Tellier, Michael Le

Tellier, Michael le a Jesuit and father confessor to Louis XIV, was born at Vire, in Normandy, in 1643. He entered the Order of Jesuits in his eighteenth year, and at first devoted himself to historical studies, whose fruit was an edition of Quintus Curtius in 1678; but he eventually engaged in theology, becoming one of the most violent opponents of the Jansenists. In 1672, 1675, and 1684 he published fulminations against the Mons (properly Amsterdam) version of the Bible by De Sacy and other Port-Royalists. He co-operated with father Bouhours in his translation of the Scriptures, however, and zealously defended the Jesuit missionaries to China against the well-founded complaints raised against them. In. 1699 he issued a Histoire des Cinq Propositions de Jansenius under the name of Dumas, and in 1705 he assailed; Quesnel (q.v.) as a rebel and heretic. He now became provincial of his order, and in 1709 confessor to the king. In the latter capacity he succeeded in inducing the king to procure from pope Clement XI the condemnation of the New Test. with Quesnel's notes. The bull Unigenitus, which occasioned so much controversy in France, and was forcibly executed by the king, is to be charged primarily upon Tellier. His dominion ended, however, in 1715, on the death of Louis, and he was removed first to Amiens and afterwards to La Fleche. He died at the latter place in 1719. — Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s.v.