DUPIN, LEWIS ELLIS, a learned doctor of the
Sorbonne, and one of the greatest critics of his time,
especially in ecclesiastical matters, was born at Paris in
1657. When he published the first volume of his Bibli-
theque Universelle des Auteurs Ecclesiastiques, in
1686, the liberty with which he treated some eccle-
siastical writers gave such offence, that M. de Harlay,
archbishop of Paris, obliged Dupin to retract many
propositions, and suppressed the work. He was never-
theless suffered to continue it, by altering the title
from Bibliothèque Universelle to Bibliothèque Nouvelle.
This great undertaking, continued in several successive
volumes, though sufficient to occupy the life of an or-
dinary man, did not hinder M. Dupin from obliging
the world with several other works. He was a man
of prodigious reading; and had an easy happy way of
writing, with an uncommon talent at analyzing the
works of an author; which makes his Ecclesiastical
Bibliothèque so valuable. M. Dupin was professor of
philosophy in the royal college; but was banished some
time from the chair to Chatelherault, on account of the
famous Cas de Conscience; but was restored, and died
in 1719.