Rapin, RENÉ, French Jesuit, b. at Tours, 1621; d. in Paris, 1687. He entered the Society in 1639, taught rhetoric, and wrote extensively both in verse and prose. His first production, “Eclogae Sacrie” (Paris, 1659), won him the title of the Second Theocritus, and his poem on gardens, “Hortorum libri IV” (Paris, 1665), twice translated into English (London, 1673; Cambridge, 1706), placed him among the foremost Latin versifiers. Of his critical essays, the best known are: “Observations sur les poemes d’Horace et de Virgile” (Paris, 1669); “Re-flexions sur l’usage de l’eloquence de ce temps” (Paris, 1672); “Reflexions sur la poetique d’Aristote et sur les ouvrages des poetes anciens et modernes” (Paris, 1676). He is also the author of several theological and ascetic treatises like “De nova doctrina dissertatio seu Evangelium Jansenistarum” (Paris, 1656); “L’esprit du christianisme” (Paris, 1672); “La perfection du christianisme” (Paris, 1673); “La foi des derniers siecles” (Paris, 1679). These books and many other pamphlets were collected in “Oeuvres completes” published at Amsterdam, 1709-10. Rapin’s best titles to celebrity are his two posthumous works: “Histoire du ansenisme”, edited by Domenech (Paris, 1861), and “Memoires sur l’eglise, la societe, la cour, la ville et le jansenisme”, edited by Aubineau (Paris, 1865). The latter book is the counterpart of the Jansenistic “Memoires de Godefroi Hermant sur l’histoire ecclesiastique du XVII° siecle”, edited by Gazier (Paris, 1905). Ste-Beuve in his “Port Royal” tries on every occasion to find Rapin at fault, but recent studies on Jansenism show that he is, in the main, reliable.
J. F. SOLLIER