JOLI, or JOLY, (Claudius), a worthy parish-priest, and an excellent scholar, descended from a family eminent for learning and piety; was born at Paris in 1607. He applied himself first to the law, and pleaded for some time at the bar; but inclining afterwards to the church, he entered into orders, and in 1631 obtained a canonry in the cathedral church of Notre Dame at Paris; the duties of which office he discharged with an exactness beyond all example as long as he lived. Discovering at the same time occasionally a capacity for state-affairs, the duke de Longueville, the French plenipotentiary for negotiating a general peace, took Joly with him to Munster, where he proved a good assistant. On his return, he resumed his former employments with his usual zeal. In 1671 he was
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made precentor in his church; and several times official of Paris, without his seeking; always behaving, as an ecclesiastical magistrate, with perfect integrity, and testifying a sincere love for justice. He died in 1700, and left many works; in which, as in as many mirrors, his true character fully appears.