Coustant, Pierre
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. 88–1216). 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 4:729–731. r. p. tassin, Histoire littéraire de la congrégation de Saint–Maur (Brussels 1770).
[l. r. kozlowski]