Jean Morin

Drawn from the authors' own words; every quotation links to its place.

Oratorian · 1591–1659

In Prümmer's Catalogue and Haringer's Index

“Morinus, Ioan., of the Congregation of the Oratory, French (1591-1659), a distinguished archaeologist. For moral theology his works De disciplina in administratione sacramenti poenitentiae 13 primis saeculis, in folio, Paris 1651, and Commentarius ... de sacris Ecclesiae ordinationibus, in folio, Paris 1655, are worthy of mention, but are to be read with some circumspection.” — Prümmer, Catalogue of authors

Works Our Authors Used

Morinus, C.Orat., Commentarius historicus de disciplina in administratione sacram. Paenitentiae, Paris, 1651. — Tanquerey's list

In the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)

“Jean Morin”, vol. 10, by Augustin Ingold. Public domain; transcription at New Advent (which expands some of the print's abbreviations).

A French priest of the Oratory, b. at Blois, in 1591, d. at Paris, 28 Feb., 1659. According to Dupin whose judgment posterity has confirmed, he was the most learned Catholic author of the seventeenth century. Born a Calvinist he was converted by Cardinal Duperron, and in 1618 joined the Oratory at Paris. At first he was superior in houses of his congregation at Orléans and Angers; in 1625 he was in attendance on Queen Henrietta of France in England; in 1628 he returned to Paris, where he remained until his death, with the exception of a sojourn of a few months in Rome, whither he had been called by Urban VIII in 1640 to aid in bringing about the union of the Greeks and Latins. An order from Richelieu recalled him to Paris, where he continued the publishing of his learned works, at the same time labouring to convert heretics and Jews, many of whom he brought to the true Faith. The General Assemblies of the French clergy often appealed to his great erudition, and entrusted him with various tasks. He kept up a correspondence and was often in controversy with the noted savants of the day, such as Muis, Buxtorf, etc.

His chief works are: "Histoire de la déliverance de l'Église chrétienne par l'empereur Constantin et de la grandeur et souveraineté temporelle donnée à l'Église romaine par les roisde France" (Paris, 1630), "Exercitationes ecclesiastiae in utrumque Samaritorium Pentateuchum" (Paris, 1631), in which he maintained that the Samaritan text and the Septuagint should be preferred to the Hebrew text, a position he again in the following work: "Exercitationes biblicae de Hebraei Graecique textus sinceritate . . ." (Paris, 1663,1669, 1686); "Commentarius historicus de disciplina in administratione sacramenti Poenitentiae XIII primus saeculis" (Paris, 1651); "Commentarius sacris Ecclesiae ordinationibus" (Paris, 1655, Antwerp, 1695; Rome, 1751). The two preceding works are very important for history of the sacraments. Morin also published "Biblia graecae sive Vetus testamentum secundum Septuaginta" (Paris, 1628); and in Lejay's "Polyglotte", vol. V (1645), "Pentateuchus hebraeo-samaritanus" and "Pentateuchus samaritanus". He left several manuscript works.

Sources: CONSTANTIN, Sciagraphia vitae J. Morini (Paris, 1660); NICERON, Mémoires, IX, 90; SIMON, Vita Morini taken from Antiquitates ecclesiae . . .dissertationibus epistolicis enucleatae (London, 1642): a satire rather than a life; BATTELL, Mémoires domestiques, II, 435; GODIN, Notice sur Morin (Blois, 1840); RAESS, Die Convertiten, IV, 447; INGOLD, Essai de bibliographie oratorienne, 112.