SIMON, RICHARD (1638-1712), French biblical critic, born at Dieppe on May 13, 1638, was educated by the Fathers of the Oratory at Dieppe and at the university of Paris. Simon entered the priesthood in 1670, and the same year wrote a pamphlet in defence of the Jews of Metz, who had been accused of having murdered a Christian child. About this time began his controversies with the Port Royalists and with the Benedictines, and his enemies sought to drive him from Paris. He was engaged at the time in superintending the printing of his Histoire critique du Vieux Testament, which was to he dedicated to Louis XIV.
The proof sheets were held up pending the return of the king from Flanders, and fell into the hands of the Port Royalists, who had in hand a translation into French of the Prolegomena to Walton's Polyglott. Simon now announced his intention of pub lishing an annotated edition of the Prolegomena, and actually added to the Critical History a translation of the last four chapters of that work, which had formed no part of his original plan. Simon's announcement prevented the appearance of the projected translation, but his enemies found the desired opportunity in the alleged heterodoxy of some of the views expressed by Simon. A. decree of the council of state was obtained, and the whole im pression, consisting of 1,300 copies, was seized by the police and destroyed. Simon was expelled by the Oratorians from their
fellowship, and retired in 1679 to his curacy of Bolleville, Nor mandy. Finally the Critical History appeared, with Simon's name on the title page, in the year 1685, from the press of Reenier Leers in Rotterdam. Simon died at Dieppe on April II, 1712.
The principal authorities for the life of Simon are the life or "doge" by his grand-nephew De la Martiniere in vol. i. of the Lettres choisies (4 vols., 1730) ; Richard Simon et son Vieux Testament, by A. Bernus (Lausanne, 1869) ; H. Margival, Essai sur Richard Simon et la critique biblique au XVIIe siecle (Iwo). For the bibliography, see, in addition to the various editions of Simon's works, A. Bernus, Notice bibliographique sur Richard Simon (Basel, 1882).