FLEURY, CLAUDE, a French church historian, was b. at Paris, 6th Dec., 1640, and was educated at first for the law, but preferring an ecclesiastical career, subsequently took priest's orders. In 1672, he became tutor to the young prince de Conti, who was brought up along with the dauphin, and at a later period, to the comte de Vermandois, natural son of Louis XIV. After the death of the comte in 1683, the French monarch appointed him, under Fenelon, tutor to the princes of Burgundy, Anjou, and Berri, and also abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Loc-Dieu. When the princes had completed their education, F. was rewarded with the priorate of Argenteuil. The duke of Orleans selected him for confessor to the young king, Louis XV., giving as his reason for so doing, that F. was neither Jansenist, nor Violinist, nor Ultramontanist, but Catholic. F. held this office till 1722, when the infirmities of age compelled him to resign. it. De died 14th July, 1728. F. was as learned as he was modest, and as mild and kind-hearted as he was simple in his manners and upright in his conduct. Among his numerous works may be mentioned, Mceurs des Israelites (Paris, 1681); .3fmurs des Chretiens (Paris,
1662); Trade du Choir et de la Methode des Etudes (Paris, 16S6); Institution au Broil Beclesiastique (1087); and, above all, the Histoire Ecclesiastique (20 vols., Paris, 1691– 1720). On this work. F. labored 30 years. It is marked by great learning, and, on the whole, by a judiciously critical spirit. What may be called his professional sympathies are held in check by a noble desire to be impartial, which might well put to the blush the unveracious partisanship. of ninny Protestant writers. Semler (q.v.), an eminent German theological professor, avowed that his lectures were at first mainly extracts from the IlLstoire Ecelesiastique. Even Voltaire praised it.. " The history of F.," says he, " is the best that has ever been executpd." D'Alembert and many others recommend F.'s style as a model of elegant simplidity. The so-called Abrege de l'histoire Ecclesias tigue de Fleury, published at Berne in 1776, is ascribed to Frederick the great. A pos thumous work of F.'s, entitled Discours sur les libertes de l'Eglise Gallicane, has always been very popular.