Pierre Dupont de Pursat – Wikipedia

Pierre Dupont de Pursat or Dupont-Poursat (Chabanese (Charente Limousine), June 3, 1761 – Coutances (Manche), September 17, 1835 ), is a French prelate of XVIII ^{It is} And XIX ^{It is} centuries.

Bishop of Coutances, he was the brother of the generals of Empire Dupont de Chaumont and Dupont de l’Etang, as well as the maternal grand-uncle of Sadi Carnot (1837-1894), President of the French Republic (1887-1894).

Pierre Dupont-Poursat was born in Chabanais, diocese of Angoulême, the June 3, 1761 , within “A rich and honorable family ^{[ first ]} » . After doing good studies in the colleges of Magnac-Laval and Harcourt, he made his theology license at the Thirty-Trois seminar.

He is ordained a priest before the French Revolution, and takes the oath required by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. He became director of the Saint-Louis seminar (1791-1792 ^{[ first ]} ).

Withdrawn within his family, in Chabanese, he crossed the Revolution exempt from persecution, thanks to the protection of his brothers, the generals Dupont, who commanded the armies of the Republic.

In 1802, he was appointed grand vicar of the new bishop of Angoulême, Dominique Lacombe, above the constitutional bishop of the Gironde. “It seems that he only bore the name: called to lend his assistance to another Grand-Vicary, taken from the sworn priests, […] such a position did not please him, and he stood away ; But without protesting: what he was wrong, because this title alone had to be infinitely harmful to him, in public opinion ^{[Ref. to confirm] [ first ]} . »

In 1807, the protection of his brothers allowed him to be appointed, on the proposal of Napoleon I ^is , at the bishopric of Trier, replacing M ^gr Charles Mannay (transferred to Coutances), then to Coutances, replacing this same prelate, who preferred to stay in Trier. M ^gr Dupont-Poursat is therefore named the May 7, 1807 At the head of the new diocese of Coutances, formed in 1802 by meeting of the former diocese of Coutances and the former diocese of Avranches. Recommended the ‘ III August Nones ^{[ first ]} » (the August 3, 1807 ), its episcopal consecration takes place in the cathedral of Coutances the January 6, 1808 . He is ordered bishop by Claude François Marie Primate, archbishop of Toulouse assisted by Claude André (bishop of Quimper) and Fabien-Sébastien Imberties (bishop of Autun).

Bishop of Coutances [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

His predecessor, despite the best will and such great personal means, left him a lot to do! His episcopate had to be long, but he was filled. His first occupation was to browse his vast diocese, to get to know him, and “To distribute the gifts of the Holy Spirit everywhere ^{[ first ]} » , by means of the confirmation sacrament.

His second thought was for the temporal of his church: redesigns the administration of factories everywhere, teach the marguilliers the forms and the use of regular accounts, forcing them to severe accuracy; Rendering its external decency to worship, and for that, forcing the factories to provide the furniture, the vases, the necessary ornaments, was the stubborn work of several years. Happy enough to meet in the offices of the prefecture, which was still in Coutances at that time, a priest well aware of the accounts, and the forms of the new administration, he made it his secretary, and this secretary helped him powerfully ; His name was Mr. Ozouf.

The visit of his diocese, of which he traveled annually a arrondissement, as long as age gave him power, and the menus details of the administration occupied, from the beginning to the end, the episcopate of this bishop, whose character “Soft and peaceful ^{[ first ]} » was able to submit to the necessities of the circumstances, and sometimes draw an advantageous side.

Napoleon I ^is The Créa Baron de l’Empire in 1810, and gave him, in 1811, he received the decoration of the Legion of Honor.

“He was good with the Empire, he was good with the restoration. The July Revolution unfolded him ^{[ first ]} » , however he kept peace, and maintained his diocese in peace. Napoleon granted him in 1808 the title of Baron de l’Empire. Convened in 1811 to the Council of Paris, Dupont resisted the insinuations of power: he was neither in his tastes nor in his means of resisting by open force, but he was silent; “It was a lot already to dare not to approve the schismatic wishes of the dominator ^{[ first ]} » .

We can see the proof of his respect for power in the following circular, that he sent the April 13, 1815 , during the Hundred Days, to the priests of his diocese. “”

“I barely learn only a few of MM. The priests of the diocese have allowed themselves in the exercise of their functions to demonstrate political opinions contrary to the existing government. This very reprehensible conduct was reported to the higher authority; And she would have already attracted to those who have held her, rigor measures and a severe punishment, if indulgence with regard to the culprits would not have hoped that similar faults would no longer be renewed … you find , in the immortal epistles of St.-Paul, all that eternal wisdom prescribes in this regard for the maintenance of governments of which God is the first author. Submission, the accuracy to pay taxes and public charges, prayers for the prosperity of the State, this is what God demands from all subjects with regard to the princes that govern. That anyone, This St. Paul, be subject to the upper powers! For there is no power that does not come from God; And all those who are, exist by his order: to resist power is to resist the order of God. ^{[ 2 ]} »

In 1817, requested by the government to resign from the siege of Coutances, he took the way of writing to the Sovereign Pontiff to consult him, and he received in response an honorable brief, who commanded him not to give it.

United with feelings with the other members of the French episcopate, all their steps were common to this prelate. With them, he claimed against the royal ordinance which came in 1828 to throw trouble in the small seminars; With them, he then condemned the philosophical doctrines of M. de la Menais, from which he was personally adversary; With the greatest number, he submitted without opposition to the requirements of power out of the July Revolution; And “He was not too bad with him ^{[ first ]} » . In 1833, he received in his apartments the visit of Louis-Philippe I ^is , during his passage through Coutances.

He saw during his episcopate the diocese of Coutances rising to a point of prosperity which left a lot back almost all the other dioceses of France. The clergy became so numerous, that in recent years the number was an embarrassment; Religious houses seemed to come out of the ground: the convent of the Trappists of Bricquebec, those of the Augustines of Carentan, Valognes, Vindefontaine, Coutances were born. ursulines, avranches and mortain; saint-James trinarians; ladies of Bon-Sauveur, Saint-Laud; Benedictines, Valognes; Carmelites of the same city, which came from England to settle first in Thorigny; And more than twenty ladies’ houses in the Sacred Heart, Ladies of Providence, Sisters of Mercy, ignorantine brothers, etc. The seminar almost reached the figure of three hundred students, the colleges, the small seminars full of students.

Full of zeal for the maintenance of the clerical discipline and the instruction of the people, Pierre Dupont-Poursat restores to his person the officiality, the cantorie , l’ archidiaconat , and he gave his priests a large number of ecclesiastical pensions. In 1823, he restored conferences: the July Revolution who interrupted them, he established them again in 1835. In 1825, he published a Ceremonial ^{[ 3 ]} and one New catechism ^{[ 4 ]} ; In 1828, a new body of Statutes ^{[ 5 ]} ; In 1829, a New breviary .

The prelate administration was usually paternal and full of leniency. The priests were rarely forced to accept places against their will, or to leave those which were at their convenience; Most often we tried not to keep them away from their native place. Usually the complaints of the parishes in favor of the priest of their choice were granted. He surrounded himself with men eminent by their science and their talents, or “Excellent by the goodness of their hearts ^{[ first ]} » .

The long mandates that appeared under his episcopate are not of him. He said well and briefly: his diction bore the cachet of an anointing that was special to him. However, he was not a speaker: his soft and creamy style, accompanied by a weak voice and a vulgar declamation, was no longer effective in his mouth.

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The bishop was mostly imposed on these various establishments of great sacrifices, and for several he asked for public charity, which was familiar to him, and he usually obtained abundant alms: thus, he had the diocese of quests made by the diocese for its seminars; Then, when the ardor of the quests was amortized, he taxed his friends, his canons, his priests, and managed, by changing means, to maintain these favorite houses in ease and prosperity. The houses of which we can more specifically look at him as a founder, are the small seminar of Mortain, the petty-seminar of Sottevast, and that of Coutances, which replaced it; Finally, the society of diocesan missions.

“The missionaries cut him from sixty to seventy thousand francs; The great seminar, almost sixteen thousand francs; The three small-seminaries, around fifty thousand francs. These figures have been known by notes found after his death, but no one can say what the Trappists of Bricquebec, the Brothers of the Christian schools, the hospitals, the prisons, the burned, many students of the sanctuary, needy priests, the mission he gave in 1821 to his episcopal city, which produced the happiest effects ^{[ first ]} . »

“His cathedral, one of the most magnificent in the kingdom owes him the greatest embellishments: the grid and the doors of the choir, a superb ostensoir, its richest carpet, ornaments of a great price, sacred vases, all its Liberalities exceeded the sum of three hundred thousand francs. In this sum are not understood the daily alms he made to the poor of Coutances, and the total of which would be considerable ^{[ first ]} . »

It was said that Pierre Dupont-Poursat had a dozen thousands of pounds of rent from his heritage; Under the Empire, his treatment was ten thousand francs; Under the Restoration, it was raised to fifteen thousand, plus a subsidy of four thousand, which the department of the Channel added to it; But this subsidy was withdrawn to him in 1828, by the General Council, in punishment for the order which, by forcing the aspirants to the ecclesiastical state to go and do their rhetoric and their philosophy in a small-seminar, ruined the colleges. The July Revolution, cutting him off five other thousand francs on his treatment, brought him to ten thousand francs as he was first.

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Of a character full of sweetness and amenity, a spirit turned to finesse and ingenious projections, he would have made the delights of society, if he would have wanted to attend the circles; But he preferred the calm of his palace, he engaged in prayer and study; Also the world did not know it, and even believed it with a little spirit. He used with his priests of a certain dignity, of a certain reserve, which held them in respect; His cold air, his sneaky gaze, prevented no freedom with him.

The bishop got up regularly at four o’clock. He said mass every day, he confessed every week. Often he interrupted his sleep, to go, during the silence of the nights, to spend long moments in his chapel. His table was poor; During Lent, he deprived himself of wine and tobacco. His house consisted only of four servants, including Mr. Esc, his milk brother and his trusted man.

The fact of his vicariate of Angoulême did him great wrong in the diocese of Coutances, because it was believed until the end that he had allied himself by oaths in the constitutional church, so that the jurors looked at him as “Skilled in the same stain as themselves; and inserts, like a revolutionary converted to the miter ^{[ first ]} . » We were very comfortable to hear his panegyrist, Father Poret, saying that he had never shared the errors of the schismatic church.

The April 16, 1830 , Pierre Dupont-Poursat experienced a violent attack on paralysis, which disturbed his intellectual faculties for a long time. The latest traces of this disease were roughly erased when the June 22, 1835 , he was suffering from a chest hydropisy, which was to lead him to the tomb. On September 14, he raised his diocese for the last time on his bizarre hand; On the 17th, at half past 7 am, he stopped living. He was 75 years old. Its burial, deferred until the following October 8, was made by M ^gr Jean-Charles-Richard Dancel, bishop of Bayeux, former parish priest of Valognes and intimate friend of this prelate in the presence of a competition of more than a thousand priests, and several thousand seculars, rushed from all the points of the diocese.

He is buried in the cathedral in front of the entrance gate of the choir (under the current central altar), under a tomb of black marble, responsible for his weapons and a simple inscription: Petrus Dupont-POURSAT, EP [iscop] US Constance – 1807 – 1835 .

A few days before burial, the chapter took on him an approach to which the diocese applauded: it was to send a deputation to Paris to obtain the miter to Mr. Lesplu-Dupré, vicar-general capitular and former vicar of the Bishop; But the deputation arrived too late, because before it was in Paris; The day after the burial, we learned that the court had made its choice, and that it was Mr. Louis-Jean-Julien Louis Robiou de la Tréhonnais, parish priest of Saint-Étienne de Rennes, who had obtained the favor of the king.

In his will, he bequeathed his rock, his pastoral ring and his domain of Mas-Chaumont to his niece, Claire thanks Dupont de Savignat, mother of President Carnot ^{[ 6 ]} .

Figure	Blazing
	Weapons of the Dupont de Chabanese family Azure, at a silver bridge, surmounted by three gold stars, chief rows. [ 9 ] , [ 6 ] Speaking weapons (pont⇔ Dupont .). Or Torn apart: in 1 and 4, azure, to a greater greyhound, acc. in the canton of the chief of a star of the same, broaching on a branch of Olivier d’Or in band; 2, Azure, at a castle flanked by two gold towers, open and openwork of sand, ch. of a golden badge, above gold, above the door, superch. of a p of sand; at 3, counter-scalled: a. Gules with the fess of silver; b. silver to a wavy couleuvre in Pal d’Azur; vs. silver with lion gules; d. silver with a sandstone. [ 9 ]
	Weapons of Baron Dupont de Pursat and the Empire According to his patent letters Torn apart: at the first azure at the Olivier d’Or terraced similarly, on the trunk of which the tables of the silver law pike; to the second of the bishop barons; to the third gules at château fort d’or , masonry, open and masonry of sand, the door surmounted by a golden badge loaded with a p of sand; At the fourth Azure at the bridge of three silver arches supported by a river similarly and surmounted by three silver stars. [ 7 ] Selon rewardsap Torn apart, at 1 azure at the tables of the silver law, broaching on the barrel of a golden tree terraced the same; 2 of gules at the cross of gold (baron bishop); at 3 of gules at Silver castle flanked by two towers ; At 4 Azure at the three -arches silver bridge, on a river similarly and three stars stored in chief. [ 9 ] According to Aymar de Saint-Saud Torn apart: 1 azure at the Olivier d’Or terraced from the same on the trunk of which the tables of the silver law are based; at 2 of the barons-bishops; at 3 of gules at The Silver City Porte , the sand gate, surmounted by a shield loaded with a p of sand; At 4 azure at the 3 arches bridge on a river and surmounted by 3 stars, all silver. [ ten ]
	Weapons of M gr DuPont de Persat Selon rewardsap Torn apart: in 1 and 4, azure, at the tables of the silver law, supported against the barrel of a tree of the same, all supported by a mound of gold; 2 and 3, gules, at a silver castle flanked by two towers of the same, open and openwork of sand; at 4, azure, at a bridge of three arches on a river, acc. Three stars stored in chief, all money. [ 9 ]

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: document used as a source for writing this article.

• Auguste Lecana , History of the bishops of Coutances: from the foundation of the bishopric, to the present day , J.V. neighbor and C ^ie , 1839 , twelfth p. ( read online ) ;
• Pierre-Marie Cotrett, bishop of Beauvais , NECR Notice on M ^gr Pierre Dupont de Pursat, bishop of Coutances , impr. by J. Didot L’Ainé, 19 p. ( read online ) ;
• The friend of religion , vol. 86, ecclesiastical bookstore of Adrien Le Clere and C ^ie , 1835 ( read online )

Pierre Dupont de Pursat
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