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ETIENNE BALUZE (1630-1718)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 298 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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See also:

ETIENNE See also:BALUZE (1630-1718)  , See also:French See also:scholar, was See also:born at See also:Tulle on the 24th of See also:November 163o . He was educated at his native See also:town and took See also:minor orders . As secretary to See also:Pierre de See also:Marca, See also:archbishop of See also:Toulouse, he won the appreciation of that learned See also:prelate to such a degree that at his See also:death Marca See also:left him all his papers . Thus it came about that See also:Baluze produced the first See also:complete edition of Marca's See also:treatise De libertatibus Ecclesiae Gallicanae (1663), and brought out his Marca hispanica (1688 f.) . About 1667 Baluze entered See also:Colbert's service, and until 1700 was in See also:charge of the invaluable library belonging to that See also:minister and to his son the See also:marquis de Seignelai . He enriched it prodigiously (see the See also:history of the Colbertine library in the See also:Cabinet See also:des Manuscrits by M . See also:Leopold See also:Delisle, vol. i.), and Colbert rewarded him by obtaining various benefices for him, and the See also:post of See also:king's See also:almoner (1679) . Subsequently Baluze was appointed See also:professor of See also:Canon See also:law at the See also:College de See also:France on the 31st of See also:December 1689, and directed that See also:great institution from 1707 to 1710 . The See also:works which See also:place him in the first See also:rank of the scholars of his See also:time are the Capitularia Regum Francorum (1674; new edition enlarged and corrected in 178o) ; the Nova Collectio Conciliorum (4 vols., 1677); the Miscellanea (7 vols., 1678-1715; new edition revised by Mansi, 4 vols. f., 1761-1764); the Letters of See also:Pope See also:Innocent III . (1682); and, finally, the Vitae Paparum Avenionensium, 1305-1394 (1693) . But he was unfortunate enough to take up the history of See also:Auvergne just at the time when the See also:cardinal de See also:Bouillon, inheritor of the rights, and above all of the ambitious pretensions of the La Tour See also:family, was endeavouring to prove the descent of that See also:house in the See also:direct See also:line from the See also:ancient hereditary See also:counts of Auvergne of the 9th See also:century . As See also:authentic documents in support of these pretensions could not be found, false ones were fabricated .

The See also:

production of See also:spurious genealogies had already been begun in the Histoire de la maison d'Auvergne published by Christophe Justel in 1645; and Chorier, the historian of Dauphiny, had included in the second See also:volume of his history (1672) a forged See also:deed which connected the La See also:Tours of Dauphiny with the La Tours of Auvergne . Next a See also:regular manufactory of forged documents was organized by a certain See also:Jean de See also:Bar, an intimate See also:companion of the cardinal . These rogues were skilful enough, for they succeeded in duping the most illustrious scholars; Dom Jean See also:Mabillon, the founder of Diplomatics, Dom See also:Thierry Ruinart and Baluze himself, called as experts, made a unanimously favourable See also:report on the 23rd of See also:July 1695 . But cardinal de Bouillon had many enemies, and a See also:war of See also:pamphlets began . In See also:March 1698 Baluze in reply wrote a See also:Letter which proved nothing . Two years later, in 1700, Jean de Bar and his accomplices were arrested, and after a See also:long and searching inquiry were declared guilty in 1704 . Baluze, nevertheless, was obstinate in his See also:opinion . He was convinced that the incriminated documents were genuine and proposed to do Justel's See also:work anew . Encouraged and financially supported by the cardinal de Bouillon, he first produced a Table genealogique in 1705, and then in 1709 a Histoire genealogique de la maison d' Auvergne, with " Proofs," among which, unfortunately, we find all the deeds which had been pronounced spurious . In the following See also:year he was suddenly engulfed in the disgrace which overtook his intriguing See also:patron: deprived of his appointments, See also:pensions and benefices, he was exiled far from See also:Paris . None the less he continued to work, and in 1717 published a history of his native town, Historiae Tutelensis libri tres . Before his death he succeeded in returning to Paris, where he died unconvinced of his errors on the 28th of July 1718 .

Was he dupe or See also:

accomplice ? The study of his See also:correspondence with the cardinal gives the impression that he was the victim of See also:clever cheats . The history of the forgeries committed in the interests of the house of Bouillon forms a curious and instructive See also:episode in the history of French scholarship in the time of See also:Louis XIV . It is to be found in the See also:Manuel de diplomatique by A . See also:Giry; and above all in a See also:note to the Euvres de See also:Saint-See also:Simon by M. de Boislisle (vol. xiv. pp . 533–558) . The bibliography of Baluze's researches has been made by M . Rene Fage (1882, 1884) and his See also:Life told by M . Emile Fage (1899) . To these we must add an amusing See also:book by G . See also:Clement-Simon, La Gaiete de Baluze; documents biographiques et litteraires (1888) . Baluze's will has been published by M .

Leopold Delisle (Bibliotheque de l'Ecole de See also:

Charles, 1872) ; his papers are now in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, and in the Bibliotheque de 1'See also:Arsenal (Revue historique, t. xcviii. p . 309) . See also the See also:article by See also:Arthur de Boislisle in the Revue des questions historiques for See also:October 1908 . (C .

End of Article: ETIENNE BALUZE (1630-1718)
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