Berruyer, Joseph Isaac

BERRUYER, bār´´rü´´yê´, JOSEPH ISAAC: French Jesuit; b. at Rouen Nov. 7, 1681; d. at Paris Feb. 18, 1758. He served as teacher of his order for many years and won notoriety from an attempt to rewrite the Bible in French in the form of a romance fitted to the taste of his time; in carrying out the idea, however, he introduced much that was unfitting, heretical, and even blasphemous and obscene. He published the first part, Histoire du peuple de Dieu depuis son origine jusqu’à la venue du Messie, in seven volumes at Paris, 1728. It was put on the Index in 1734, but reissued in expurgated shape in 8 vols. 1733–34. The second part included the Gospels, 4 vols. 1753, also put on the Index in 1755. The third part included the Epistles, in 2 vols. 1757, but was condemned by the pope in 1758. The whole work has appeared in Italian, Spanish, Polish, and German transls., and was reissued (expurgated) in 1851 in 10 volumes.

Bibliography: E. H. Landon, Ecclesiastical Dictionary, ii, 204, London, 1853; A. de Backer, Bibliothèque des écrivains de la compagnie de Jésus, iv, 340, 7 vols., Paris, 1853–1881; F. H. Reusch, Der Index der verbotenen Bücher, ii, 804, Bonn, 1885.