4 November 1658) was a French Jansenist lawyer, author and translator. His name has also been written as Lemaistre and Le Maître, and he sometimes used the pseudonym of Lamy. Background and early life Le ...

. In 1661 he came to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, and in 1666 was arrested along with

Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy (29 March 1613 – 4 January 1684), a priest of Port-Royal, was a theologian and French humanist. He is best known for his translation of the Bible, the most widespread French Bible in the 18th century, also known a ...

, and after a month in the

Bastille The Bastille (, ) was a fortress in Paris, known as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. It was stormed by a ...

was exiled to his estate of Fossé near

Forges-les-Eaux Forges-les-Eaux () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France. On 1 January 2016, the former commune of Le Fossé was merged into Forges-les-Eaux. Geography A farming and spa town, with considerabl ...

. He later made yearly visits to Paris during the winter months. Apart from his collaboration with de Sacy on a French translation of the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

, Thomas wrote some

hagiographic A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an wiktionary:adulatory, adulatory and idealized biography of a preacher, priest, founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religi ...

works and left ''Mémoires'' (1697–1698 and again 1876–1879), which are highly praised by

Sainte-Beuve Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (; 23 December 1804 – 13 October 1869) was a French literary critic. Early life He was born in Boulogne, educated there, and studied medicine at the Collège Charlemagne in Paris (1824–27). In 1828, he se ...

as being a remarkable mirror of the life at Port-Royal. He also wrote under the

pseudonyme A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's ow ...

s Pierre Thomas Beaulieu and Pierre Thomas La Motte.

Notes

References

Pierre Thomas du Fossé Pierre Thomas, sieur du Fossé (1634–1698) was a French scholar and author, and was the son of a master of accounts at Rouen. He was sent as a child to be educated to the Jansenists at Port-Royal des Champs. There he received his bent towards ...

at the

French Wikipedia The French Wikipedia () is the French-language edition of Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. This edition was started on 23 March 2001, two months after the official creation of Wikipedia. It has :fr:Special:Statistics, encyclopedia artic ...

(visited March 16, 2009) ;Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Pierre 1634 births 1698 deaths French scholars French memoirists Jansenists Writers from Rouen French male non-fiction writers 17th-century French memoirists