FLEURY, CLAunE (1640-1723). A French Church historian, horn in Paris. He was edu cated by the Jesuits, and at first practiced law (1658-67) ; but preferring an ecclesiastical ca reer, took priest's orders, and became tutor to the young princes of Conti (1672), and later (1680) to the Comte de Vermandois, natural son of Louis XIV. After the death of the Count, the King appointed him, in 1684, Abbot of the Cistercian Monastery of Loc-Dieu, and in 1689 tutor to the royal grandchildren. the dukes of Burgundy. Anjou, and Berri. In 1696 he was elected to the Academy, and in 1706 became prior of Argenteuil. The Duke of Orleans appointed him confessor to the young King, Louis XV., in 1716, and he held this office till compelled to resign by the infirmities of age in 1722. Fleury was a man of much learning, kind hearted and simple in manners, and upright in conduct. Of his numerous works may be men tioned: Les nicrurs des Israelites (1681) : Les maws des rhretiens (1682) ; Traits du choix et de la methode des etudes (1675) ; Institution du droll eeclesiastique (1687) and, most im portant of all, the Histoire eeelesiastique (20 vols., 1691-1720). This work was the labor of
thirty years, and is marked by learning and a judiciously critical spirit. J. H. Newman pre pared an English translation of the part from the Second Ecumenical Council (Oxford. 1842-44). Fleury's part extends only to 1414, but his con tinuators have brought it to 1546 in the Paris edition of 1836-37. In the Latin translation (Augsburg, 1758-94) it is continued to 1768. The so-called ..4brc'ge de l'histoirc cerlesiastique de Fleury (Bern, 1766) has a preface by Fred erick the Great. He was a stanch Gallican, and his posthumous work, Diseou•s sur les liberte's de realise gallicene (1724), has been very popular. His Complete Historical Catechism, continued to Pius IX., appeared in London (1871). For his biography, consult the Paris edition of his works (1837).