Dupin was a learned doctor of the Sorbonne, and
professor of the College of France; and he devoted most of his life to his
immense work, which is a proof of his marvellous energy and industry. He
gives an account of the lives of the writers, a catalogue of their works,
with the dates when they were issued, and a criticism of their style and
of the doctrines set forth therein. But the learned historian involved
himself in controversy with the advocates of Papal supremacy by publishing
a book, _De Antiqua Ecclesiae disciplina_, in which he defended with much
zeal the liberty of the Gallican Church. He lived at the time when that
Church was much agitated by the assumptions of Pope Clement XI., aided by
the worthless Louis XIV., and by the resistance of the brave-hearted
Jansenists to the famous Bull _Unigenitus_. For three years France was
torn by these disputes. A large number of the bishops were opposed to the
enforcing of this bull, and the first theological school in Europe, the
Sorbonne, joined with them in resisting the tyranny of the Pope and the
machinations of Madame de Maintenon.
Dupin took an active part with the other theologians of his school in
opposing this _Unigenitus_, and wrote his book _De Antiqua Ecclesiae
disciplina_ in order to defend the Gallican Church from the tyranny of the
Bishop of Rome. In this work he carefully distinguishes the universal
Catholic Church from the Roman Church, and shows that the power of the
Papacy was not founded on any warrant of Holy Scripture, nor on the
judgments of the Fathers.
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