DU GUET, dü gê (DUGUET), JACQUES JOSEPH: French Oratorian and Jansenist; b. at Montbrison (234 in. s.a.e. of Paris) Dec. 9,1649; d. at Paris Oct. 25, 1733. In 1667 he entered the Congregation of the Oratory, where he received his education, and also lectured in the church of St. Roch at Paris on the history and discipline of the Church in various periods, his addresses being printed under the title Conférences ecclésiastiques (2 vols., Cologne, 1742). When the Oratorians were required to sign a condemnation of Jansenism and Cartesianism in 1686, Du Guet fled to Brussels, and lived for a time with A. Arnauld in the Spanish Netherlands, remaining in constant communication with Paschasius Quesnel and editing his Réflexions morales sur le Nouveau Testament (8 vols., Paris, 1693-1700). His strict adherence to Augustinianism was shown by his Réfutation du système de Nicole touchant la grâce universelle (1716) and by his repeated protests against the bull Unigenitus, although, on the other hand, he opposed all Jansenistic excesses, especially the convulsionnaires. After working for many years in various places of concealment, he returned to Paris, where he spent the remainder of his life. Among his numerous works special mention may be made of the following: Traité de la prière publique et des dispositions pour offrir les saints mystères (1707); Règles pour l'intelligence des Saintes Écritures (1716); Lettre sur divers sujets de morale et de piété (3 vols., 1718; later extended to ten vols.); Explication du mystère de la passion (2 vols., 1722; extended to 14 vols. in the edition of 1733); Explication de la Genèse (5 vols., 1732); and many interpretations of various books of the Old Testament. His Institution d'un prince (London, 1739) was translated into English in 1740, and an English version of his Traité des principes de la foi chrétienne (3 vols., Paris, 1736) appeared in 2 vols. at Edinburgh in 1755. Du Guet ranked as one of the best Jansenist authors, and was regarded as uniting the logic of Nicole with the grace of Fénelon.

(C. PFENDER.)

 

Bibliography: The edition of Du Guet's Institution d'un prince by Goujet, 1739, ut sup., contains a biography.