Coustant, Pierre

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COUSTANT, PIERRE

Benedictine of the Congregation of Saint-Maur; b. in Compiègne, France, April 30, 1654; d. in Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, near Paris, Oct. 18, 1721. After he had been educated by the Jesuits at Compiègne, he entered the Benedictine Order at Saint-Remi in Reims. He made a new edition of the works of St. Hilary of Poitiers, published in 1693, worked on an edition of the Breviary and helped Claude Guesnie in making a general index to the works of St. augustine. His greatest undertaking is the attempt to edit a collection of the letters of the popes from St. Clement I to Innocent III (c. 881216). Before his death he published only one volume, containing letters from 67 to 440, titled Epistolae Romanorum Pontificium et quae ad eos scriptae sunt a S. Clemente I usque ad Innocentium III (Paris 1781). (see maurists).

Bibliography: m. lalmant, Dictionnaire de droit canonique 4:729731. r. p. tassin, Histoire littéraire de la congrégation de SaintMaur (Brussels 1770).

[l. r. kozlowski]

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