Pierre, a distinguished French theologian and philosopher, was born at Messil-la-Horgue in Lorraine, in 1672. In his fifteenth year he went to the university of Pont-a-Mousson, which he attended for a single session. In 1688 he joined the Benedictines at the abbey of St Mansin, into whose order he was publicly received in the following year. His theological and philosophical studies he completed at the abbey of Munster, to which he was sent in 1704 with the rank of sub-prior. He here organized an academy of eight or ten monks, the sole business of whose life was to assist him in preparing his Commentary on the Bible. The publication of this voluminous work, begun in 1707, was not completed till 1716. Two years after this latter date he was rewarded for his services with a presentation to the abbey of St Leopold at Nancy, and ten years after to that of Sénones, where he died in 1757. His attachment to his country and congregation was such, that he refused a bishopric in partibus offered to him by the pope, Benedict XIII. Besides his Commentary, he wrote many other works, of which the most important are his Histoire de l'Ancien et du Nouveau Testament, an introduction to the Ecclesiastical History of Fleury; Dictionnaire, historique, critique, et chronologique, an extremely learned, but by no means judicious work; and Histoire universelle sacrée et profane, 15 vols. 4to.