HUGO, CHARLES HYACINTHE

Norbertine (O Praem.) historiographer; b. St. Mihiel, France, Sept. 20, 1667; d. Étival Abbey, Aug. 2, 1739. He was professed at the Premonstratensian Abbey at Pont–Mousson Aug. 28, 1685, taking Louis as his religious name. He received a doctorate in theology from the University of Bourges (1691) and taught theology at the Abbeys of Jandeuvres (1691) and Étival (1693) until elected prior at Nancy (1700). He was named historiographer and councilor of state by Duke Leopold of Lorraine (1708).

Hugo's Traité historique et critique sur l'origine et la généalogie de la maison de Lorraine (1711) irked Louis XIV and was condemned by the Parliament of Paris Sept. 27, 1712. In 1710 he accepted his election as coadjutor abbot at Étival, having refused a similar post at the Abbey of Flambémont, which was held in commendam by Nicholas Brisacier, doctor of the Sorbonne. In the next year he received the title of abbot of Fontaine–André, a suppresed abbey in the Swiss canton of Neufchâtel. In 1722 he assumed full control of the Étival Abbey and began the coordination of his historical research.

The list of Hugo's works includes Vie de St. Norbert, fondateur des Prémontrés (1704), Sacrae antiquitatis monumenta historica, dogmatica, diplomatica notis illustrata (2 v. 1725–31), and Sacri et canonici ordinis Praemonstratensis annales (2 v. 1734–36). In 1725 Hugo was in conflict with the bishop of Tours over his rights as abbas nullius. The bishop, who ignored the abbot's immunity, brought the affair to the general assembly of the clergy, which condemned Hugo. He was exiled to the Abbey of Rangeval (1726), but upon appeal to Rome was named bishop of Ptolemais in partibus (1728).

Bibliography: n. backmund, Monasticon Praemonstratense, 3:68–71. a. l. goovaerts, Écrivains, artistes, et savants de l'ordre de Prémontré, 4 v. (Brussels 1899–1920) 3:110–129. n. backmund, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, 5:520. r. gazeau, Catholicisme, 5:1007–08.

[e. d. mcshane]