Charles-François Toustain (13 October 1700 – 1 July 1754) was a French historian and a member of the

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

Congregation of Saint Maur. He is remembered for his scholarly work carried out with his fellow Maurist, René-Prosper Tassin.

Life

Charles-François Toustain was born into a family of note at Repas in the diocese of Séez on 13 October 1700. On 20 July 1718, he took the vows of the Benedictine order at the abbey of Jumièges. After finishing the philosophical and theological course at the Abbey of Fécamp, he was sent to the at

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

, to learn Hebrew and Greek. At the same time he studied Italian, English, German, and Dutch, in order to be able to understand the writers in these languages. He was not ordained priest until 1729, and then only at the express command of his superior. He always said Mass with much trepidation and only after long preparation. In 1730 he entered the Abbey of St-Ouen at Rouen, and went later to the Abbey of St-Germain-des-Pres and the , both in Paris. His theological opinions inclined to

Jansenism Jansenism was a 17th- and 18th-century Christian theology, theological movement within Roman Catholicism, primarily active in Kingdom of France, France, which arose as an attempt to reconcile the theological concepts of Free will in theology, f ...

. Toustain died while taking his milk-cure at the abbey of Saint-Denis on 1 July 1754. He had worn out his body by

fasting Fasting is the act of refraining from eating, and sometimes drinking. However, from a purely physiological context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolic status of a person who has not eaten overnight (before "breakfast"), or to the metabolic sta ...

and

ascetic Asceticism is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from worldly pleasures through self-discipline, self-imposed poverty, and simple living, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their pra ...

practices.

Scholarship

As a scholar Toustain became highly respected. He worked for twenty years with his fellow-Maurist, René-Prosper Tassin, on an edition of the works of the Byzantine Greek monk

Theodore the Studite Theodore the Studite (; 759–826), also known as Theodorus Studita and Saint Theodore of Stoudios/Studium, was a Byzantine Greek monk and abbot of the Stoudios Monastery in Constantinople. He played a major role in the revivals both of Byzantin ...

. It was never printed, as a publisher could not be found. Another joint project of the two was the ''Nouveau traité de diplomatique'' (6 vols, 1750–1765) in which they addressed more fully and thoroughly the subjects taken up in

Jean Mabillon Dom Jean Mabillon , (; 23 November 1632 – 27 December 1707) was a French Benedictine monk and scholar of the Congregation of Saint Maur. He is considered the founder of the disciplines of palaeography and diplomatics. Early life Mabillon w ...

's great work ''De re diplomatica''. Toustain and Tassin's work provided the basis for the modern discipline of

diplomatics Diplomatics (in American English, and in most anglophone countries), or diplomatic (in British English), is a scholarly discipline centred on the critical analysis of documents, especially historical documents. It focuses on the conventions, pr ...

. The final four volumes were edited by Tassin alone following Toustain's death. Of general interest among Toustain's personal writings are: ''La vérité persécutée par l'erreur'' (2 vols, 1733), a collection of the writings of the Fathers on the persecutions of the first eight centuries; and "L'authorité de miracles dans l'Église" (no date), in which he expounds the opinion of St. Augustine. Tassin testifies that he was zealous in his duties, modest, and sincerely religious.

Attribution

{{DEFAULTSORT:Toustain 1700 births 1754 deaths 18th-century French historians French Benedictines Fécamp Abbey French male non-fiction writers