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Primat, Claude-Francois-Marie

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

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a French prelate, was born at Lyons July 26, 1747. He studied, at the expense of the Chapter of St. John, at Lyons, and entered the brotherhood of the Oratorians. From the college at Marseilles he went to that of Dijon, where he became professor of rhetoric and theology. At the age of twenty- eight he was ordained a priest, and became a successful preacher. In 1786 he was made curate of St. James at Douai. During the revolutionary agitation he gave his support to the republican cause by taking the required oath. He was made constitutional bishop of the North March 27, 1791, and established the seat of his episcopacy at Cam bray. He resigned office Nov. 13, 1793, and had even the weakness to return to the convention his letters of priesthood. But this step did not prevent him from presiding over a diocesan synod held at Lille in 1797. He assisted at the council held at Paris at the end of that year, and was transferred by his associates to the bishopric of Rhone and Loire Feb. 1798. At this time he composed a paper to justify his oath of hatred to royalty, which was found in the actions of that council. After the Concordat, he was chosen, April 9, 1802, archbishop of Toulouse, where by his mild measures he triumphed over all obstacles. As primate he was present at the coronation of Napoleon I, and the pallium was conferred upon him Jan. 16, 1805. He was finally chosen senator and count of the empire May 19, 1806; and during the Hundred Days he was called to a seat in the Chamber of Peers, June 4,1815. He died at Toulouse Oct. 10, 1816. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Gé neralé, s.v.